A pop art-inspired piece featuring a stylized figure with traditional Japanese features looking suspiciously at a cooking pot. In the background, the shadow of a woman holding a ball is visible through a grid of bars, with vibrant colors and bold lines.

What’s New Curatorial Conversations

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As a follow-up to 2018’s popular collections exhibition A Decade of Collecting, JSMA’s curators present newly acquired works as well as recent and planned gifts in honor of Jill Hartz. This special exhibition doesn’t just unveil many exciting recent acquisitions. We’ve installed these works to instigate thematic dialogues between cultures and across time, both for our own curatorial explorations and for you.

We invite you to explore such questions as: How might art be used to celebrate differences or entrench biases? Does language help us communicate or create confusion? What meanings can be ascribed to the female body and do they change depending on their American, Asian, European, or Latin American contexts? Can the pull of religion remain powerful even when it is not your own or when treated with humor? What does it feel like to be made complicit in an act of war?

Oval mixed media portrait of a Chinese woman on a red background with paint dripping. Offshoots from a stabbed heart on the right side lead to written Chinese characters.
Hung LIU (born 1948)
Chinese; 2012
Heart II
Mixed media
H. 60 x W. 41 inches
2018:25.24
Gift of Artist Hung Liu and Trillium Graphics/David Salgado
A surreal painting of a boomerang floating above various objects, including a bust and a portrait of a woman in historical attire. The dark background adds to the mysterious atmosphere.
Doris Lee (American, 1905-83)
The Wall of the Museum of Modern Art, ca. 1940
Oil on canvas, 46 x 54 inches
Gift of Steven Platzman & Julie Dowling and Joseph & Deborah Goldyne; 2017:27.1
A dark, abstract painting with a deep blue background. The artwork features swirling lines and shapes, suggesting a chaotic and dynamic scene.
Michael Schultheis (American, born 1967)
Arcs of Apollo 03, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
Gift of the Estate of Richard E. Bartow; 2016:50.16