American Galleries Fall 2025
August 28, 2025 through February 8, 2026
Unexpected Perspectives: The Lens of Abelardo Morell
November 16, 2024 through April 27, 2025
Dream Makers: A Creative Legacy
January 18 through March 2, 2025
Selections from the Photography Collection Fall 2024
September 7, 2024 through March 9, 2025
American Galleries Fall 2024
August 29, 2024, through February 2025
Interventions: Video Works by Allora and Calzadilla
February 15, 2024, through February 9, 2025
Pennsylvania Impressionism: Paintings from the Leidel Collection
Through October 13, 2024
Art in the Nazi Period: Two Paintings’ Trajectories
Through October 20, 2024
Marcus Jahmal: Higher Animals
June 1 through September 29, 2024
Scarlet Poppies and Ultramarine Butterflies: The Language of Color
June 1 through September 29, 2024
Structure and Lyric: Prints by Stanley Whitney
June 1 through September 29, 2024
Angela Fraleigh: Threaded with moonlight
November 11, 2023, through April 21, 2024
Nostalgia for My Island: Puerto Rican Painting from the Museo de Arte de Ponce (1786–1962)
November 3, 2023, through April 28, 2024
The Making of Gustave Baumann’s El Velorio (The Wake)
November 11, 2023, through April 21, 2024
Selections from the Photography Collection
March 16 through September 1, 2024
Fashion as Experiment: The ’60s
May 6 through September 24, 2023
Jillian Mayer: I Am Your Grandma
August 17, 2023, through February 11, 2024
American Galleries
February 29 through August 11, 2024
The New American Galleries, Fall/Winter 2023
Through February 18, 2024
Kanako Sasaki: Illuminations
Through August 13, 2023
Alteronce Gumby: Dark Matter
Through April 9, 2023
Timestamp: The Photography of Larry Fink and Judith Joy Ross
Through April 16, 2023
Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing #793A
Through July 17, 2022
Kate Gilmore’s “With Open Arms”
Through July 17, 2022
The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy
Through March 12, 2023
Eclectic Collecting: Curiosities from the Vault
Through September 18, 2022
Indian Sculpture: Avatars of the Hindu Gods
Through May 14, 2023
Intuition & Reflection: The Ceramics of Toshiko Takaezu
Through September 18, 2022
Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper
October 10, 2021 through January 2, 2022
Roots: Sources for American Art and Design
May 16 through September 12, 2021
Sleep Tight! Bedcovers and Hangings from Around the World
May 16 through September 12, 2021
Rembrandt Revealed
January 24 through May 2, 2021
Rembrandt’s Return: A Complement of Prints
November 19, 2021, through April 3, 2022
Art in Unexpected Places: Scott Sherk
Through June 18, 2023
Collecting Across Cultures: Japanese Textiles in the West
Rotations through April 3, 2022
New Century, New Woman
November 1, 2020 through April 18, 2021
Prints and Protest, 1960–1970
October 18, 2020 through April 25, 2021
The New American Galleries
Through August 31, 2023
Evolution of the Spiritual: Europe to America
November 24, 2019 through January 3, 2021
Flash! The Sensational Photography of Weegee the Famous
January 12 through March 13, 2020
Selections from the Photography Collection, Rotation 2
Through March 10, 2024
Color & Complexity: 30 Years at Durham Press
January 19 through September 20, 2020
Stephen Antonakos: The Room Chapel
May 6, 2018 through September 27, 2020
Danny Lyon: Prison
September 29, 2019 through January 5, 2020
Designing Hollywood: Golden Age Costumes from the Gene London Cinema Collection
September 29 through December 22, 2019
Deco After Dark: Evening Wear, 1920–1945
June 2 through September 1, 2019
An Essential Presence: The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art
June 2 through September 1, 2019
Fresh Perspective: Modernism in Photography, 1920–1950
January 13 through May 12, 2019
Carrie Mae Weems: Strategies of Engagement
January 13 through May 5, 2019
The Soviet Lens: Photography by Dmitri Baltermants and Mark Markov-Grinberg
September 9, 2018 through January 6, 2019
Angel Suarez-Rosado: Talisman
September 9 through December 16, 2018
Molas: Social Fabric
August 25 through December 9, 2018
Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present
May 6 through July 29, 2018
Who Wore Sports
May 6 through September 2, 2018
Katagami: The Japanese Stencil
Through July 28, 2019 Decorative Arts Corridor The Japanese have printed fabric for centuries using katagami, hand carved mulberry paper stencils. These stencils’ intricate designs and bold style amazed the European and American artists who encountered katagami at the turn of the century. Many became collectors and drew inspiration from these stencils—including architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose […]
Indian Sculpture: Avatars of the Hindu Gods—TEMPORARILY CLOSED
Through June 2, 2019 Payne Hurd Gallery TEMPORARILY CLOSED AS OF JANUARY 24, 2019 As Hinduism developed in India, it enveloped a vast range of local deities into its pantheon; many new deities also emerged over time. Many Hindus regarded these deities, totaling some 330 million by some believers’ count, as manifestations of […]
Soaring and Bounding: British Color Woodcuts
This beautiful selection of color woodcuts by British artists including John Edgar Platt, William Giles, and Allen Seaby demonstrated the influence of the Japanese aesthetics and techniques on Western art of the 1920s and ‘30s. John Edgar Platt (British, 1886-1967), The Plough (triptych), 1921, woodcut.Collection of John Rossetti. Special thanks to John Rossetti. […]
Rhythm & Movement
