Current & Future
Click on the images below to learn more about the exhibitions.
April 17 – October 24, 2021 | GROH GALLERY
Joshua Johnson: Portraitist of Early American Baltimore
On view through January 2022 | GROH GALLERY
Face to Face: Portraits from the 18th and 19th Centuries
June 26 – September 19, 2021 | BOWMAN AND KERSTEIN GALLERIES
Bernini and the Roman Baroque: Masterpieces from Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia
November 14, 2021 – January 30, 2022 | BOWMAN GALLERY
Ongoing Exhibitions
SCHREIBER GALLERY
European Narratives: From Medieval to Baroque
Works of art by the Old Masters form an integral part of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts’ collection. Since 1941, the Museum has actively acquired European art from the medieval to baroque periods. Through the vision of the WCMFA’s leaders and staff and the generosity of its donors, the important legacy of building such a collection for the edification and enjoyment of the public continues. In acknowledgment of the collection’s importance, the Museum received two Samuel H. Kress Foundation Curatorial Fellowship Grants from 2006–2009 that promoted research on its Old Master holdings. These awards and subsequent curatorial research have enabled the WCMFA to devote resources to studying these works and their history, thereby providing the public with a greater understanding and appreciation of their significance.
European Narratives: From Medieval to Baroque examines major trends in European painting, sculpture, and decorative art from approximately 1350–1750 in relation to their broad historical and cultural contexts. This exhibition focuses on religious subjects and portraits from the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque periods produced in Italy, France, the Low Countries, England, and Spain. Key themes of the exhibition include biblical narratives, political and social history of the European nation-states, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and allegory. This exhibition features works by artists such as Giovanni Mazone, Timoteo Viti, Gerolamo Bassano, Battista Zelotti, Pierre Mignard, and Godfried Schalcken.
SMITH GALLERY
American Narratives:1700-1920
This exhibition explores the arts of America over the course of three centuries in relation to various historical events and cultural innovations. Curated by Daniel Fulco, Ph.D., the Museum’s Agnita M. Stine Schreiber Curator, American Narratives: 1700-1920 examines the creative expression of its diverse peoples. A nation, society, and culture that have been shaped by both immigrants and Native Americans, the artworks on view are derived primarily from the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts’ collection and are combined with selected loans from other cultural institutions. Thematic groupings in this and adjoining galleries feature historical subjects, portraits, and landscapes ranging in date from 1770–1920. Some of the major subjects and themes of the exhibition include the colonial period and the American Revolution, the Federal era, the Civil War, and Reconstruction through World War I. American Narratives features works by artists such as Benjamin West, Charles Wilson Peale, Sarah Miriam Peale, Edward Hicks, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Church, Thomas Birch, Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, and Charles Ethan Porter. In support of this exhibition and the American art galleries refurbishment, the WCMFA was awarded grants from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, the Maryland Historic Trust, local foundations, and private contributors.
SINGER MEMORIAL GALLERY
Singer Collection
The Singer Memorial Gallery was established in 1949 by the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts’ founder, Hagerstown native Anna Brugh Singer (1873–1962), as a tribute to her husband, the artist William Henry Singer Jr. (1868–1943), son of a Pittsburgh steel magnate. For most of their adult lives, the Singers lived abroad in the Netherlands and Norway. William Singer was a landscape painter, best known for his impressionistic portrayals of the dramatic Norwegian countryside. Anna Singer shared her husband’s passion for art, and together they assembled a noteworthy personal collection with strengths in American impressionism, Hague School works, nineteenth-century French paintings and sculpture, and decorative arts and furniture from Europe and Asia. As their tastes broadened, the Singers expanded their holdings to include outstanding works by 19th-century French artists ranging from Barbizon School painters such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot to Realist Gustave Courbet and sculptor Auguste Rodin. Anna Singer eventually donated a significant portion of their collection to the museum she and William had founded in 1931, the Museum.
Organized by Guest Curator Hollis McCullough, this exhibition highlights the Singers’ diverse collection and conveys the story of their lives as American expatriates and art collectors, while presenting compelling and significant works reflecting American, Dutch, and French trends of the late nineteenth-century. It is both a testament to their personal tastes and times, and an enduring gift to the city of Hagerstown, Anna’s beloved hometown. In support of this exhibition and gallery refurbishment, the WCMFA was awarded grants from the Alice Virginia and David W. Fletcher Foundation, the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, and the Nora Roberts Foundation.
DECORATIVE ARTS GALLERY
Art of World Cultures & Decorative Arts
This gallery presents a selection of art objects produced by peoples of the Americas, West Africa, India, Iran, China, and Japan. This installation also features a selection of American and European decorative arts including Tiffany and Steuben glass, Meissen Porcelain, Redware pottery, and Wedgewood ceramics.
RINEHART GALLERY
Art Glass
This exhibition explores a century art glass production in France, Austria, Italy, and America from the 1880s–the mid-1950s. Drawing upon the WCMFA’s holdings of Tiffany, Loetz, Gallé, Lalique, Daum, Steuben, and Bellotto objects, Art Glass surveys a range of styles including the Aesthetic Movement, Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession, and Art Deco.
For more information about the Museum’s exhibitions, please call 301-739-5727 or email info@wcmfa.org.
