Families are at the heart of the Gardner Museum’s fall exhibitions. But families are complicated. How might the depiction of these relationships through the lens of a camera or the stroke of a brush unearth tangled roots, memorialize joyous connections, or catalyze new creation? How might families spark artistic creativity? Three exhibitions from radically different artists relating distinct dynamics remind us of the importance of kin as inspiration in the past and present. This fall, join us for Manet: A Model Family; Mary Ellen Mark: A Seattle Family, 1983-2014; and Mickalene Thomas: Sandra, She’s a Beauty, 2009.
Image Credits
Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883), Madame Auguste Manet, about 1863–1866. Oil on canvas, 98 x 80 cm (38 9/16 x 31 1/2 in.) Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Mary Ellen Mark, Tiny in her Halloween costume, Seattle, 1983. Gelatin silver print, 40.64 cm x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.) © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery
Mickalene Thomas, Sandra, She's a Beauty, 2009. Courtesy of the artist
Manet: A Model Family is supported in part by the Ford Foundation, Amy and David Abrams, Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, Susan Adams Taylor, and by an endowment grant from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The conservation of Madame Auguste Manet was sponsored by the Richard C. von Hess Foundation.
Mary Ellen Mark: A Seattle Family, 1983-2014 and Mickalene Thomas: Sandra, She's a Beauty, 2009 are supported in part by the Ford Foundation, Amy and David Abrams, and the Barbara Lee Program Fund.
The Artist-in-Residence program is directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art. Funding is also provided for site-specific installations of new work on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way.
The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