This installation featured contemporary art that addressed themes of pattern and motion. These topics have proved fruitful for contemporary artists looking to capture the dynamic world around them; the works in this rotation dove into concepts as varied as optical illusion and the Underground Railroad. From the pulsing figures of Keith Haring to the tricks […]
Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment
A new generation of women photojournalists are telling some of the most powerful and impactful stories of the last decade. From the savannas of Botswana to the war–torn streets of Libya and Afghanistan, from the beaches of the Jersey shore to the rainforests of New Guinea, these 11 women have traveled the world as […]
New Geography: Photographs by Marilyn Bridges
“From Marilyn Bridges’ single-engine Cessna, hovering low at the approximate altitude of an angel with wing trouble, the earth tends to be dark, ambiguous, laced with a mournful poetry. The planet’s skin is crumpled and worn and scarred with mysterious designs. Someone long ago left signs here, certain they would be recognized: giants and serpents, […]
Power and Piety: Spanish Colonial Art
José Campeche (Puerto Rican, 1751–1809), Our Lady of Mount Carmel (detail), 1807, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Coleccíón Patricia Phelps de Cisneros August 25 through December 9, 2018 Scheller Gallery Power and Piety presents exquisite paintings, sculpture, silver pieces, furniture and decorative devotional objects made in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of the […]
Reverberations: Sound Sculptures by Harry Bertoia
Exploring the relationship between form and sound, sculptor Harry Bertoia spent more than a decade creating innovative works of art that are also musical instruments. This exhibition included a number of Bertoia’s sound sculptures that composer Doug Ovens played on November 4 and 5 at the Allentown Symphony Orchestra premiere of his work, Visible Music. […]
The Poetry of Nature: Hudson River School Landscapes from the New-York Historical Society
Vast primal landscapes. Awe-inspiring vistas. Sunlight-infused rivers, forests, and rocky cliffs. The 19th century brought a new art movement to America—one that was uniquely its own, celebrating the young nation’s stunning natural beauty and emerging identity. The Hudson River School, a loosely knit group of painters, writers, and poets, found their inspiration in the grand […]
American Vistas: Landscapes from the Collection
In scenes alternately breathtaking and serene, 19th-century artists illuminated their experiences of the American landscape. This exhibition took a fresh look at the Museum’s collection in conjunction with our presentation of The Poetry of Nature: Hudson River School Landscapes from the New-York Historical Society. The selection of works included the perspectives of American artists painting, […]
Floral
From petunias to poppies, with examples both subtle and bright, these color woodcuts of the early 20th-century celebrate blooms. These pieces shared the limelight with our recent acquisition, a stunning Seven-Light Lily Lamp by the renowned Tiffany Studios. Special thanks to John Rossetti. The exhibition program at the Museum is supported through the generosity […]
A Collecting Spirit: Gifts of Paul Kania
June 25 through September 3, 2017 Trexler Hall and Rodale, Scheller, and Fowler Galleries With a passion for art’s aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual impact, and an even greater passion for sharing it, Philadelphia resident Paul Kania’s collection reveals the eclectic and personal nature of his generous gifts to the Museum. Selected from the more […]
Collage, Assemblage, and Appropriation
Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Definitely, if the imaginative works in this installation were any indication. Eleven selections from the Museum’s collection, including works by Larry Rivers, Ilse Getz, and Claes Oldenburg explored creation from readymade materials. In collage and assemblage, artists bring together two- or three-dimensional objects ranging from […]
Revolutionizing Design: Progressive Home Decorating at the Turn of the Century
By the late 19th century, artists and designers were ready for a radical departure from the mass-produced, “more is more” look of the Victorian era. They argued that beautiful living spaces and affordable, attractive furnishings could improve society. Revolutionizing Design united textiles and furnishings by those European and American design reformers who laid the foundation […]
White-Line Color Woodcuts
Wed, 05/03/2017 – Sun, 08/06/2017 Decorative Arts Corridor The white-line color woodcut was an early twentieth-century innovation that allowed artists to print multiple colors from a single carved woodblock. Originating with the Provincetown Printers in Massachusetts, the technique offered simplicity of execution as well as a painterly result. Featuring beautiful examples of white-line woodcuts ranging in subject, […]
Francie Bishop Good: COMUS Series
April 30 through June 11, 2017 Trexler Hall
Designing for the Loom: Drawings by William Geskes
This exhibition featured the striking designs created for over 40 years by William Geskes (1877–1962) for Paterson, New Jersey, silk manufacturers. His hand-drawn designs, translated into repeated patterns and then transformed into lustrous fabrics, ranged from graceful floral motifs to wildly colored abstractions. A fascinating glimpse into the textile industry in the first half of […]
Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami
