Henry Freedman: Imagining New Worlds

August 8 - September 21, 2013
Paxson Gallery

This exhibition presents innovative collages and assemblages by Missoula artist Henry Freedman. Freedman’s art, like that of assemblage pioneers Joseph Cornell and Kurt Schwitters, combines “the formal austerity of Constructivism with the lively fantasy of Surrealism.” Freedman is professor emeritus of art history from Keene State College in New Hampshire. His art work references a vast knowledge of art history, passion as a collector and love of travel. Freedman takes advantage of the spontaneity of collage as an art form, relying on the Surrealist technique of irrational juxtaposition. Collage is sometimes referred to as the poetry of the commonplace, but Freedman’s art incorporates toys, letters, photographs, fine art prints, books and other objects.

Five Collections

August 8 - September 21, 2013
Meloy Gallery

This exhibition features the breadth and strength of local collections from in and around Missoula. Collecting is defined as “a group of objects or an amount of material accumulated in one location, especially for some purpose or as a result of some process.” Designed to complement Henry Freedman’s collages and assemblages, this exhibition highlights outstanding local collections and focuses on issues related to assembling objects together in a collection.

Figurative Modernists: Picasso, Chagall and other Masterpieces from a Private Collection

October 3, 2013-February 8, 2014
Meloy Gallery

Modern painting and sculpture by important 19th and early 20th century artists. The checklist is still being finalized, but selections could include work by Jean Arp, Giorgio De Chirico, Sonia Delaunay, Barbara Hepworth, Fernand Léger, André Masson, Jean Metzinger, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso and Georges Rouault. Selected works illustrate the importance of the figure as a development of the avant garde through Surrealism, Art Deco, Fauvism, Constructivism Cubism and Expressionism.

Modernist Prints

October 3, 2013-February 8, 2014
Paxson Gallery
This exhibition combines works from the MMAC Permanent Collection with select loans to highlight seldom-seen etchings and lithographs from important Modernist artists as a complement to the Figurative Modernists: Picasso, Chagall and other Masterpieces from a Private Collection exhibition.

The Japanese Woodblock Print: An Extension of the Impermanent
NINGYÔ: Antique Japanese Friendship Dolls from the Edo Period
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               February 20 - April 19, 2014
Paxson and Meloy Galleries

This exhibition was organized by Nathan Barnes of the Carr Gallery in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It travels under the auspices of the Museum and Art Gallery Directors Association (MAGDA). The exhibit is comprised of original woodblock prints from late 18th to the early 20th century. The prints are on loan from the George and Claire Louden collection, who were employed by National Geographic and the United States Foreign Services. The Loudens studied and photographed foreign lands and cultures, organizing exhibitions for United States Embassies abroad. Included in this exhibit are works by Japanese masters such as Toyokuni, Hiroshige, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, Koson Ohara and Hiroshi Yoshida, among others. The exhibit includes a number of colorful triptychs, single prints, epic scenes comprised of multiple prints and the oversized works of French immigrant Paul Jacoulet as well as Hiroyuki Tajima.

This is Not A Silent Movie: Four Contemporary Alaska Native Artists
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum in collaboration
with the Anchorage Museum, tour sponsored by WESTAF     
                                                                                                                     
May 1- July 5, 2014       
Meloy Gallery 
        
This exhibition centers on four Alaska Native artists who create contemporary installation-based work that explores gender, memory, experience, race, nationality, and cultural heritage. While each artist addresses their personal responses to being “Native,” between them they represent a multitude of cultures and communities. The artists are Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Susie Silook, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and Nicholas Galanin, who was just awarded a USA Artist’s Fellowship.