Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
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We are honored to present this virtual conversation between the brilliant artist Ebony G. Patterson and Duke Professor Richard J. Powell, preeminent scholar of contemporary art of the African diaspora. Sign up now!

Register now! December 2, 4 PM: The Nasher Museum presents the Annual Rothschild Lecture, a virtual conversation between artist Ebony G. Patterson and Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of American, Afro-American and African Art and Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke.... Registration and virtual tour video >>> bit.ly/35qFgdL <<< Patterson’s solo exhibition "Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . ." opened for 10 days at the Nasher Museum before the museum was suddenly closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patterson and Powell will discuss how her work investigates forms of embellishment as they relate to youth culture within disenfranchised communities and break down themes of violence, masculinity, visibility and invisibility within black youth culture globally.

On this Veterans Day, we are grateful for our democracy and grateful to those who have served our country. I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it... I always want to see the third dimension of something... I want to come alive with the object. Andrew Wyeth Andrew Wyeth, V.F.W., 1964. Watercolor and drybrush on paper, 26 1/4 x 20 inches (66.7 x 50.8 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Bequest of L...ouise and Alvin Myerberg, 2010.3.14 From the label: Andrew Wyeth (American, 19172009) is not easily categorized within an artistic movement, but his work follows in the footsteps of the American Regionalists and social realists. Like them, he focused on his own region, in his case Maine, and drew inspiration from its people and landscape. In this work, Wyeth's neighbor and friend, Ralph Cline, is pictured in his World War I uniform. This stark single figure faces away from the viewer and is placed against a detailed expanse of nature and empty sky. There is a sense of loneliness, and perhaps a touch of pessimism. Wyeth's work touches on many themes including old age, time passing, lives lost and war memories. Wyeth's painstaking technique of using watercolor and tempera paint applied with a dry brush onto paper allowed him to achieve incredible sharpness. Andrew Wyeth was trained by his father, the well-known illustrator N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), from whom he gained great skill in draftsmanship.

We are so proud to partner with ADF to invite dance artists to engage with a powerful outdoor exhibition! American Dance Festival: Call for Submissions ADF is seeking submissions of original choreography by diverse N.C. dance artists to perform in front of five installations within RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! Selected artists will receive a small honorarium, an art bag filled with small art objects created by Carrie Mae Weems and an ADF online class card for five classes. Deadline...: November 18. Duke Arts American Dance Festival https://americandancefestival.org//resist-covid-take-6-ca/

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University has joined Google Arts & Culture, which offers virtual experiences of thousands of the world's great museums. The Na...sher has brought many of these artists to Google Arts & Culture for the first time. Download the app for free and zoom in close to view important works in the museum's collection, including North Carolina Sisters. Barkley L. Hendricks worked consistently as a photographer beginning in the mid 1960s, and while at Yale University from 1970-1972 he studied with the acclaimed photographer Walker Evans. This photograph embodies many of the central traits of Hendricks's work. Formal balance, unique cropping and attention to light and reflection are characteristics found in both his paintings and photographs. It also demonstrates his broader interest in American realism, portraiture, landscape, social engagement and humor. This photograph has a historical connection to the area: North Carolina Sisters was shot in Durham, NC in 1978 while Hendricks was in town for the American Dance Festival. Nasher Museum of Art label text Read more: https://artsandculture.google.com//nasher-museum-/m08mkyr

Art. Outdoor walk. Distraction. Oasis. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! by artist Carrie Mae Weems allows Duke to present an impactful outdoor art exhibition safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors are welcome to view RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! in person from the safety of public sidewalks and pathways around the outside of the Nasher Museum and Rubenstein Arts Center, located at Campus Drive and Anderson Street. The project can also be viewed safely by car on Anderson Street, a public city street. Mask up, back up! Don't worry, we'll hold hands again. Duke Arts Dukehealthorg https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit

We are proud to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, October 12, 2020. This painting from our collection, Indian and Storefront, is by Fritz Scholder, a member of the Luiseño tribe of California. A pioneer of contemporary Native American art, Scholder (19372005) was instrumental in resisting commonly held stereotypes and deconstructing the mythos of the American Indian, while bringing a new visual vocabulary to Native artists beginning in the 1960s. Somebody needs to paint the Indian differently because it is a subject matter that is probably the world’s worst cliché, at least in this country. Fritz Scholder

PLAN YOUR VOTE is a 2020 artist initiative to promote and empower citizens to exercise their right to vote. Today you should: Register if you haven’t already. Verify your registration if you have any doubt. Check your absentee status if you aren’t sure. Set a reminder in case you forget. Let’s "bend the voting curve by getting friends and family to do the same. https://www.planyourvote.org/ #PlanYourVote #VoteDotOrg #Vote #VoteReady #Vote2020 Artwork by Wangechi Mutu.