Sun, 03/05/2017 – Sun, 05/28/2017 Fowler Gallery Above the Fold was the first traveling exhibition to bring origami installations from around the world to North American audiences. Paper was transformed into breathtaking sculpture, large-scale installations, and conceptual works that express contemporary aesthetic ideas. Origami—the Japanese tradition of folding paper into recognizable objects— dates back at least a thousand […]
Silk for an Industrial Age
Wed, 02/15/2017 – Sun, 05/21/2017 Payne Hurd Gallery This exhibition showcased printed silk fabrics that celebrated the modern lifestyle made possible by science and industry. During the 1920s, Americans marveled at technologies like electricity, cars, and radios that transformed daily life. This enthusiasm continued in the 1930s but was colored by the Depression—many hoped that science and […]
Made in America: Industrial Photography from the Ungar Collection
Sun, 02/05/2017 – Sun, 05/28/2017 Rodale Gallery This exhibition featured dynamic photography celebrating machinery and industrial workers. Exciting and heroic, these mid-century images built a narrative of industry as a symbol of American progress and prosperity. Made in America showcased selections from the gift of 160 photographs donated to the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley by Jon […]
Japonisme: Landscapes
Wed, 02/01/2017 – Sun, 04/23/2017 Decorative Arts Corridor Western artists and designers alike drew inspiration from Japanese art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This stunning selection of landscape woodcuts and decorative arts objects captured the Japonisme aesthetic so popular in the West during this era and complemented Frank Lloyd Wright’s Little Library, on permanent […]
Greetings: Holiday Cards by Artists
Wed, 11/23/2016 – Sun, 02/05/2017 Payne Hurd Gallery This exhibition celebrated the winter season with hand-printed holiday cards made by fine artists. Spanning the 1920s to the 1970s, these works on paper were imbued with personal meaning and inscribed to friends. Twenty rarely seen pieces from the Museum’s collection and others on loan provided an intimate look into […]
Building Bridges
Sun, 11/13/2016 – Sun, 03/05/2017 Fuller and Community Galleries Building Bridges featured photographs submitted by the community in response to an open call to “Show Us Your Allentown.” Each image had a distinct voice and illuminated social issues, community needs, or concerns that are central to the city. This exhibition was part of the Building Bridges Project, a collaboration […]
Allentown X 7: Photographic Explorations
Sun, 11/13/2016 – Sun, 02/05/2017 Scheller and Fowler Galleries Work from seven area photographers was commissioned for this exhibition, the only guideline being that their art needed to represent Allentown. The resulting body of work included everything from sensitive portraits and intriguing cityscapes to graffiti painted with light, digitally collaged landscapes, and photography informed by psychics. Allentown […]
Anthony Viscardi: Shadow Landings
Fri, 11/04/2016 – Sun, 03/26/2017 Trexler Hall Lehigh University architecture professor and artist Anthony Viscardi worked throughout the summer of 2016 in a glass-walled studio, the Creativity Lab on Hamilton Street in downtown Allentown, that allowed passersby to witness the creative process firsthand. The monumental three-dimensional mural that resulted is the centerpiece of Shadow Landings, an immersive art installation […]
The Arts and Crafts Movement in the American West
Wed, 10/26/2016 – Sun, 01/29/2017 Decorative Arts Corridor Featuring a selection of color relief prints and pottery made in California and the western United States between 1910 and 1930, this installation of recent acquisitions and loans from private collections complemented the harmonious ideals of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Little Library, on permanent view at the Museum. With a […]
Warren Rohrer: The Language of Mark Making
Sun, 10/23/2016 – Sun, 01/22/2017 Rodale Gallery One of Philadelphia’s leading abstract painters of the late twentieth century, Warren Rohrer (1927–1995) was profoundly inspired by the rural landscape of nearby Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The language of his painting and drawing of the early 1990s is poetic in its ambiguity, an ambiguity filled with field and furrow, pictograph […]
Hues of Red and Blue: The 2016 Presidential Election
Thu, 10/20/2016 – Sun, 11/13/2016 Payne Hurd Gallery & RE:find Gallery on the Walk Throughout history, both self-taught and professionally trained artists alike have expressed political opinions in various formats and mediums. Recognizing the power of the artist as well as the special time in which we live, the Allentown Art Museum and RE:find Gallery challenged artists to […]
Intersections: Dianne Smith
Thu, 08/25/2016 – Sun, 10/23/2016 Fuller Gallery Using the Langston Hughes poem I, Too as a point of departure, Harlem-based artist Dianne Smith showcased a series of reflections by Allentown residents on the lived experience of “I, too, sing America.” The photographic portraits and oral histories that were on display in Fuller Gallery were created during Dianne’s spring–summer residency […]
Hiroshige: Views of Japan
Andō Hiroshige, Mouth of the Naka River from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1856–58, woodblock print. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Fowler Merle-Smith, 1991 Wed, 07/20/2016 – Sun, 10/23/2016 Decorative Arts Corridor Depicted with attention to time of day, weather, and season, Andō Hiroshige’s (1797–1858) landscapes demonstrate sensitivity to the beauty of Japan’s natural topography, as well […]
