Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Visit
  • Exhibitions & Events
  • Art & Design
  • Give
  • Search

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum
A print made up of Greek pottery shards colored blue, orange, green, and tan. Each shard shows a piece of a different scene or pattern and all of the shards fit together to make the print.
Ruby Sky Stiler, Shards. Museum purchase with funds from an anonymous donor

Fantasy, Myth, Legend

Imagining the Past in Works on Paper since 1750
December 16, 2023 - June 2, 2024
A print made up of Greek pottery shards colored blue, orange, green, and tan. Each shard shows a piece of a different scene or pattern and all of the shards fit together to make the print.
Ruby Sky Stiler, Shards. Museum purchase with funds from an anonymous donor

Introduction

History is not just a set of facts; it is also a collection of narratives passed down through time and across cultures. Infused with fantasy, these narratives often reflect the desires, fears, and values of the people who tell them. This exhibition explores how artists from different backgrounds and moments in time have engaged with Western European historical narratives from prehistory through the medieval era. Across these works, artists look to the past for different purposes, from the promotion of nationalist myths and gendered ideals to the critique of colonialism and related cultural prejudices. Viewers are invited to question the supposed mysticism of prehistoric monuments, the assumed universality of ancient Greek and Roman cultures, and the romanticism of medieval narratives and religious architecture. What accounts for the continued appeal of these fantasies, myths, and legends into our own time? And how can art help us to reimagine and remake these legacies in the future?

Curated by 

Sarah Mirseyedi (SM), Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; and Regina Noto (RN), Brown PhD 2026, History of Art and Architecture; with assistance from Gabrielle Patrone (GP), IFPDA / Mellon Summer Intern 2023

Sarah Mirseyedi

RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.

Exhibition images

Events

A print made up of Greek pottery shards colored blue, orange, green, and tan. Each shard shows a piece of a different scene or pattern and all of the shards fit together to make the print.

Fantasy, Myth, Legend

Imagining the Past in Works on Paper since 1750
December 16, 2023 - June 2, 2024
  • Think and Drink

Think and Drink

Fantasy, Myth, Legend
May 23, 2024 / 6-7:30 pm

More Events +

Selected Objects

James McBey

Night in Ely Cathedral

Andrea Chung

And fortunately completely unchanged

Lindsay Starbuck

Let’s Get Medieval

Hubert Robert

Antique Ruins with Figures

Steve Mendelson

#30

Paul Woodroffe

He stood still in wonder and delight

Clifford Wright

Boy and Tiny Knight

Gerardo Suter

Pages of Days (Tonalamatl)

Exhibition Checklist

Fantasy, Myth, Legend : Imagining the Past in Works on Paper since 1750

December 16, 2023 - June 2, 2024
View Checklist pdf
View Checklist pdf
Download

/

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use