Photographs Moroccan-born, New York-based photographer Lalla Essaydi (b. 1956) explores issues surrounding the role of women in Arab culture and their representation in the western European artistic tradition. Her large-scale photographs are based on nineteenth-century Orientalist paintings, but work to subvert those stereotyped and sexualized representations. Aside from their timely and provocative subject matter, Essaydi’s photographs are technically impressive. Behind…

20th-Century Parisian Art Journals Defining Modernism: 20th-Century Parisian Art Journals features a selection of original prints and covers from leading modernist art journals chosen mainly from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. Published in Paris in the mid-twentieth century, these lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, and stencil prints were products of a remarkable collaboration between publishers and artists including such renowned talents as Pablo Picasso,…

Whether driven by artistic or commercial impulses, or simply by the attraction of a romantic adventure, the group of artists represented in Romantic Views traveled to Mexico from Europe and the United States over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and were integral to the development of Latin American landscape art. Including nearly 30 works from…

Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861 – 2008 Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008 is the first major museum exhibition to explore the lure of this legendary playground through the lens of art. Composed of more than 100 objects, both celebrated icons of American art and rarely seen works, this exhibition will include paintings, drawings, prints, posters and…

American photographer Gregory Crewdson is best known for his uncanny images of deceptively serene suburban life.  Using Hollywood film techniques and elaborate sets, Crewdson creates what he calls “frozen moments”: meticulously staged scenes whose narrative meaning remains a mystery.  Throughout this series, special attention is paid to light.  The twilight setting favored by the photographer functions as a metaphor, an…

The Art of Music The Art of Music presents a multifaceted and culturally diverse exploration of the intersection between music and art.  This exhibition celebrates the centennial of Balboa Park, home of the San Diego Museum of Art, paying tribute to the daily musical performances held in the park during the yearlong 1915 Panama–California Exposition. Throughout history and around the globe, music…

Artist and architect James Hubbell has been a creative force in Southern California since the 1950s. An accomplished artist whose work can be seen internationally, Hubbell moved to California in 1958, and began building the home that he and his wife still occupy near Julian. Hubbell’s influence on the artistic culture of San Diego transcends his work as a painter,…

Exhibition extended two additional weeks. Closes May 31. When Harry Sternberg (1904-2001) settled in Escondido in 1966, he left a stellar East Coast career behind him. The prominent critic Carl Zigrosser considered him “the very embodiment of a passionate idea,” whose work “unites two forces seldom contained in one artist: … intellect and strong feeling.” Combining realism with aspects of…

Exhibition extended two additional weeks. Closes May 31. The Brazilian-born artist’s black-and-white photographs are among the most influential images of our time—capturing the grim realities of industrialization in developing countries, the toll of warfare and the degradation of the natural environment. The artist’s quest to capture nature in its unspoiled original state culminated in 2013 with the publication of Genesis, a portfolio of…

The San Diego Museum of Art is proud to present six stunning new paintings, created specifically for the Museum by acclaimed contemporary Chinese artist Pan Gongkai. The most prominent of the works presented, at over 45 feet long, exemplifies the combination of classical brush and ink techniques and format in a contemporary context. Created with ink on rice paper, the…