Tenth anniversary exhibition program

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU Broad Art Museum) is pleased to announce the opening of three new exhibitions coinciding with the museum’s ten year anniversary and highlighting the Zaha Hadid-designed building, the museum’s collections, and conversations between the unique architecture and the artwork within.

The roster of exhibitions includes Kahlo Without Borders, which seeks to connect museum visitors to the intimate and creative world of Frida Kahlo, and History Told Slant: Seventy-seven Years of Collecting Art at MSU, an expansive view of the collection at the museum and exploration of the role of art in spreading awareness and cultural competency throughout our communities and the world. It also includes Beverly Fishman: Recovery, a major commission that dialogues with the notion of recovery and the geometries, lines, and volumes of the MSU Broad Art Museum.

An opening celebration for these three lead exhibitions will take place on January 14, 2022 from 7–9pm.

Kahlo Without Borders blurs the boundaries between Frida Kahlo’s internal and external worlds, particularly towards the end of her life when she was a patient at the Medical Center ABC. This unexpected, interdisciplinary yet intimate approach to the worlds of Frida Kahlo will be presented as an emotional journey through images, documents, and family and clinical archives—one similar to the poignant and enthralling experience of sorting through a family scrapbook or a trunk of memories. These files bear witness to her health challenges encouraging the visitor to imagine how, from a hospital bed and through the power of creativity and self-expression, she transformed the history of art of the 20th century. 

Kahlo Without Borders is organized by Cristina Kahlo, MSU Broad Art Museum executive director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut and Javier Roque Vázquez Juárez. Further exhibition support in Mexico was provided by Nuria Sadurni and Mariana Sainz. Support for this exhibition was provided by MSU Broad Art Museum advisory board member Hari Kern, MSU Federal Credit Union Artist Studio Series Endowment, and the Eli and Edythe Broad endowed exhibitions fund. For this exhibition at the MSU Broad Art Museum curatorial assistance was provided by Dalina A. Perdomo Álvarez, curatorial assistant, and some translations were done by MSU student Cristina Alcantar. 

History Told Slant: Seventy-seven Years of Collecting Art at MSU takes cue from the great poet and literary figure, Emily Dickinson, who encourages us to “tell all the truth but tell it slant.” The exhibition breaks with conventions of the western art historical canon in order to acknowledge gaps and fissures within the MSU Broad Art Museum’s collection. Ultimately, this effort is part of the museum’s ongoing efforts to develop a more inclusive version of the history of art—one less predicated on singular, white, Eurocentric values, favoring instead a plurality of perspectives and voices to help shape the larger narratives. 

History Told Slant is organized with contributions from Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs Steven L. Bridges; SEEK Graduate Fellow Emma Creamer; former Assistant Curator Georgia Erger; former Assistant Curator Katie Greulich; and Curatorial Research and Administrative Assistants Elijah Hamilton-Wray and Thaís Wenstrom. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Alan and Rebecca Ross endowed exhibition fund. 

An artist of unparalleled vision, Detroit-based artist Beverly Fishman was selected by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum to produce a major new work as part of the museum’s 10th anniversary celebrations in 2022. The two new murals that resulted from this commission are at the heart of the artist’s solo presentation Beverly Fishman: Recovery. Taking into consideration the unique qualities of the Zaha Hadid–designed architecture of the museum, Fishman produced two new, signature works that dialogue with the geometries, lines, and volumes of the gallery, creating a truly unique artistic encounter for visitors. 

Beverly Fishman: Recovery is curated by Steven L. Bridges, senior curator and director of curatorial affairs. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Endowed Exhibitions Fund and Emma Grace Holmes Endowment. 

View all upcoming exhibitions at MSU Broad Art Museum here.