Exhibitions
Recent Exhibitions Underwritten by the Ambassadors:
Encore: 19th-Century French Art from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
October 5, 2025 – January 25, 2026
TITLE: Villas in Bordighera, Claude Monet, 1884. Oil on canvas. SBMA, Bequest of Katharine Dexter McCormick in memory of her husband, Stanley McCormick.
October 5, 2025 – January 25, 2026
TITLE: Mont Saint-Michel, Setting Sun, Paul Signac, 1897. Oil on canvas. Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., bequest of Mrs. Eugene McDermott in honor of Bill Booziotis
June 22, 2025 – September 7, 2025
TITLE: Dilmun, Vian Sora, 2022. Oil and mixed media on canvas. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by the General Art Acquisition Fund.
By Achilles’ Tomb: Elliott Hundley and Antiquity @ SBMA
April 20, 2025 – June 1, 2026
TITLE: By Achilles’ Tomb, Elliott Hundley2009. Expanded polystyrene, wood, plastic, epoxy putty, pins, paper, photographs. willow, bamboo, string, wire, spray paint, found wax vessel. Hammer Museum. © Elliott Hundley.
April 20, 2025 – August 31, 2025
TITLE: Proscenium. Elliot Hundley. Sculpture and Painting.
December 8, 2024 – May 25, 2025
TITLE: American Seabed (detail). Dario Robleto, 2014. Fossilized prehistoric whale ear bones salvaged from the sea (1 to 10 million years), various butterflies, butterfly antennae made from stretched and pulled audiotape recordings of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row,” concrete, ocean water, pigments, coral, brass, steel, Plexiglas. Courtesy of the Artist. © Dario Robleto.
A Legacy of Giving: The Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree Collection
July 7, 2024 – November 3, 2024
TITLE: The Merciless Lady. Dante Gabriel Rosetti, 185. Watercolor and bodycolor on paper. Bequest of Leslie L. Ridley-Tree.
October 15, 2023 – January 14, 2024
TITLE: Pear Blossom and Two Swallows. Lu Zhi, Ming Dynasty, 1496-1576. Color on paper, Hanging scroll. Tianjin Museum.
June 25, 2023 – September 17, 2023
TITLE: Farmscape, James Castle, n.d. Soot on blue-tinted found paper. William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation
February 12, 2023 – May 14, 2023
TITLE: Out of Joint: Joan Tanner, 2022. Installation View, Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Photo: Brain Forrest
June 21, 2022 – September 25, 2022
Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources
February 27 – May 22, 2022
TITLE: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890), Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail), 1890. Oil on canvas, 21 5⁄8 × 25 9/16 in. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid.
In the Meanwhile…Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, Part II
August 15, 2021 – January 30, 2022
TITLE: Eamon Ore-Giron, Infinite Regress LXV, 2019. Flashe on linen. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by the General Art Acquisition Fund. Courtesy the artist; Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia; and James Cohan, New York.
August 15, 2021 – January 9, 2022
TITLE: Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, Bust of Jean Léon Gérôme, ca. 1871. Bronze. SBMA, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Robert J. Emmons.
In the Meanwhile…Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, Part I
March 22, 2020 – December 6, 2020
TITLE: Jim Drain, Peaceable Kingdom (detail), 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on Bristol paper sheet. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by The Basil Alkazzi Acquisition Fund. ©Jim Drain
Out of Storage and into the Light: Sculptures That Tell Stories
March 10, 2019 – August 18, 2019
TITLE: Kuba Mask (Pwoom Itok), Kuba artist, Democratic Republic of Congo, early 20th century. Wood and polychrome with cloth and beads. SBMA, Gift of the Women’s Board
Out of Storage and Into the Light: Sculptures That Tell Stories
March 10 – August 18, 2019
TITLE: AUGUSTO ESCOBEDO, DANCING FIGURES, CA. 1953 – 1973. ALUMINUM. SBMA, GIFT OF MR. AND MRS. BERNARD LEWIN.
