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Introduction

Drawing Conclusions

January 22 - September 25, 2016

Visual art—like storytelling—communicates meaning, but rarely does an artwork hold a single meaning. A great pleasure of art is that each viewer brings her or his own experience to a work, often revealing many ways to interpret it.

Drawn from the Museum’s collection of works on paper, this exhibition explores the multivalence of narrative in contemporary art. It presents a diverse collection of works that tell stories, blending the public and personal, the real and fictional. Whether serving as a stage for surreal dreaming or a site to ponder history and identity, each artwork draws on an expanded understanding of narrative and the forms it can take. We invite viewers to draw their own conclusions.

The exhibition was organized with the help of Emilia Mickevicius, PhD candidate at Brown University, and Jagdeep Raina, MFA candidate at RISD, both assistants in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

Selected Objects

Raghubir Singh

Men with Popsicles, 1984

Marlene Dumas

White Lies, 2001

Marcel Dzama

Untitled, 2005
No Image Available

Larry Day

The Venus Society: An Entertainment in Eight Episodes, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No.1: The Foundations, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 2: The Establishment of Ritual, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 3:The Discovery of Another Society, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 4: The Other Society's Base, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 5: The Struggle for the Uncommitted, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 6: The Search,Atonement, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 7:The Merger, ca. 1967

Larry Day

No. 8: The Dance, ca. 1967

Shahzia Sikander

Embark Disembark V, 2004

Faith Ringgold

Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 2008

Charles Avery

Untitled (Man Gathering Carmine), 2012

Robyn O'Neil

How He Left Them, 2006

Robyn O'Neil

This Has Changed Him, 2006

Chris Ofili

After the Dance, 2006

Faith Ringgold

Under the Blood Red Sky, 2007

Alison Saar

Black Snake Blues, 1994

Kara Walker

A Special Attraction, 2014

Kara Walker

Whip, 2014

More objects +

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