Nasher Museum Celebrates Summer with Art, Dance, Music, Food

This summer, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University will present four new exhibitions and a series of free programs, including gallery talks, craft and drawing sessions, contemporary dance, guest chefs in the café, live music, book discussions and more.

“Our summer exhibitions, from old masters to young emerging artists, offer something exciting for every visitor,” said Sarah Schroth, interim director and Nancy Hanks Senior Curator of the Nasher Museum. “We are proud to present programs -- our widest variety ever -- that encourage people with many interests to come visit us.”

The museum’s original traveling exhibition, “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,” is on view through July 21. The accompanying catalogue is now available at the Nasher Museum Store. The 176-page book includes many images that highlight the most important and iconic works Mutu has created since the mid-1990s. It also portrays the installation at the Nasher Museum, which includes new collages, a monumental wall drawing, videos and selections from the artist’s sketchbooks. The catalogue includes scholarly essays by Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum, art historian Kristine Stiles and critic and musician Greg Tate, paired with an illustrated chronology of Mutu’s work.

For the first time, the American Dance Festival (ADF) brings a 2013 season performance to the Nasher Museum with “This Land Is Your Land” by Seattle choreographer and ADF faculty member Mark Haim on June 25 and 26.  The work, which debuted in Paris in January, is set to a country music score and is based on a simple, continuously mutating walking pattern with 14 performers. Tickets are $15 and available from Duke University Box Office online or by phone, 919-684-4444.

More than 70 works of art spanning six centuries are featured in “The Human Position: Old Master Works from the Collection,” opening June 20. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the 14th through the 19th centuries, all from the Nasher Museum’s collection and rarely on view. Artists include European old masters, including Italian Renaissance and baroque painters such as Titian’s contemporary Bonifacio de’Pitati, Spanish court painters Vicente Carducho and Francisco Rizi, French neoclassical artists François Gerard and Merry-Joseph Blondel, master printmakers Dürer, Callot and Rembrandt, and many more. “The Human Position” is on view through August 26.

A contemporary installation, “The Cinematic Impulse,” explores the relationships between cinema, visual art and culture. Artists use a variety of visual strategies to recognize the effects of Hollywood, from photography and video art to film. “The Cinematic Impulse” includes works by Isaac Julien, Christian Marclay, Robin Rhode, Cindy Sherman, Xaviera Simmons, Eve Sussman and more, drawn from the museum’s collections. The show opens June 29 and will be on view through Sept. 8.

An intimate group show featuring works by Pedro Lasch, Susan Harbage Page and Yinka Shonibare focuses on the human consequences of the creation and regulation of borders. The show complements the upcoming exhibition “Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space” (Sept. 19-Feb. 2, 2014). Page and Lasch examine the experience of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, documenting in visual terms the effect such journeys have on material objects and, by extension, their human carriers. Shonibare’s installation, “Scramble for Africa,” assembles 14 mannequins around a table with a map of Africa at its center. The work reimagines the Berlin Conference (1884-85) that resulted in a continent separated and parceled out among European powers, creating divisions that led to conflict and bloodshed.

“Summer Days Nasher Nights” continues every Thursday night and some Wednesdays and Sundays with guest chefs in the café, live music, wine tastings, free films and book discussions. Visitors can explore exhibitions through “Summer Make and Take,” hands-on activities on Tuesday mornings and early Thursday evenings.

The Nasher Museum, at 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street on the Duke campus, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and members of the Duke Alumni Association, $3 for non-Duke students with identification and free for children 15 and younger. Admission is free to all on Thursday nights. Admission is free to Duke students, faculty and staff with Duke Cards. Admission is also free to Nasher Museum members. 

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