Art of the Samurai: Selections from the Tokyo National Museum
April 18 – June 14, 2009

Art of the Samurai: Selections from the Tokyo National Museum features 81 objects from the Tokyo National Museum representing a wealth of artworks related to the everyday, traditional, and official role of the Samurai class of Japan. Focusing on the art and aesthetics of Samurai culture, the exhibition features a wealth of objects that are a testament to the accomplished level of society, education, and mastery of skills the Samurai developed between the 10th and 20th centuries. Included are beautifully crafted swords, armor, tea-ceremony utensils, screen and scroll paintings, Noh theatre costumes, and other fine works. This outstanding collection dates primarily to the Edo period (1603–1868) with many pieces classified as Important Cultural Property and National Treasures of Japan.

Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings
July 12 – August 23, 2009

Featuring 35 rare etchings by Rembrandt Van Rijn made between 1629 and 1654, Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings focuses on a subject the artist frequented his in his formative years: the beggar. Rembrandt’s images document and humanize the vagrant population living in 17th century Dutch society that considered these individuals repulsive and outcast. Often using biblical subjects and narratives, Rembrandt draws parallels in many of the etchings between the plight of the homeless and derelict, and figures such as Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Each etching on paper executed in a style closer to drawing than engraving portrays individualism, character and emotion of each figure rendered, beckoning the viewer’s empathy and compassion.

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero
September 13 – December 6, 2009

Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s unique style is recognized and renowned world-wide for the voluminous forms and sensuous figures found within his painting, sculpture and works on paper. Botero’s observations and portrayals often take on religion, politics, and history as subject with an equally critical and comical approach. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero includes over 100 paintings, sculptures and drawings dating from the 1950’s to present. Compiled from Botero’s personal collection, this is an opportunity to view many never exhibited works that the artist reacquired or never parted with. Themes such as faith and contemporary life in Latin America, early works and sculpture, and still-life portraits, and subjects that reference European art history, are presented in eight separate sections. Using a broad range of media, the Colombian-born Botero has created a world of his own, one that is at once accessible and enigmatic.

LATITUDES: Latin American Masters from the FEMSA Collection
September 13 – December 13, 2009

This exhibition features a selection of paintings from leading Latin American beverage company FEMSA’s prestigious collection of more than 1,000 modern and contemporary works of Mexican and Latin American artists. This thematic exhibition explores the 20th century art movements and styles of Cubism, Portraiture and Landscapes, Identity, Mexican Muralism, Surrealism and Abstraction, and includes works by many noted artists, including Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Wilfredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jesús Soto, and Rufino Tamayo.

The exhibition is organized by FEMSA and has been traveling throughout South America. This is collaboration between the Bowers Museum, FEMSA, and the Mexican Consulate.

Spirits and Headhunters
2010

Photographer Chris Rainier guest curates this exhibition of artwork from Papua New Guinea. Spirits and Headhunters presents the interconnectedness and inseparability of man, nature, art, and spirit which exists throughout the diverse cultures of the pacific island. By combining Rainier’s personal black and white documentary photographs with objects from the Bowers Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition provides a very intimate look at the native people of Papua New Guinea and explores the daily and ceremonial lives of tribal rituals, customs surrounding mourning and loss, portraits of warriors, hunters and dancers, and a rare look within spirit houses where decisions affecting the entire village are made and male initiation rites take place.