Coming soon! The Nasher Museum is collaborating with Duke Arts and Duke Health to present an unprecedented outdoor exhibition and public awareness campaign by nationally renowned artist Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE SIX! emphasizes the disproportionate impact of the deadly virus on the lives of communities of color, through large-scale banners and window clings, posters, street signs and more.... This powerful art initiative will take shape on the exterior walls and windows of the Nasher Museum and Rubenstein Arts Center in late September 2020. In October, the installation will expand along the length of the Arts Corridor, from the Sarah P. Duke Gardens gate to Campus Drive street pole banners to the Carpentry Shop (home of the MFA EDA program). Images courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film. #resistcovidtake6

Visit our first-ever interactive virtual tour! Travel through Cultures of the Sea: Art of the Ancient Americas, zoom in on ancient ceramics, textiles and carvingsand listen to the audio tour by student co-curators from Duke's Class of 2020. Our tour was project was made possible by Mark Olson, assistant professor of the practice of Visual & Media Studies at Duke, and the Wired! Lab for Digital Art History & Visual Culture. https://nasher.duke.edu//cultures-of-the-sea-art-of-the-a/

Haiku in the rain, written for a crisis. Five haiku poets of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective gathered in the Nasher Museum Sculpture Garden and responded, in verse, to the COVID-19 pandemic and the global protest movement against police brutality. https://www.youtube.com/watch

On this Juneteenth, we are remembering a unique performance by Thomas F. DeFrantz and SLIPPAGE exploring the provocation of Kara Walker’s Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) with shadowplay, dance and image subtraction technology. SLIPPAGE is directed by Thomas F. DeFrantz, Professor and Chair of African and African American Studies at Duke. The performance included collaborations by eto otitigbe, Shireen Dickson and Brittany Williams. https://nasher.duke.edu/stories/reverse-gesture-reviewed/

Virtual sketching session with artist William Paul Thomas this Saturday morning! Don't miss it!

We’re sharing this powerful work from our collection by Zanele Muholi, Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, in support of Pride Month. #everymonthispridemonth

Thomas’s work is especially relevant now as the murders of unarmed black people continue to plague our nation. Meaningful and honest anti-racism work is imperative to building equitable communities, dismantling oppressive systems, and ensuring the safety of those who are most marginalized. Adria Gunter, Curatorial Assistant. About the work: Hank Willis Thomas's Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around presents a portrait of an evolving South, one actively affected by the ag...ency of its citizens. Using reproductions of photographs by James "Spider" Martin, Thomas presents an installation of images on distressed, mirrored surfaces. Martin’s photographs, taken for the Birmingham News, documented the events of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches in 1965. As a white Alabama native, Martin was able to move freely during the protest marches and captured the events in detail. Some of the images show civil rights activists under extreme duress, such as on "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, when they were gassed and clubbed by law enforcement officers as they attempted to cross the Pettus Bridge in Selma. Thomas also selected images of strength and defiance, such as Hosea Williams and John Lewis leading marchers as they faced advancing troopers on Bloody Sunday, and Martin Luther King, Jr. giving his triumphant speech upon arriving in Montgomery. By placing mirrors behind Martin's images, Thomas pulls viewers into the work, including and implicating them in the events they see. In fusing the past and the present, Thomas forces the questions: what has changed since 1965, and how do we each play a role in creating history? See more

New to the Collection: Theresa Chromati We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of the first work by Theresa Chromati to enter the Nasher Museum’s collection: tearing me apart, so much so that I become beautiful ( woman exploring a smile ). Theresa Chromati makes large-scale paintings of women of color that explore vulnerability, sexuality and the dynamics of gender and race. The artist fills her works with colorful, distorted female figures that stretch and reach with e...xaggerated features and poses. IMAGE: Theresa Chromati, tearing me apart, so much so that I become beautiful ( woman exploring a smile ), 2019. Acrylic, glitter, and vinyl plastic on mdf and canvas; 90 90 inches (228.6 228.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase with funds provided by Doug Smooke (A.B.’90) and Kim Blackwell (A.B.’89, H.S.’94-’00), 2020.1.1. Theresa Chromati. Image courtesy of the artist, Jeffrey Deitch, and Kravets Wehby, New York. Photo by Sebastiano Pellion.

'Satch Hoyt, an internationally acclaimed artist and musician based in Berlin, produced a monumental new sculptural work during his residency with the Nasher Mu...seum in September 2009. Hoyt and a team of assistants constructed a 16-foot canoe titled Celestial Vessel, which was part of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University exhibition, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl (September 2, 2010, through February 6, 2011). Materials for the work include a metal armature and vintage RCA Victor Red Seal 45-rpm records from the 1950s that Hoyt has collected. The work will also include an original soundscape composed by the artist. Still photography by Dr. J Caldwell. Video work by David Colagiovanni and Lydia Moyer; Music by Satch Hoyt: "Griots and Cyber Crooks." See more