Upcoming Events
Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio
American artist Walton Ford (b. 1960) established his reputation in the 1990s with his monumental watercolor paintings of wild animals inspired by true or legendary stories of dramatic encounters between humankind and nature. Fascinated by the perception of wilderness in the collective imagination a... [ + ]nd by the consequences of human behavior—from colonialism to climate change—for the future of wildlife species, Ford develops complex narratives that have renewed the genre of animal painting. This exhibition celebrates the gift from the artist to the Morgan of sixty-three studies, including detailed renderings made from observation in zoos and museums of natural history, quick compositional sketches, and small watercolors in which he establishes his color scheme. The exhibition also features a selection of animal drawings by earlier artists, from Peter Paul Rubens and Dorothea Maria Gsell to Eugène Delacroix, Antoine-Louis Barye, and John James Audubon, selected by Ford from the Morgan’s collection.
$17 Seniors (65 and over)
$13 Students (with current ID)
Free to children 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult)
Seen Together: Acquisitions in Photography
Seen Together showcases over forty previously unexhibited works acquired by the Morgan’s Department of Photography since its founding in 2012. The pieces selected, and their thematic arrangements, reflect the department’s two highest priorities: first, to build a photography collection that converse... [ + ]s with other collections at the Morgan, including drawings, printed books, and literary manuscripts; and second, to draw from widely varied historical contexts and traditions for photographs that collectively tell larger stories about the medium.One wall of the exhibition features eighteen photographs of prominent figures from many creative disciplines, notably visual art (Yayoi Kusama, Marcel Duchamp, Saul Steinberg), literature (Marianne Moore, Jack Kerouac), performance (Yoko Ono, Harlem Renaissance dancer Edna Guy), and music (Louis Hardin, aka Moondog). Visually inventive photography of artists—transcending “portraiture” in the familiar sense—forms a major ongoing focus for the department. It has grown out of two early initiatives: the 2007 acquisition of seventy-one photographs by Irving Penn and Diane Arbus portraying artists collected by the Morgan and the 2013 launch of the Peter Hujar Collection, which today numbers over 150 works.Other themes explored in Seen Together include kaleidoscopic and abstract camera imagery, the visual dynamic between (artistic) “landscapes” and (touristic) “views” in the nineteenth century, and the artist’s own body as subject. A unique and engaging group of thirty-one anonymously made snapshots, compiled by the collector Peter J. Cohen, finds the camera being used to document the work lives of everyday people. Two artists are seen in some depth: Irving Penn, with three photographs demonstrating his work for Vogue magazine in fashion, travel, and food; and Eleanor Antin, whose influential series of fifty-one postcards, 100 Boots, was mailed, card by card, to several dozen correspondents forty years ago and given, as a complete set, to the Morgan in 2022.
$17 Seniors (65 and over)
$13 Students (with current ID)
Free to children 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult)
Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature
Creator of unforgettable animal characters like Peter Rabbit, Mr. Jeremy Fisher, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, the beloved children’s book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) rooted her fiction in the natural world. Childhood summers spent in Scotland and the English Lake District nourished P... [ + ]otter’s love of nature, while her famous menagerie of pets inspired her picture letters and published tales. Her study of botany and mycology established an abiding interest in the life sciences, a passion she would bring to rural life at Hill Top Farm in Cumbria, England. There, she enjoyed a second act as a sheep breeder and land conservationist, ultimately bequeathing four thousand acres of farmland to the National Trust.Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature brings together artwork, books, manuscripts, and artifacts from several institutions in the United Kingdom, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Trust, and the Armitt Museum and Library. Paired with the Morgan’s exceptional collection of her picture letters, these objects trace how Potter’s innovative blend of scientific observation and imaginative storytelling shaped some of the world’s most popular children’s books.
$17 Seniors (65 and over)
$13 Students (with current ID)
Free to children 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult)
Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio
American artist Walton Ford (b. 1960) established his reputation in the 1990s with his monumental watercolor paintings of wild animals inspired by true or legendary stories of dramatic encounters between humankind and nature. Fascinated by the perception of wilderness in the collective imagination a... [ + ]nd by the consequences of human behavior—from colonialism to climate change—for the future of wildlife species, Ford develops complex narratives that have renewed the genre of animal painting. This exhibition celebrates the gift from the artist to the Morgan of sixty-three studies, including detailed renderings made from observation in zoos and museums of natural history, quick compositional sketches, and small watercolors in which he establishes his color scheme. The exhibition also features a selection of animal drawings by earlier artists, from Peter Paul Rubens and Dorothea Maria Gsell to Eugène Delacroix, Antoine-Louis Barye, and John James Audubon, selected by Ford from the Morgan’s collection.
$17 Seniors (65 and over)
$13 Students (with current ID)
Free to children 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult)
Seen Together: Acquisitions in Photography
Seen Together showcases over forty previously unexhibited works acquired by the Morgan’s Department of Photography since its founding in 2012. The pieces selected, and their thematic arrangements, reflect the department’s two highest priorities: first, to build a photography collection that converse... [ + ]s with other collections at the Morgan, including drawings, printed books, and literary manuscripts; and second, to draw from widely varied historical contexts and traditions for photographs that collectively tell larger stories about the medium.One wall of the exhibition features eighteen photographs of prominent figures from many creative disciplines, notably visual art (Yayoi Kusama, Marcel Duchamp, Saul Steinberg), literature (Marianne Moore, Jack Kerouac), performance (Yoko Ono, Harlem Renaissance dancer Edna Guy), and music (Louis Hardin, aka Moondog). Visually inventive photography of artists—transcending “portraiture” in the familiar sense—forms a major ongoing focus for the department. It has grown out of two early initiatives: the 2007 acquisition of seventy-one photographs by Irving Penn and Diane Arbus portraying artists collected by the Morgan and the 2013 launch of the Peter Hujar Collection, which today numbers over 150 works.Other themes explored in Seen Together include kaleidoscopic and abstract camera imagery, the visual dynamic between (artistic) “landscapes” and (touristic) “views” in the nineteenth century, and the artist’s own body as subject. A unique and engaging group of thirty-one anonymously made snapshots, compiled by the collector Peter J. Cohen, finds the camera being used to document the work lives of everyday people. Two artists are seen in some depth: Irving Penn, with three photographs demonstrating his work for Vogue magazine in fashion, travel, and food; and Eleanor Antin, whose influential series of fifty-one postcards, 100 Boots, was mailed, card by card, to several dozen correspondents forty years ago and given, as a complete set, to the Morgan in 2022.
$17 Seniors (65 and over)
$13 Students (with current ID)
Free to children 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult)