Exhibitions

Al Taylor "Fish Tales"

Submitted by Isabelle Dervaux on Thu, 04/02/2020 - 3:44pm

This blog post is an excerpt by curator Isabelle Dervaux from the catalogue accompanying the Morgan’s exhibition The Drawings of Al Taylor.

In 1991, the German art dealer Fred Jahn visited Taylor’s studio and bought sixty-eight drawings. He subsequently offered to show the artist’s work regularly in his Munich gallery. From then on, Taylor was able to devote himself to his art. He had his first museum exhibition in 1992, at the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland.

Comparing Curtains

Submitted by Yona Benjamin on Thu, 10/03/2019 - 12:04pm

The Morgan's Exhibitions on Verdi and Sendak as Explorations of Collaboration and Creativity

One might consider the Morgan’s current exhibitions Verdi: Creating Otello and Falstaff—Highlights from the Ricordi Archive and Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak’s Designs for Opera and Ballet to have little in common, save for a shared connection to opera. But in fact, there is much linking these two exhibitions, which explore similar themes of artistic resurgence and the power of collaboration and adaptation.

Drawing as Process, Process as Art

Submitted by Yona Benjamin on Wed, 01/22/2020 - 5:13pm

Chalk, pen, wash, paper. Simple materials that create an overwhelmingly complex picture. Until February 2, 2020, the Morgan Library & Museum will exhibit Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman, a reflection on choice pieces from the Morgan’s collection by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591–1666), who was “arguably the most interesting and diverse draftsman of the Italian Baroque era.”

Lady Sybil: hidden histories of the underrepresented in the artistic world of John Singer Sargent

Submitted by Yona Benjamin on Tue, 01/07/2020 - 12:15pm

On October 4th, 2019, John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal opened at the Morgan Library & Museum, showcasing heretofore underappreciated aspects of Sargent’s iconic oeuvre. Because he was known primarily as a painter of early-twentieth-century European and American elite, the public is most familiar with his highly-finished representations of the grand and great.

Our Medieval Monsters Are Home!

Submitted by Yona Benjamin on Mon, 03/02/2020 - 2:14pm

In June of 2019, around sixty of the Morgan's most treasured medieval manuscripts were sent to Cleveland and Austin as part of the tour for our exhibition Terrors, Aliens, Wonders. Lending these treasures is a great way for us to share our collection with a wider audience, especially those far afield from New York City, but we miss them nonetheless.

She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400–2000 BC (October 15, 2022 through February 19, 2023)

Submitted by Erhan Tamur on Mon, 03/29/2021 - 12:00pm

The first author known by name in history was a woman: Enheduanna. She received this name, which means “high priestess, ornament of heaven” in Sumerian, upon her appointment to the temple of the moon god in Ur, a city in southern Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq.

Your Money or Your Eternal Life?

Submitted by Diane Wolfthal on Tue, 01/30/2024 - 4:00pm

This blog post is an excerpt by guest curator Diane Wolfthal from the catalogue accompanying the Morgan’s exhibition Medieval Money, Merchants and Morality.

The rise of the monetary economy transformed every aspect of European society, including its values and culture. From the late thirteenth to the early sixteenth century, western Europe, especially its major urban centers, was dramatically altered by the widespread use of money.