American Fiber Art: Selections from the Collection
Wed, 07/20/2016 – Sun, 12/11/2016 Butz Gallery This installation drew on the Museum’s important textile holdings to offer a glimpse into the exciting world of fiber art. Its six works complemented the paintings, sculptures, and prints also on view in Butz Gallery, offering a fuller understanding of American art since World War II. The featured artists employed […]
Crazy Quilters Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Quilt Exhibition
Sun, 07/10/2016 – Sun, 08/07/2016 Community Gallery To the artists who design and create quilts, they are more than just bedcovers—they are expressions of love, sorrow, caring, hope, joy, thanks. They are historical documents. They are a challenge, but also gratifying. Their creation can be a solitary and contemplative act, or it can be a social experience. […]
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
Sun, 06/26/2016 – Sun, 10/02/2016 Scheller, Rodale, and Fowler Galleries and Trexler Hall This exhibition presented the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. It presented works in all media by seventy-one leading modern and contemporary artists. Artists […]
Our Strength Is Our People: The Humanist Photographs of Lewis Hine
Sat, 06/04/2016 – Sun, 10/02/2016 Payne Hurd Gallery Photographer Lewis Hine (1874–1940) saw his work as both art and a tool for social change. Beginning in 1905 he photographed immigrants at Ellis Island, hoping his sympathetic images would combat xenophobia. His interest in the lives of working class Americans led him to photograph immigrant steel workers and […]
This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement
Sun, 01/17/2016 – Sun, 05/15/2016 Scheller and Rodale Galleries This Light of Ours presented the Southern Freedom Movement through the visions and voices of eight men and one woman who lived and worked in the South between 1963 and 1967. Unlike images produced by photojournalists, who covered breaking news events, these nine photographers lived within the movement—primarily within […]
Transcultural: A Mural by Rigo Peralta
January 6, 2016, through June 30, 2019 Museum Vestibule The Museum commissioned Dominican-born, Allentown-based artist Rigo Peralta to create the first-ever mural in the vestibule at the entrance to the Museum. Incorporating imagery from Taino and Mayan architecture and building on the tradition of heroic figures in mural painting, Peralta’s work addresses both personal and […]
The Plain and Ornamental Branches: A Sampling of Pennsylvania’s Girlhood Embroideries
Wed, 12/30/2015 – Sun, 05/29/2016 Payne Hurd Gallery A century after the establishment of William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” in British America, Pennsylvania was home to ethnically and religiously diverse groups of settlers who had already begun to develop the distinctive artistic styles that would characterize the region for the next hundred years. Nowhere are these styles more […]
Steve Tobin: Cocoon Awakenings
Wed, 10/28/2015 – Sun, 01/03/2016 Trexler Hall This exhibit displayed the first new glass pieces made by internationally renowned Quakertown-based artist Steve Tobin in twenty years. Exhibited in a darkened space, these illuminated sculptures cast colored light onto their surroundings, creating what Tobin calls “projection paintings” that transform our experience of the gallery space. They were installed […]
Jeffrey Becom: Colors of India
Wed, 09/02/2015 – Sun, 12/27/2015 Payne Hurd Gallery Viridian, ultramarine, alizarin crimson: Jeffrey Becom’s series of photographs explored the vivid colors of the built environment in northern India. A painter and photographer with training in architecture, Becom’s work has focused on what color may reveal about a culture, documenting painted walls from Mexico to Morocco, Guatemala to […]
Tod Lindenmuth
Wed, 09/02/2015 – Sun, 07/10/2016 Decorative Arts Corridor Marine scenes in shades of blue and aqua by Tod Lindenmuth (1885-1976) were on view in the Decorative Arts Corridor, and one of the artist’s paintings was on display in Trexler Gallery. The Allentown-born artist known as a founder of the Provincetown Printmakers created these color woodcuts and linocuts […]
A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America
Sat, 07/25/2015 – Sun, 10/11/2015 Rodale, Scheller, and Fowler Galleries A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America offered a stunning presentation of American folk art made primarily in rural areas of New England, the Midwest, and the South between 1800 and 1920. More than sixty works of art, including still life, landscape, allegorical, and portrait paintings, commercial and […]
Above Zero: Photographs from the Polar Regions by Sam Krisch
Sun, 06/14/2015 – Sun, 10/11/2015 Scheller Gallery Since 2010, I have had the opportunity to travel to polar and subpolar regions, including Antarctica, Iceland, Patagonia, and Greenland. I have captured large rock formations carved by eons of surf and wind, heroic and majestic icebergs floating to sea, smaller floating crystals resembling remote celestial bodies, giant natural mirrors, […]
Woven Welcome
Wed, 06/03/2015 – Sun, 10/11/2015 Trexler Hall Woven Welcome, a community-based art project, utilized the woven rug as a statement of the ways in which individuals are interconnected. In December, artist Jill Odegaard began making segments with a wide variety of groups throughout the Lehigh Valley. Odegaard and the Museum together with our community partner, Via of […]
William Baziotes: Surrealist Watercolors
