Drawn from the museum’s collection, this exhibition investigates the relationship between literature and art, exploring the various ways fiction, poetry, plays, classical, and religious literature can be translated into images.
Artists include Thomas Nast (b. Landau, German, 1840-1902) (Shakespeare, Uncle Tom’s Cabin), Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815-1879) (Tennyson), Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975) (Mark Twain), Glenn Ligon (American, b. 1960) (Ralph Ellison/Zora Neale Hurston), Tim Rollins (American, b. 1955-2017) and KOS (Shakespeare, Harriet Jacobs), Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997) (Beat poets), Walker Evans (American, 1903-1975) (Hart Crane), Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) (artists’ books), among others.
Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815-1879), Vivien & Merlin, 1874, albumen print, Museum purchase, Ruth Sabin Weston Fund, © Julia Margaret Cameron Trust. (76.22)
For Merlin, overtalk’d and overworn,
Had yielded, told her all the charm, and slept.
Then, in one moment, she put forth the charm
Of woven paces and of waving hands,
And in the hollow oak he lay as dead,
And lost to life and use and name and fame.
—Tennyson
Select works
