Ongoing/upcoming exhibitions

Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative (CMAI) Sidney and Rosalie Rose Gallery

Leslie Graff (top) On Her Mind, 2020, acrylic on canvas, (bottom) On His Mind, 2020, acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist

Leslie Graff Through May 16, 2021 Sutton, MA-based artist Leslie Graff examines the fundamental human experience in her acrylic and mixed-media paintings. Her portrait-based series explore individual identity as it is defined by relationships, especially within family settings.

Hank von Hellion, Vanda Saints

Hank von Hellion May 26 – November 28, 2021 Hank von Hellion, of Worcester, works with street art, graffiti, illustration, installation, and photography and has painted several outdoor murals in the city. For this project, he will create a site-specific installation at WAM, responding to museums as places of contradiction—both empowering and at times elitist—in light of his own experiences as a developing artist. Von Hellion's work is informed by growing up in the punk subculture, and reconciling his understanding of his art and identity in light of this. In addition to his work as a freelance artist and muralist, he is Managing Director of the Worcester PopUp at the Jean McDonough Arts Center (JMAC), workshop instructor, and creative consultant and independent curator for businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Women of WAM: Depictions of Femininity in Early Modern Europe Self-guided Exhibition, early European Galleries Through June 2021 The Worcester Art Museum's collection of European art contains many paintings and sculptures depicting female saints, mythological subjects, and members of elite society. This self-guided exhibition explores how these works both embodied and reinforced the idealized notions of femininity in Early Modern Europe. Women of WAM was a collaboration between Clark University and WAM. Clark University students chose the theme, selected the works, and wrote the special labels and brochure. Funding was provided in part by the Art History program, Visual & Performing Arts, Clark University, and seeded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Details, top row, left to right: School of Fontainebleau, Woman at Her Toilette, 1550–1570, Museum purchase, 1932.23; Giulio Cesare Proccacini, Saint Catherine, early 1600s, Charlotte E.W. Buffington Fund, 1971.113; Master of the Magdalen Legend, Mater Dolorosa, late 1400s–early 1500s, Theodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Collection, 1940.43; bottom row, left to right: Nicolaes Maes, An Old Woman Praying, about 1655, Museum purchase, 1924.14; Paolo Veronese, Venus Disarming Cupid, 1550–55, Gift of Hester Diamond, 2013.50; Jan Gossaert, Portrait of Queen Eleanor of Austria, about 1516, anonymous loan, 83.84.1

Shinsui Tanaka, Women Divers of Hokuetsu, 1940, painting mounted as four-panel folding screen; ink and colors on paper, Stoddard Acquisition Fund, 2017.18. © Estate of TANAKA Shinsui

Japanese Case Rotation Through May 4, 2021 To coincide with The Kimono in Print: 300 Years of Japanese Design, the Japanese gallery will feature an installation of a four-panel folding screen—measuring over seven feet in height—that depicts a group of female free-divers on Japan’s northwestern coast. Their striped garments are a nod to an enduring pattern introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century that has been popular in kimono designs since then. The artist, Shinsui Tanaka, also pays homage to a 2,000-year-old Japanese tradition, ama (diving), carried out mostly by women, who famously plunge great depths for pearls, and, in some cases, seafood. Tanaka captures the four women’s strong and independent spirit as they lie or stand on a rocky cliffside, watching the crashing waves.

Love Stories from the National Portrait Gallery London November 13, 2021 – March 13, 2022 WAM will be the first venue, and the only one in North America, for this traveling exhibition of masterpieces from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, exploring the role of love in the creation of some of the greatest masterpieces of Western art. At the heart of the exhibition are a series of real-life love stories, from Van Dyck to the present. The stories shed light on a different aspect of romantic love and the role of portraits within it. From notions of romantic love as a dangerous illness at the beginning the modern era, to today’s celebration of romance as a means of finding fulfilment in life, Love Stories ultimately reveals love as a constant and defining element of human experience. Featured artists include Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffman, G. F. Watts, Vanessa Bell, Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, Leigh Miller, and Annie Leibowitz. Featured sitters include Emma Hamilton, John Keats, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

George Frederic Watts, Ellen Terry ('Choosing'), oil on strawboard mounted on Gatorfoam, 1864, Accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Gallery, 1975, Primary Collection, NPG 5048