Wed, 05/13/2015 – Sun, 08/23/2015 Payne Hurd Gallery William Baziotes (1912–1963) was an important contributor to Abstract Expressionism who also upheld the mysterious, dreamlike, and poetic aspects of Surrealism. Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, Baziotes moved to New York City in 1933. He attended the school at the National Academy of Design and then […]
Past Present: Conversations across Time
Sun, 02/22/2015 – Sun, 05/17/2015 Scheller and Fowler Galleries Past Present established a visual dialogue between seven contemporary artists/artist teams and select masterworks in our Samuel H. Kress Collection. Each artist had created an installation that responds to one or more of the Kress paintings, which had been moved from the Museum’s Kress Gallery for this one-of-a-kind exhibition. […]
Weston’s Women: Edward Weston and Cycles of Influence
Sun, 02/22/2015 – Sun, 06/21/2015 Rodale Gallery One of the most celebrated photographers of the twentieth century, Edward Weston (1886–1958) cultivated relationships with women whose influence profoundly affected his life and work. Not simply model, muse, or student, they were partners, activists, and artists themselves. In addition to Weston’s work, this exhibition of sumptuous and rare vintage […]
Interventions in Printmaking: Three Generations of African American Women
Sun, 01/25/2015 – Sun, 04/12/2015
California the Beautiful: William Dassonville Photographs
Wed, 01/14/2015 – Sun, 05/03/2015 Payne Hurd Gallery William Dassonville (1879–1957) produced idyllic landscapes and escapist city scenes in and around San Francisco, representing California as the new “Promised Land.” He exhibited his photographs widely and was friendly with the naturalist John Muir, artist William Keith, and fellow photographer Ansel Adams, who initially used Dassonville’s own brand […]
Bruce Wall’s ALPHABET
Fri, 01/02/2015 – Sun, 02/08/2015 Community Gallery Bruce Wall is an artist who favors using a blend of painting, drawing, mixed media, and found objects where the distinction between 2-D and 3-D elements is intentionally ambiguous. In his Alphabet series there is an exploration of the world of everyday consumer objects and toys using the alphabet as an organizational […]
Robert Indiana from A to Z
Sun, 10/12/2014 – Sun, 01/25/2015 Scheller and Rodale Galleries In fall 2014, visitors to Allentown saw nearly one hundred works of art from the private collection of one of America’s most celebrated living artists―including some childhood drawings and new works that have never been exhibited. Robert Indiana is a founding father of Pop Art and gave it […]
Building the Arena: Photography by Theo Anderson
Sun, 10/12/2014 – Sun, 01/04/2015 Payne Hurd Gallery Paying tribute to the opening of the nearby PPL Center arena, this exhibition featured Theo Anderson’s photographs of the building’s interior during construction. With exclusive access to the site, Anderson had taken more than three thousand photographs of it and had selected more than two hundred of them for […]
American Pop: The Prints
Sun, 10/12/2014 – Sun, 01/25/2015 Fowler Gallery While their own economy was still recovering from World War II, a group of young English artists grew fascinated with American consumerism. They incorporated images from popular culture using simple graphic designs. Also in the mid-1950s, Americans Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns began to use images from the mass-media in […]
Platinum Visions: Photographs by Thomas John Shillea
Wed, 07/02/2014 – Sun, 09/28/2014 Payne Hurd Gallery Thomas Shillea’s photographs capture a full range of human feeling, from the poetic and spiritual to the dramatic and sensual. What is most striking is his consistency of vision: in portraits of ordinary people, studio nudes, drag queens, or celebrities, including Sissy Spacek and Coretta Scott King. Currently the […]
Francisco Goya: Los Caprichos
Sun, 06/08/2014 – Sun, 09/07/2014 Rodale Gallery Los Caprichos, a set of eighty etchings by Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), is one of the most influential series of graphic images in the history of Western art. Enigmatic and controversial, Los Caprichos—meaning “follies” or “caprices”―was created during a time of social repression and economic crisis […]
OF HEAVEN AND EARTH: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums
Sun, 06/08/2014 – Sun, 09/07/2014 Scheller Gallery With works by some of the greatest names in European art, Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums examined the thematic and stylistic developments in Italian art, from the religious paintings of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance to the secular neoclassical and genre paintings of the […]
Destinations in Paintings: The Kasten Collection
Sun, 05/18/2014 – Sun, 09/14/2014 Butz Gallery The paintings in the exhibition Destinations in Paintings: Kasten Collection depict scenes from artists’ travels. Viewing them is like being transported to another time—from the 1860s through the 1920s—and to other places including Europe and Asia. During the second half of the nineteenth century, new modes of transportation (trains and luxury ships) […]
A POP-UP EXHIBITION
Fri, 04/25/2014 – Sun, 04/27/2014 Butz Gallery Animal Logic: A Surreal Happening by Cheryl Hockberg & Friends Friday, April 25, 2 pm and Sunday, April 27, 2:45 pm This three-day exhibition/performance explored the blurry line between human nature and animal nature. On Friday, April 25, 2014, artist and Chair of the Kutztown University Fine Arts Department, Cheryl […]
British Pop Prints
