Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will focus on how art-making often begins -- with a black mark on a white canvas or sheet of paper -- during a new exhibition opening next week.
All or Nothing, a 55-piece exhibition, will be on view at the Bentonville museum from Nov. 11 through May 28, 2018, and feature two new acquisitions: abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly's White and Dark Gray Panels (1977) and Willie Birch's Domino Players (2008). The museum said White and Dark Gray Panels was a gift from philanthropist, collector and art education advocate Agnes Gund.
The exhibition will be located in the museum's gallery bridge and, in addition to the two new acquisitions, will consist of works from Crystal Bridges' permanent collection. The pieces range from 1860 to today and utilize black and white in a variety of ways to "focus on elements such as process, composition and spatial relationships," according to the museum.
"In pigment, black is the mixture of all colors, while in the light spectrum, black is the absence of all color," Crystal Bridges curatorial assistant Dylan Turk said in a prepared statement. "All or Nothing persuades us to look at the shared characteristics that connect the works and the artists. At a moment of extreme divisiveness, we want to celebrate the beauty that connects us."
Many of the works that will be featured in the exhibition have not previously been on view at Crystal Bridges, including Carrie Mae Weems's photograph Untitled (Woman Feeding Bird). Weems will be a featured guest in December as part of the museum's distinguished speaker series.
Metro on 11/03/2017