The Year Ahead at The Huntington Library

Exhibition schedule through summer 2015:

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Bruce Davidson/Paul Caponigro: Two American Photographers in Britain and Ireland

Nov. 8, 2014-March 9, 2015

MaryLou and George Boone Gallery

This traveling exhibition pairs for the first time approximately 150 works by American photographers Paul Caponigro (b. 1932) and Bruce Davidson (b. 1933), enlightened observers of Britain and Ireland in the 1960s and ’70s. For Caponigro, Ireland and Britain became sites of creative energy to which he returned repeatedly. Davidson brought the same gritty street sensibility that had made his Brooklyn Gang series a sensation among photograph collectors. The exhibition examines the artistic, social, and historical forces informing two master photographers as they bring American eyes to enduring landscapes and changing cultural scenes. Co-organized by the Yale Center for British Art (where it is on view June 26-Sept. 14, 2014) and The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, “Bruce Davidson/Paul Caponigro: Two American Photographers in Britain and Ireland” is accompanied by a catalog of the same title published by Yale University Press.

Samuel F. B. Morse’s “Gallery of the Louvre” and the Art of Invention

Jan. 24-May 4, 2015

Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, Susan and Stephen Chandler Wing

Samuel F. B. Morse, of Morse code fame, may be better known as an inventor, but he began his career as a painter. This exhibition focuses exclusively on his masterwork, Gallery of the Louvre (1831-1833), featuring great paintings from the Louvre’s collection. The six-by-nine- foot canvas depicts masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, and Van Dyck, among others, in a configuration deliberately fabricated by Morse. Gallery of the Louvre underwent extensive conservation before being exhibited from 2011 to 2013 at the Yale University Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, during which it was the subject of scholarly investigation and dialogue, culminating in an anthology of essays due out this fall. The exhibition’s presentation at The Huntington, organized by and with support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, marks the beginning of a multi-year, nine-venue tour of the United States.

The U.S. Constitution and the End of Slavery 

Jan. 24-April 20, 2015

Library, West Hall

Just after 3 p.m. on Jan. 31, 1865, Samuel Colfax, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, called for the vote on a joint resolution that would amend the Constitution to abolish slavery in the United States.  After the roll call was finished, Colfax asked the clerk to add his name to the roll, so that he too could cast his vote for “that great measure, which hereafter will illuminate the highest place in our History.” The tally was announced: 119 ayes to 56 nays, with eight abstaining. After a moment of stunned silence, the chamber erupted in wild jubilation. Timed to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Thirteenth Amendment, this exhibition explores the long, tortuous, and bloody road that led to that fateful vote. With more than 80 items, drawn entirely from The Huntington’s rich collection of historical materials, it features rare manuscripts, books, and prints, including letters by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.  

Magna Carta: Law and Legend, 1215-2015

June 13-Oct. 12, 2015

Library, West Hall

This exhibition celebrates the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta by exploring the language and ideology of constitutionalism (both written and unwritten) and the rule of law. While the cornerstone of the exhibition is The Huntington's 13th-century draft of the Magna Carta, the themes move beyond Medieval England to explore the relevance of Magna Carta to later English history, the history of the United States, and the modern world, drawn from various areas of the Huntington’s collections.  The exhibition also delves into the legend and popular perceptions of Magna Carta. Over the past eight centuries Magna Carta, as a concept, holds a powerful and empowering place in the imaginations of thinkers, artists, and rebels, demonstrating how people across time have offered unique interpretations of this significant document.

NOW ON VIEW

Your Country Calls! Posters of the First World War

Aug. 2-Nov. 3, 2014

Library, West Hall

In commemoration of the start of World War I in the summer of 1914, this centennial exhibition in the Library’s West Hall illustrates how a global war was waged not just by soldiers on battlefields and politicians in offices, but by civilian populations of men, women, and children on the home fronts of combatant nations including Canada, England, France, and the United States. Drawn entirely from The Huntington’s collection of prints and ephemera, “Your Country Calls! Posters of the First World War” features 50 colorful vintage posters designed to mobilize citizens into action for the collective effort to win the war.

Highlights of American Drawings and Watercolors from The Huntington’s Art Collections

July 19, 2014-Jan. 5, 2015

Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, Susan and Stephen Chandler Wing

Thirty rarely seen masterworks from The Huntington’s significant collection of American drawings and watercolors are on view during this six-month-long exhibition. The installation highlights drawings by John Singer Sargent and Grant Wood, pastels by Mary Cassatt and Edwin Austin Abbey, and watercolors by Winslow Homer and Charles Burchfield. Some works will be rotated with others by the same artists in October 2014 for conservation reasons.