Exhibitions

Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography from George Eastman House Collections
June 6 – October 11, 2009

This exhibition features over a hundred iconic images from the internationally acclaimed George Eastman House collection of Rochester, New York. Spanning more than 150 years of photography, Seeing Ourselves dramatically illustrates our country’s landscape, people, and historic events through works ranging from vast western landscapes to important documentary photographs to intimate celebrity portraits. Artists represented include such masters of American photography as Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, and more. The exhibition is the largest presentation of masterpieces of American photography ever shown in Wisconsin. More Info

Past Exhibitions

Treasures from the Frederic Remington Art Museum
January 31 – May 17, 2009

This exhibition features twenty-six original paintings, drawings, and sculptures by famed American artist Frederic Remington. A century ago, Remington was the busiest artist in America, having first made a name for himself as an illustrator of western and military subjects for widely circulated magazines of the late 1880s and 1890s. Also an accomplished painter and sculptor, Remington captured the romance of the then-fading American West through dynamic depictions of cowboys, horses, frontier cavalry soldiers, and Native American warriors. Drawn from the exceptional collections of the Frederic Remington Art Museum, in Ogdensburg, New York, this exhibition showcases the breadth and strength of Remington’s work. More Info

The Impressionist Figure
Selections from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
May 10 - October 12, 2008

Presented exclusively by the Paine Art Center and Gardens, this exceptional exhibition features depictions of the human form in French art from the 1850s through the turn of the 20th century. Highlights include paintings and works on paper by renowned Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, such as Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, and Seurat. More Info

Charles Munch
January 19 - April 13, 2008

Wisconsin painter Charles Munch uses deceptively simple forms and large areas of bold, luminous color to convey the mysteries of the natural world. Munch’s work sets figures within evocative, imaginary landscapes to explore the complex relationships between humans and nature. This exhibition features an impressive selection of recent, large-scale paintings installed as a series in the Paine’s Main Gallery. More Info

Fashion in Film: Period Costumes for the Screen
May 12 – September 30, 2007

The exhibition features thirty-six period costumes worn by movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Gwyneth Paltrow in major motion pictures, from critically acclaimed films Dangerous Liaisons and Sense and Sensibility to blockbusters Indiana Jones and Titanic. The Paine’s presentation of the exhibition uniquely sets the elaborate costumes within the grandest rooms of the historic mansion. More Info

Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Quilts, and Beyond
January 20 – April 15, 2007

These amazing quilts by a community of African American women in Alabama have captured the art world’s admiration and acclaim, with recent exhibitions at major museums across the nation praising their strikingly innovative and boldly colored, abstract designs. The New York Times hailed them as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.” The quilts are also currently featured on a set of U.S. postage stamps. The Paine’s exhibition highlights one of Gee’s Bend’s most original artists, Mary Lee Bendolph. More Info

The Inspired Line: Selected Prints of Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn from the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art
November 10, 2006 - January 7, 2007

Though Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) and Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (Dutch, 1601-1669) created their artwork a century apart, connections between their prints are significant, intriguing, and often remarkable.  More Info

Electric Tiffany
June 3 - October 8, 2006

This extraordinary exhibition features fifty original lamps created by the studios of renowned American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. Produced between 1895 and 1920, the magnificent lamps show the full spectrum of Tiffany's inspired use of the new invention of electric light. More Info