Brought to Light: Revelatory Photographs in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Collection
January 28 – April 22, 2018
TITLE: CONSTRUCT PC-VI (DETAIL) CREDIT: BARBARA KASTEN, 1982. POLACOLOR PRINT. SBMA, GIFT OF ARTHUR AND YOLANDA STEINMAN. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.
Valeska Soares: Any Moment Now
September 17 – December 31, 2017
TITLE: ANY MOMENT NOW (DETAIL) CREDIT: INSTALLATION VIEW, VALESKA SOARES: ANY MOMENT NOW, SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART, 2017
David Wiesner & the Art of Wordless Storytelling
January 29 – May 14, 2017
TITLE: MR. WUFFLES! (DETAIL) CREDIT: DAVID WIESNER, WATERCOLOR AND INDIA INK ON PAPER, 9×11 IN., 2013. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.
Puja and Piety: Hindu, Jain and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subcontinent
April-Aug. 2016
TITLE: THE GODS APPEAL TO THE GREAT DEVI FOR HELP (DETAIL) CREDIT: HIMACHAL PRADESH, FOLIO FROM A DEVI MAHATMYA SERIES WITH SANSKRIT TEXT IN DEVANAGARI SCRIPT ON REVERSE. INDIA, KANGRA, EARLY 19TH CENTURY. COLOR AND GOLD ON PAPER.
Moholy-Nagy: The Shape of Things to Come
July-Sept. 2015
LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY (OR LADISLAUS), CH SPACE 6 (DETAIL), 1941, OIL ON CANVAS, 119 X 119 CM, ESTATE OF LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY
Botticelli, Titian, and Beyond: Masterpieces of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums
Feb.-May 2015
IMAGE CREDIT: BOTTICELLI (AND POSSIBLY ASSISTANT), THE ANNUNCIATION, C. 1490-95. GLASGOW MUSEUMS, ARCHIBALD MCLELLAN COLLECTION, PURCHASED 1856 (174).
Delacroix and the Matter of Finish
Oct. 2013-Jan. 2014
IMAGE CREDIT: EUGENE DELACROIX, THE LAST WORDS OF MARCUS AURELIUS, N.D. OIL ON CANVAS. THE VAN ASCH VAN WYCK TRUST
John Divola: As Far As I Could Get
Oct. 2013-Jan. 2014
IMAGE CREDIT: JOHN DIVOLA, FROM, DOGS CHASING MY CAR IN THE DESERT, D24 RUN SEQUENCE, 1996–2001. INKJET PRINT. SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART, MUSEUM PURCHASE.
July-Sept. 2013
IMAGE CREDIT: JOSIAH MCELHENY, CRYSTALLINE LANDSCAPE AFTER HABLIK AND LUCKHARDT III, 2011. SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART, MUSEUM PURCHASE WITH FUNDS PROVIDED BY THE SBMA VISIONARIES AND THE LUDINGTON FUND.
More Exhibitions
Asian Art Reinstallation – Ongoing
The Artful Recluse: Painting, Poetry, and Politics in 17th-Century China (Oct. 2012- Jan. 2013)
Charms (2012)
Nine sculptures by Martin Kersels incorporating found objects and shapes, some of which are illuminated, that hang from the ceiling and are individually titled Little, Little Boy; Green Dog; Black Cloud; White House; and five Silver Clouds. SBMA commission with funds provided by The Museum Contemporaries. Additional support for the installation and education programs provided by the Ambassadors.
Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910–1912 (Sept. 2011- Jan. 2012)
Delacroix to Monet: Masterpieces of 19th-Century Painting from the Walters Art Museum (2010)
Yinka Shonibare, MBE: A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child and Other Astonishing Works (2009)
Garbo’s Garbos (2005)
Art of the Americas: Latin America and the United States, 1800 to Now! (2004)
Risking the Abstract: Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso (2003)
Edward Hopper and Urban Realism (2002)
Every Picture a Story: American Illustration from the Collection of the Delaware Art Museum (2001)
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