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2023 Exhibitions
Butch Wandy: Micro-Prismatic Photography
June 14-Aug 26, 2023
Rejecting modern digital manipulation, Wandy’s abstract work is the result of a proprietary technique he calls “micro-prismatic imaging,” where he captures his images through carefully backlit reflective plastic. Along with recent gifts of to the collection, this exhibition also features new work by the artist.
A Summer Miscellany from the Collection
June 13-Aug 26, 2023
A perfect “staycation” destination with a little of something for everyone. This exhibition features seascapes and portraits, drawings and photography, and the traditional to the contemporary. Artists featured include Anthony Thieme, Thomas Hart Benton, Emilio Sanchez, Georgina Klitgaard, Ray Mortenson, Georgia Marsh, Sam Gilliam, and many more.
Trailblazer: A Tribute to Toko Shinoda
March 31-June 3, 2023
Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Toko Shinoda (1913–2021) created groundbreaking abstract paintings and prints that made her one of Japan’s most esteemed artists. Rebelling against her beginnings as an accomplished calligrapher, she embellished or altered traditional Japanese characters, seeking new symbols to better capture the essence of meaning. A sojourn in New York (1956-58), where she met the Abstract Expressionists, reinforced her new approach to using bold strokes of traditional sumi ink for abstract compositions in which the white space of canvas or paper is equally eloquent. She explained: “Certain forms float up in my mind’s eye. Aromas, a blowing breeze, a rain-drenched gust of wind — the air in motion, my heart in motion. I try to capture these vague, evanescent images of the instant and put them into vivid form.” This exhibition celebrates Shinoda’s achievement with a selection of paintings and prints. This exhibition is supported in part by an anonymous foundation.
By the Book: Writers, Artists, and Illustrations
March 31-June 3, 2023
Artists have found abundant inspiration in narrative sources, from the Bible to children’s stories and popular magazine fiction. This exhibition of drawings and prints from the Museum’s collection features portraits of writers, works inspired by literature, and illustrations designed for books and magazines. Among them are works by twentieth-century artists James Britton, Thomas Hart Benton, James Daugherty, Clare Leighton, Belkis Ramirez, and John Sloan.
Five Collections / Five Themes: Recent Acquisitions in Photography
Jan. 18-March 11, 2023
Five Collections / Five Themes exhibits a sampling from the 238 photographs included in five 2022 donations to the permanent collection. Not only do these gifts substantially enlarge the scope of the Museum’s holdings (e.g., with works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mike Disfarmer, and Mark Citret), they also lend the collection depth in the work of a number of important documentary photographers such as Dmitri Baltermants, Danny Lyons, and Nathan Lerner. Organized in five thematic (and somewhat overlapping) groups (Working, Youth, Japan, The 1960s, and Toward Abstraction), it suggests but a few of the many lenses through which these photographs can be studied and appreciated. The photographs are gifts from the collections of Ms. Conan Putnam and Charles Ziegler, James and Holly Bogin, John Chatzky and Deborah Mullin, and Yuri and Zoe Gurevich.
Together Again: Paintings by Maude Monnier (1876-1932) and James Britton (1878-1936)
Jan. 11-March 11, 2023
Together Again presents a selection of works by Maude Nottingham Monnier and James Britton, friends whose paintings were often seen together in Hartford art exhibitions of the late 1920s and early 1930s. A founding member of The Society of Women Painters and Sculptors of Hartford (now Connecticut Women Artists), Maude Monnier exhibited regularly in group shows and had solo exhibitions at the Hartford Women’s Club (1928), the Morton Galleries, New York (1930), and the Wadsworth Atheneum Annex (1932). Known for her floral and garden subjects, Monnier was particularly praised by reviewers for her effective use of color. One of her admirers was the well-known Hartford-born portrait painter and art critic James Britton, with whom she shared an exhibition at the Hartford Women’s Club in November/December 1929. A prominent figure in the Hartford art world, Britton played a significant role in the development of the Reverend Andrew J. Kelly’s art collection, which included multiple landscapes by Britton and formed the basis of the Art Museum at USJ. The exhibition features recent gifts from Donna Monnier T. Loeb and Barbara and Ursula Britton, grandchildren of the artists.