RALEIGH, NC.- The North Carolina Museum of Art opened its newly reimagined collection galleries alongside special exhibition A Modern Vision: European Masterworks from The Phillips Collection.
“We are thrilled to welcome visitors to a completely reimagined presentation of the People’s Collection, which we rededicate to the people of North Carolina,” said NCMA Director Valerie Hillings. “The updated collection galleries showcase broader representation and fresh perspectives through new works of art, interactive installations, and thematic galleries. Visitors will also get to experience another incredible collection through special exhibition A Modern Vision: European Masterworks from The Phillips Collection, which brings great artists like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and more to Raleigh.”
A Modern Vision joins two other special exhibitions on view this winter, Start Talking: Fischer/Shull Collection of Contemporary Art, open September 17, 2022, to February 5, 2023, and Powers Concealed: Egúngúns from Africa and America, on view October 15, 2022, to February 26, 2023.
Start Talking features more than 40 works, including photographs, paintings, mixed-media assemblages, and sculptures, from a promised gift by collectors Hedy Fischer and Randy Shull of more than 100 works of contemporary art. Artists include Abraham Cruzvillegas, Vanessa German, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Graciela Iturbide, Pope.L, Tina Modotti, Gabriel Rico, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, Nari Ward, and more. Based in Asheville, NC, and Merida, Mexico, Fischer and Shull have built an ambitious collection of works by artists who challenge the status quo and diverge from dominant historical perspectives on identity, power, resistance, and agency. They have focused on women and Black and Latin American artists, collecting art that, in their words, “has something to say.”
In Powers Concealed the NCMA extends its global outlook to Africa, presenting an exhibition on African and African-inspired masquerade that features two contemporary egúngún ensembles from the United States—one newly commissioned—in conversation with a historic example from 1930s Nigeria from the NCMA’s collection. Egúngún, meaning “powers concealed,” refers to both the masquerade itself and the idea that these masquerades are visible manifestations of departed African ancestors who visit earthside for blessings, celebrations, and remembrance.
