DAYTON, OH.- The Dayton Art Institute will offer a diverse schedule of special exhibitions in 2009 in celebration of the museum’s 90th anniversary. The exhibitions range from dynamic glass by one of America’s leading artists to unseen treasures from the museum’s own collection to modern art from the Smithsonian.

WILLIAM MORRIS: Myth, Object and the Animal
February 21 – May 31, 2009

William Morris is regarded as one of America’s most gifted and innovative glass artists. He lives in the Pacific Northwest where he originally worked as Dale Chihuly’s gaffer (lead glassblower) in the early 1980s and where he has since maintained his own studio.

Morris’s work has been strongly influenced by his interest in archaeology and ancient pagan cultures. It addresses the timeless relationship between humans and their environment and evokes images from a time when man was more in tune with nature.

The exhibition, WILLIAM MORRIS: Myth, Object and the Animal, will include the artist’s Canopic Jars and Medicine Jars as well as large-scale installations such as Cache, a 36-foot-long sculpture of more than 100 life-sized glass elephant tusks intermingled with the glass bones of ancient hunters.

“William Morris’s powerful works in glass are at once visually stunning and thought provoking in addressing the human condition,” explains Janice Driesbach, Director and CEO of The Dayton Art Institute. “I am delighted we have the opportunity to host this exhibition as the museum opens its 90th anniversary year. The exhibition promises to engage and delight visitors and to allow new understandings of contemporary approaches to glass, which we are fortunate to have well represented in our collection.”

90 TREASURES

July 3 – September 6, 2009

In celebration of The Dayton Art Institute’s 90th anniversary, the museum will highlight 90 treasures in the museum’s galleries. These works will be designated with a special label, so visitors may learn more about each of these works as they tour the museum.

A selection of 90 rarely seen treasures from the collection will also be displayed in the museum’s special exhibitions wing. Among the paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs and textiles are objects that have never been publicly displayed or have not been seen in years. Many of the works in the exhibition, such as photographs, prints and textiles, are normally kept in storage due to their delicate nature and sensitivity to light.

90 TREASURES is the first exhibition organized by Will South, The Dayton Art Institute’s new chief curator.

MODERN MASTERS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
October 17, 2009 – January 10, 2010

This exhibition features 43 paintings and sculptures by 31 of America’s most celebrated artists who came to maturity in the 1950s. Featured artists include Jim Dine, David Driskell, Sam Francis, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Louise Nevelson, Anne Truitt and Esteban Vicente.

The exhibition examines the complex and varied nature of American abstract art in the mid-20th century. The decades following World War II were stimulating times for American art with artists creating abstract compositions that addressed current social concerns and personal history. Some of these artists mixed hardware-store paint with expensive artist colors and bits of paper torn from magazines, linking their work with contemporary life.