Wed, 03/26/2014 – Sun, 06/22/2014 PAYNE HURD GALLERY Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the musical “British Invasion,” this exhibition highlighted twenty-three (about one-tenth) of the Museum’s extensive holdings of British Pop prints. Although pop art is most commonly associated with Americans such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, it was actually a British invention, dating to 1956, five […]
Paul Harryn: Essence of Nature
Sun, 01/19/2014 – Sun, 05/18/2014 Scheller, Rodale, and Fowler Galleries For the past decade, artist Paul Harryn has lived and created at “Arcadia,” his rural studio near the Delaware River between Upper Bucks County and the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Here, surrounded by nature, he has been able to focus on the development of his art: paintings, […]
Assemblage: Contemporary Fiber Art
Wed, 11/27/2013 – Sun, 05/04/2014 Goodman Gallery This exhibition in Goodman Gallery featured stunningly singular artworks by six regional fiber artists who integrated various forms of media to achieve powerful results. Peggy Hobbs’s horsehair sweater, titled Inside Out (1980s), and Linda Friedman Schmidt’s dramatic Run Riding Hood (2005) are two examples of contemporary fiber art that challenges expectations and convention. Regina Miller, Barbara Schulman, Ted Hallman, and […]
American Wildlife Art
Sun, 09/29/2013 – Sun, 12/29/2013 Scheller and Rodale Galleries An exceptional exhibition of animal-themed works by American artists filled Scheller and Rodale galleries fall 2013. American Wildlife Art included sensitive studies of individual subjects as well as dramatic scenes of life-and-death struggle played out before the backdrop of the great outdoors. Like the encyclopedic hardcover book of the same […]
Drawing on Character: The Art of Children’s Graphic Novels
Sun, 09/29/2013 – Sun, 12/29/2013 Art Ways Interactive Family Gallery This selection of original artworks by illustrators Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle, Simon and Schuster), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Scholastic), Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy, First Second), and Matt Phelan (The Storm in the Barn, Candlewick) details the process of creating successful graphic novels, from pencil sketch to the finished page. […]
Mythological Creatures in Textiles
Sun, 08/18/2013 – Sun, 11/17/2013 Goodman Gallery This exhibition showcased textiles, accessories, and notions that depict fantastical creatures, gods, and goddesses and their adventures. Different cultures and time periods were explored as mythology and symbolism were revealed. Showcased at the entrance to Goodman Gallery was one of the prizes of our permanent collection: a Japanese futon cover […]
Hidden Treasures: American Photography from the Museum’s Collection
Sun, 08/18/2013 – Sun, 12/08/2013 Payne Hurd Gallery An exciting selection of photographs from our vaults–most of which had never been displayed–was featured in Payne Hurd Gallery fall 2013. Focused on American gelatin silver prints from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this exhibition showcased the strength of our photography collection. The Museum’s photography collection began with a […]
The Armory Show: A Centennial Tribute
Sun, 06/30/2013 – Sun, 11/17/2013 Trexler Gallery One hundred years ago, the International Exhibition of Modern Art, or Armory Show, radically altered the reception and production of modern art in America. Opening on February 17, 1913, in New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory, the exhibition was the largest yet of its kind to exhibit works of American […]
Toulouse-Lautrec and His World
Sun, 06/02/2013 – Sun, 09/01/2013 Scheller and Rodale Galleries The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley was thrilled to be one of the first venues outside of Europe—and the closest to Philadelphia and New York—to host Toulouse-Lautrec and His World. This popular exhibition was on loan from the collection of the Herakleidon Museum in Athens, Greece, and […]
South Asian Temple Art
Sun, 06/02/2013 – Sun, 12/29/2013 Fowler Gallery The mystical Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist religions highlight compassion, wisdom, and internal reflection. These attributes have been personified by artists in sculptures of metal, terra cotta, wood, and stone. Meditational deities, temple dancers, and enlightened beings will be on exhibition in Fowler Gallery beginning June 2. The works range in […]
Illusions in Ink: Photorealist Prints
Sun, 05/26/2013 – Sun, 08/11/2013 Payne Hurd Gallery From a distance they look like photographs. Close up, it is clear that they are actually serigraph prints that were painstakingly rendered to look like photographs. Photorealism — also known as hyperrealism, superrealism, and the new realism—is a type of painting, printmaking, and sculpture that originated in the United […]
The Beautiful Bodice: Fashions from the 1890s
Sun, 05/05/2013 – Sun, 08/11/2013 Goodman Gallery In the 1890s, women’s fashions were changing dramatically. The bustle was disappearing from day dress, and tailored jackets and gored skirts were all the rage. The Gibson Girl look was very popular: puffy-sleeved shirt, floppy bow or cravat, long flowing bell skirt, and swept-up hair beneath a feather-topped hat and […]
Shades of Pale: Contemporary American Painting
Sun, 02/17/2013 – Sun, 08/14/2016 Fuller Gallery Light-colored palettes have appeared in American art since the middle of the nineteenth century, when painters rendered sunlight to signify God’s presence in nature. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American tonalists captured delicate nuances of light using “blond” palettes. In their winter landscapes, light reflected off of […]
