Artis–Naples, The Baker Museum announced that The Baker Museum exhibitions will re-open to the public on Dec. 1 after being closed for more than two years in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Admission to The Baker Museum exhibitions will be free for the month of December. The 2019-20 season of visual arts programming will showcase highlights of the museum’s growing permanent collection and notable artworks on loan in exhibitions organized especially for the museum. Four major exhibits open at noon on Dec. 1.
The visitor experience is heightened thanks to the dramatic changes to The Baker Museum designed by New York-based Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism. A renovated and more defined entrance to The Baker Museum guides patrons into an expanded lobby space and refreshed welcome experience.
“We are excited beyond measure to reopen The Baker Museum exhibitions,” said CEO and president Kathleen van Bergen. “In a way, we are reintroducing The Baker Museum to many, and as a thank you to our community, it felt right to ensure free access to these stunning exhibitions in the month of December. We are so pleased to be once again operating with the full power of our multidisciplinary mission.”
The south expansion of The Baker Museum will open in January.
On the first floor of the museum, patrons will be greeted by selections from the museum’s permanent collection that make up the 100 Iconic Works from the Permanent Collection exhibition. Chosen for their aesthetic and historical significance, a range of selections include works by renowned Mexican modernists such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as trailblazing American artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Alexander Calder and Robert Motherwell.
On the museum’s second floor, visitors will experience Monet to Matisse: French Masterworks from the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, comprised of stunning works by some of the world’s best-known artists, including Claude Monet, Edward Degas, Pierre-August Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Camille Pissarro. In addition to works by these impressionist artists, the exhibition will feature major paintings by post-impressionist masters Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. For this exhibit, the Dixon is loaning more than 70 objects derived from the core of its permanent collection.
Visitors to the third floor will enjoy the Looking at Words: A Poetry of Shape exhibition, which features an exciting look at the use of text and words within visual art by prominent contemporary artists. Presented artists include John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Ed Ruscha, Lorna Simpson and Andy Warhol among others. These works, underscoring the power of language, come from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.
Color Field takes advantage of the reimagined outdoor spaces on the grounds of the Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus as well as a select indoor location. Color Field is a sculpture exhibition organized by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark., for The Baker Museum.
For more info, visit www.artisnaples.org
