This exhibition marks the 25th anniversary of the Harn and celebrates the growth of the Harn’s collections over the past 25 years. The exhibition will feature 125 works including paintings, photographs, prints and sculpture. These are drawn from the Harn’s collecting areas of Asian, African, Modern, Contemporary, Photography, Oceanic and Ancient American art, as well as prints and drawings before 1850. In addition, many new gifts and acquisitions honoring the museum’s Anniversary are on view throughout the museum.
Among the nearly 100 artists represented in Conversations are Georgia O’Keeffe, Milton Avery, Pablo Picasso, Louise Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg, Rockwell Kent, Herman Herzog, Paul Jacoulet, Candida Höfer, Jacob Lawrence, Kimiyo Mishima, Louise Lawler, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Allan Sekula, Frank Stella, Doi Soju, Qes Adamu Tesfaw, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Carrie Mae Weems, Jerry Uelsmann and Hale Woodruff, as well as anonymous artists from Mexico, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, New Guinea, India and Korea.
The works in Conversations were chosen by the Harn’s six curators according to broad themes (i.e. history, landscape, the city) from the Harn’s rich collecting areas. The intention is three-fold: it observes how artists can be “in conversation” with one another about one subject across cultures and eras; it allows the Harn curators to study the collection “in conversation” with itself to generate fresh connections; and it sparks new “conversations” between art and audiences who may be familiar with an object, yet see it transformed by the works around it.
Five seating areas are located throughout the exhibition space allowing visitors to sit and view the art, and sparking conversations between friends and fellow art lovers. On nearby coffee tables are a set of cards that feature “conversation starters” in the form of questions designed to provoke discussion about individual works, art in general, the exhibition, and museum collections.
The exhibition is made possible by the UF Office of the Provost with additional support from the Harn Program Endowment and Visit Florida.