The Lerner Contemporary Glass Collection
Sun, 02/03/2013 – Sun, 04/21/2013 Fowler Gallery In conjunction with the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (AACG), the Allentown Art Museum joined the nationwide celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the development of studio art glass in America. This exhibition was culled from the collection of glass collectors and Museum patrons Elaine and Leslie Lerner. Now a […]
Haitian Art from The Rodale Family Collection
Sun, 02/03/2013 – Sun, 04/21/2013 Rodale The Museum was honored to exhibit approximately forty paintings by artists of Haiti. The exhibition was on display in the Rodale Gallery, an appropriate location given that the entire collection was acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rodale in 1986 from Jacques Lauriac, the founder of Partners for Development in Washington, […]
Fabulous Flappers: Fashion from the Ellie Laubner Collection
Sun, 02/03/2013 – Sun, 04/21/2013 Scheller EXTENDED THROUGH APRIL 21! This Scheller Gallery show transported you to the vibrant era of prohibition, speakeasies, and the wild and carefree Charleston. Fabulous Flappers: Fashion from the Ellie Laubner Collection addressed our fascination with the 1920s. This retrospective exhibit included exquisite evening gowns draped in beads, silky-soft lingerie, elegant embroidered shawls, and […]
Fabric of Life: Pennsylvania German Textiles
Sun, 01/13/2013 – Sun, 04/07/2013 Goodman Pennsylvania folk culture was on display in the Museum’s Goodman Gallery in Fabric of Life: Pennsylvania German Textiles, a showcase of the thrifty and decorative use of fabric in the everyday life of the “Pensilvany Dietsch.” This exhibit examined the effect of the integration of local Anglo-American influences and mass produced printed […]
Stephen Althouse: The Tools
Sun, 12/16/2012 – Sun, 05/12/2013 Payne Hurd A resident of Rebersburg, Pennsylvania, Stephen Althouse developed a passion for Amish artifacts and culture during his childhood in rural Bucks County. This exhibition featured photographs of handmade tools called Die Waerkzeichen, in Pennsylvania Dutch—that are attributes of Amish humility and simplicity. In his work, Althouse drapes the tools with shrouds […]
Franz Kline: Coal and Steel
Sun, 10/07/2012 – Sun, 01/13/2013 Scheller Gallery Franz Kline (1910–1962), one of the most celebrated artists of the modern era, was born in northeastern Pennsylvania in the midst of the anthracite coal revolution. His Pennsylvania roots, however, have been largely unknown—until now. This exhibition, curated by Dr. Robert S. Mattison, the Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art […]
Walker Evans & The American Social Landscape Photographers
Sun, 10/07/2012 – Sun, 01/13/2013 Rodale Walker Evans’s landmark photographs of Easton, Bethlehem, and other nearby locations were part of his work that changed the course of photographic history, especially in America. In the 1930s, Evans created these and other images as part of federally sponsored programs that hired photographers to document America during the Great Depression. […]
Flights of Imagination: Ceramic Sculpture with William Tersteeg
Sun, 09/09/2012 – Sun, 12/02/2012 Payne Hurd Gallery William Tersteeg’s one-of-a-kind ceramic sculptures are wheel thrown or slab built, then altered and incised to create environmental motifs and images. They are hand glazed and multifired in the raku method, which allows for a broad range of subdued color, purified by fire. The result is an object intended […]
The Paisley Pattern: Woven Shawls from Asia to Europe
Sun, 09/09/2012 – Sun, 12/30/2012 Goodman Gallery Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, The Paisley Pattern showcased the exotic and luxurious paisley shawls of India and Europe. Kashmir shawls were prized above all others for their light weight, warmth, natural sheen, and meticulously intricate designs. It could take several weavers over a year to complete a single shawl, […]
At the Edge: Art of the Fantastic
Sun, 06/03/2012 – Sun, 09/09/2012 Scheller Gallery, Rodale Gallery, Fowler Gallery “All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination?” –Carl Jung The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley was pleased to showcase an exhibition that introduces contemporary fantastic art to the museum setting. At the Edge: […]
Victor Stabin–Daedal Doodle: An Extraordinary Journey through the Alphabet
Sun, 06/03/2012 – Sun, 09/09/2012 Art Ways Inspired by reading many, many “ABC” books to his young daughters, his love of words and his incessant doodling, artist Victor Stabin set out to create a book that would smash the “ABC” status quo. He ultimately read through 8,000 pages of dictionaries culling obtuse words to create alliterations that he illustrated […]
Antonio Carreño: Sequence of Thoughts
Sun, 06/03/2012 – Sun, 02/03/2013 James C. Fuller Gallery With the exhibit, visitors experienced the mystical and entrancing abstractions of Harrisburg resident Antonio Carreño. Born in the Dominican Republic, Carreño attended the National School of Fine Art in its capital of Santo Domingo. In the 1980s, he immigrated to the United States, furthering his studies at the […]
Clare Leighton: Rural Life in the 1930s
Sun, 05/20/2012 – Sun, 09/02/2012 Payne Hurd Gallery Clare Leighton (1899-1989) was an accomplished illustrator, author, painter and wood engraver. Leighton was born in England, where she received the majority of her artistic training. After her formal studies, she traveled throughout Europe where she sketched landscapes and peasant workers. In 1939, captivated by the diversity of the […]
