Rodin and more coming to the Columbia Museum of Art this year
February 1, 2022
2022 exhibition schedule announced
The Columbia Museum of Art announces its schedule of featured exhibitions for 2022, a broad assortment of exclusive, house-organized shows as well as traveling exhibitions, including concurrent sculpture shows from artists Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and Anila Quayyum Agha (born 1965) opening in February.
“This year’s exhibitions are uniquely positioned to move people,” says CMA Executive Director Della Watkins. “Visitors can meander among luminous sculpture and hovering textile installations, connect to human experiences at home and abroad, and marvel at artistic mastery. Give the CMA half an hour or half a day and get inspired.”
On view through March 13, 2022
Taken over 20 years, this photographic series is a moody valentine to one of the most miraculous cities on Earth. While there are millions of travel photographs of Venice (Venezia in Italian) in existence, artist photographer Michael Kenna infuses his with distinct magic. Prowling the city while it sleeps, he shoots in black and white. His long, extended exposures drink in the electric lights and add a blurry quality at times, capturing the buoyancy of gondolas rocking gently on the water. Elsewhere, stone sculptures twist lithely in their architectural niches.
On view through May 22, 2022
Many artists call South Carolina home, carrying with them connections to a place that has had an indelible influence on their creative practices. Taking inspiration from the featured fall exhibition 30 Americans, 22 South Carolinians highlights remarkable Black artists who have been shaped by their experiences in South Carolina, revealing unique portraits of creativity, culture, and visual storytelling.
Featuring the work of Cameron Alexander, Tarleton Blackwell, Jai-Anna Carter, Ija Charles, Robert Coffey, Angela Corbett, Michael Dantzler, B. Dukes, Raishad Glover, Malik Greene, Sanford Greene, Tonya Gregg, Roni Henderson-Day, Terry K. Hunter, Dogon Krigga, Ernest “Chicken Man” Lee, J. Renee, Ce Scott-Fitts, Isaac Udogwu, Cedric Umoja, Sabrina White, and Thomas the Younger.
Anila Quayyum Agha: Let a Million Flowers Bloom
On view February 19 – May 29, 2022
Pakistani American artist Anila Quayyum Agha’s immersive installations upend traditional ideas about sculpture. Brilliantly lit from within, they cast their own images onto the walls around them like lanterns and create intricate patterns that dance over visitors as they move through the exhibition.
The works in Let a Million Flowers Bloom use floral and geometric shapes inspired by Islamic architecture to explore notions of masculine and feminine, public and private, religious and secular, and particularly space and refuge, taking on the pain of losing one’s home and agency and the hope of establishing them both anew. Agha’s unforgettable art envelops viewers in an enchanting visual environment that inspires awe and invites contemplation about sanctuary and belonging.
Rodin: Contemplation and Dreams / Selections from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Collections
On view February 19 – May 15, 2022
Auguste Rodin saw the body as an envelope for the spirit. The poses of his figures and the flickering surfaces of his modeled forms capture the human condition in all its elation and anguish. Rodin holds a prized place in the history of art, straddling the decades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the world was striving for a new, modern form of expression. Visitors will learn about his processes for modeling and casting as they immerse themselves in more than 40 examples of the artist’s works in bronze.
On view May 5 – 8, 2022
Over four days of breathtaking delights and intriguing fun, this dazzling exhibition fundraiser transforms the CMA and Boyd Plaza with floral creations that bring new interpretations to world-class works of art beloved by visitors. Art Blossoms is a unique exhibition that also serves as a fundraiser for the Columbia Museum of Art. Every ticket you purchase for the exhibition and its related events supports the CMA’s award-winning arts education and programming and helps to ensure a thriving creative community in the Midlands.
In the Shadow of Monet: Giverny and American Impressionism
On view June 11 – September 4, 2022
In 1883, French Impressionist painter Claude Monet settled in Giverny, a village nestled at the confluence of the Seine and Epte rivers. This is the scene of the CMA’s beloved Monet landscape painting, a shining star of this exhibition about international influence. Glimpses of the new, still-radical Impressionist style inspired many American artists to go study in France where the movement was developing in real time.