Flora & Fauna: Needlework Landscapes
Sun, 05/13/2012 – Sun, 08/26/2012 Goodman Gallery Flora and Fauna: Needlework Landscapes features the Embroiderers’ Guild of America’s (EGA) America the Beautiful tapestry and needlework from the Museum’s permanent collection. America the Beautiful was funded through the Lehigh Valley chapter of the Guild. Judy Jeroy, past president of the EGA, designed the tapestry, that consists of five panels that depict indigenous […]
Nolan Benner Paintings
Sat, 04/21/2012 – Sun, 05/27/2012 Trexler Hall Nolan P. Benner, Jr. (1922-1998) was best known for painting landscapes with a bold and vibrant palette. Born and raised in the Lehigh Valley, this locale remained a major source for Benner’s paintings throughout his life. As a member of the Lehigh Art Alliance and Bethlehem Palette Club, Benner made […]
Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present
Sat, 02/11/2012 – Sun, 05/13/2012 Scheller Gallery, Rodale Gallery, Fowler Gallery Learn more about the exhibit by watching Who Shot Rock & Roll here! This exhibition, organized by the Brooklyn Museum in New York with guest curator Gail Buckland, provided visitors with visual access to some of the biggest names in the music industry over the past 50 […]
Lydia Panas Photos
Sat, 02/11/2012 – Thu, 04/26/2012 Fuller Gallery The evocative portraits that form the core of the photographic work of award-winning photographer Lydia Panas are subtle personality studies, whether of individuals or groups. They create a precarious intimacy with the viewer and encourage a search for the complex personalities of the subjects that lie beneath the surface image. […]
Walter Baum & His Circle: 250th Allentown Anniversary/200th Lehigh County Anniversary
Sun, 02/05/2012 – Sun, 05/13/2012 Payne Hurd Gallery The 250th Anniversary of Allentown/200th Anniversary of Lehigh County made 2012 a year to celebrate in the Lehigh Valley. The Allentown Art Museum participated in this celebration with the exhibition of works by artists who were associated with the well-known artist Walter Emerson Baum, or with his classroom instruction […]
Gothic to Goth: Embracing the Dark Side
Sun, 01/29/2012 – Sun, 04/29/2012 Goodman Gallery It might be said that death, art, and fashion went hand in hand in America in the nineteenth century. The death of George Washington in 1799 spurred an outpouring of public mourning that found expression in a new genre of art that encompassed memorial paintings, prints, public monuments, mourning kerchiefs, […]
Cooking with Color: Playing with Design
Thu, 12/01/2011 – Sun, 01/15/2012 Art Ways Interactive Family Gallery “For me, cooking with color and playing with designs are deeply rooted traditions that still nourish, inspire and delight.” – C. Gunkel Visitors enjoyed the colorful gallery space in Art Ways where the works of Cassandra Stancil Gunkel were on display. Gunkel joins centuries of artists who […]
Shared Treasure: The Legacy of Samuel H. Kress
Sun, 10/16/2011 – Sun, 01/15/2012 Kress Gallery & Scheller Gallery (loaned portion) The museum reopened its galleries by welcoming the return of art from the Kress Collection to its walls with Shared Treasure: The Legacy of Samuel H. Kress, a special exhibition that celebrated the 50th anniversary of this important gift. The exhibition honored the vision and philanthropy of […]
Majestic Vision: Lee Butz Photography
Sun, 10/16/2011 – Wed, 11/30/2011 Trexler Hall Inaugurating one of the new galleries at the Allentown Art Museum was an exciting presentation of the work of local photographer and Lehigh Valley business owner Lee Butz. His large-format and deeply saturated color photographs capture some of the most poignant as well as most magical moments from the many […]
Mapping the World: 18th-Century Visions
Sun, 10/16/2011 – Sat, 12/31/2011 Fuller Gallery A 1982 gift from Bethlehem Steel Corporation provided a very fitting complement to grace the grand displays of Renaissance and Baroque art that celebrated the museum’s reopening. Made in Paris between 1698 and 1700, the engraved maps of the continents feature scenes of their native inhabitants, local industries, and key […]
Heaven on Earth: Textiles of the Renaissance & Baroque
Sun, 10/16/2011 – Sun, 01/08/2012 Goodman Gallery Heaven on Earth, which accompanied the exhibition Shared Treasure, provided a further introduction to the arts of the Renaissance and Baroque through a group of dramatic textiles drawn from the museum’s extensive textile and costume collection. Many of the sumptuous textiles of this period relied on the patronage of wealthy […]
Salvatore Grippi: Invented Terrains
Sun, 10/16/2011 – Sun, 01/15/2012 Rodale Gallery Salvatore Grippi (b. 1921) used everyday prosaic objects to convey an impressive sense of mystery, intensity, and surrealism in a group of drawings, collages, and paintings that were on display in the museum’s Rodale Gallery in fall of 2011. An accomplished artist with a sure and sensitive touch, whether wielding […]
Noble Impressions: Renaissance & Baroque Master Prints from the Permanent Collection
Sun, 10/16/2011 – Sun, 01/22/2012 Payne Hurd Gallery In 1966, the Allentown Art Museum established a formative educational objective to build a collection of original prints that would reflect and amplify the museum’s permanent collections as they grew over future years. The museum’s Kress Collection of Old Master paintings and sculpture provided the initial core inspiration guiding […]