American artists traveled to Giverny and home again for four decades at the turn of the 20th century, transforming the American art scene. This CMA-organized exhibition features over 50 artists, including Giverny Colony founders Willard Metcalf and Louis Ritter, along with Richard Edward Miller, Lilla Cabot Perry, John Singer Sargent, Mary Fairchild MacMonnies, and Guy Rose.
Amanda McCavour: Bright Little Day Stars
On view June 18 – October 2, 2022
Poet Martha Lavinia Hoffman describes flowers as “bright little day stars scattered all over the earth.” Artist Amanda McCavour lifts those stars up into the air in this exhibition, creating hovering constellations of colorful flora. The Toronto-based artist creates embroideries by stitching into water-soluble fabric she then dissolves to leave only the stitching. This CMA-organized exhibition includes a brand-new body of floral work in colored metal, also hanging from the CMA gallery ceilings to create an immersive environment.
European Splendors: Highlights from the Kress Collection
On view October 1, 2022 – January 1, 2023
European Splendors offers a chance to re-experience the CMA’s Kress Collection — largely off view since 2017 — in a luxurious new way. Featuring an exciting arc of Italian art from the late Medieval to the Baroque period shown alongside rarely seen ecclesiastical textiles, apothecary mortars, and furniture pieces, this exhibition explores the renewed emphasis on the human condition and individualism within religious art and culminates in stunning examples of Dutch portraiture and still life. Italian landscapes by Bernardo Bellotto and Giovanni Paolo Pannini illustrate the impulse to bring a piece of history home from one’s Grand Tour as well as the 18th-century mania for Greco-Roman ruins.
The largest portion of Samuel H. Kress’ personal collection went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Thanks to a series of gifts from his foundation, the second largest repository came to the Columbia Museum of Art. Thirty of these European paintings, representing the 13th to the 18th centuries, are now on an extraordinary national tour aimed at making these art-historical treasures accessible to new audiences until they return home in 2024. This exhibition gives Midlands viewers an opportunity to see them in the midst of their travels.
The Art of Elizabeth Catlett: From the Collection of Samella Lewis
On view October 15, 2022 – January 29, 2023
This exhibition featuring 30 prints and sculptures celebrates artist Elizabeth Catlett and honors a half-century of her artistic activism in support of women, African Americans, and Mexican laborers. Using a stylized Modernist approach to figurative works, Catlett addresses themes including Black identity, motherhood, civil rights, and labor in this exhibition — issues she tackled with more freedom by emigrating permanently to Mexico in 1947.
Drawn from the personal collection of artist and art historian Dr. Samella Lewis, the exhibition also includes works by Lewis, for whom Catlett was a friend and mentor, and Catlett’s husband, Francisco Mora, with whom she worked at the famed communal graphics workshop Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City.
About the CMA
The Columbia Museum of Art is a charitable nonprofit organization dedicated to lifelong learning and community enrichment for all. Located in the heart of downtown Columbia, S.C., the CMA ranks among the leading art institutions in the country and is distinguished by its innovative exhibitions and creative educational programs. At the heart of the CMA and its programs is its collection, which encompasses 7,000 works and spans 5,000 years of art history. Established in 1950, the CMA now welcomes more than 150,000 visitors annually and is a catalyst for community creativity and education, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds. It is the recipient of a National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a National Art Education Association award for its contributions to arts education, a National Park Foundation Award, and two Governor’s Awards for the Arts for outstanding contributions to the arts in South Carolina. In order to serve even more audiences, the CMA underwent a transformation. Funded by a successful capital campaign, the two-year renovation project garnered new collection galleries with a progressive thematic layout, new studios for artmaking, cutting-edge program and event spaces, and an entrance on Main Street. Overall, more than 20,000 square feet of functional space were added to the building’s existing footprint. To learn more, visit www.columbiamuseum.org.
