February e-bulletin

Bowdoin College Museum of Art bulletin 2.2026 header

A painting of a town in a snowy landscape

The new semester is now underway, and we are excited to welcome faculty and students back to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA). We are happy to report that the floor re-finishing and re-installation projects in the upper-level galleries are progressing well. On February 3, the Assyrian, Shaw-Ruddock, Walker, and Markell galleries will reopen. The Museum’s Bowdoin, Boyd, and Rotunda galleries will reopen in March. Please stay tuned to our website for updates. We look forward to sharing these new Permanent Collection installations with you. In the meantime, please be sure to see the three new shows in the lower-level galleries: Josefina Auslender: Drawing Myself Free; Hung Liu: Happy and Gay; and From Guild to Genius: Inventing “The Artist” in Western Culture. The third of these featured exhibitions, located in the Becker Gallery, was curated by Marianna Zingone ’26, whose work on this project is highlighted in the interview below. Also, if your travels take you to Salem, Massachusetts, we recommend a new exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) about American sculptor Edmonia Lewis. It opens on February 14 and includes on loan a sculpture from the BCMA’s collection. You can learn more about that sculpture below from PEM’s curator Jeffrey Richmond-Moll.

See you at the Museum.

With warm regards,

Anne Collins Goodyear & Frank H. Goodyear III

Co-Directors, Bowdoin College Museum of Art

exhibitions

A painting of women performing labor in a barren field

Now Open

Hung Liu: Happy and Gay

This exhibition features works by Hung Liu which adapt and subvert Maoist propaganda cartoons that were published during the 1950s. In the series, Liu revisits cartoons of her youth that were published in children's books and primers (known as xiaorenshu).

A 17th century woodcut of two bearded saints flanking an image of the Virgin and Child

Now Open

From Guild to Genius: Inventing "The Artist" in Western Culture

This exhibition traces shifting conceptions of “the artist” in the Western world from the medieval era, through the Renaissance, until today. It asks how and when individual creative genius came to be prized and protected and what recognizing these historical forces might mean for the future.

spotlight

Reattributing a Portrait Bust by Edmonia Lewis

The sitter in the BCMA’s portrait bust by Edmonia Lewis has recently been identified as Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (1824-1904), as discussed by Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Ph.D., The George Putnam Curator of American Art, Peabody Essex Museum. The bust will be featured in Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone, opening Feb 14, 2026 at the Peabody Essex Museum.

news

"From Guild to Genius": A Conversation with Marianna Zingone ’26

A conversation with Marianna Zingone ’26 offers insight into the curatorial development of the new exhibition From Guild to Genius: Inventing “The Artist” in Western Culture.

Object of the Month

The Museum is pleased to announce the acquisition of Anna Boberg’s The Blue Roof [Det blå taket]. The painting both complements and expands our collection of depictions of the Arctic region.

calendar

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Reopening of second floor galleries

The Assyrian, Shaw-Ruddock, Walker, and Markell galleries will reopen after a temporary closure for renovations. Bowdoin, Boyd, and Rotunda galleries will remain temporarily closed.

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Artist Talk with Samira Abbassy

5:00-6:30 p.m. | Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center

Museum Hours

Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00 a.m.-5:00 pm | Thursday: 10:00 a.m.-8:30 p.m. | Sunday: 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. | Closed on Mondays and national holidays.

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is open to the public free of charge. The Museum is wheelchair accessible through the Pavilion entrance.

Bowdoin College Museum of Art | 9400 College Station | Brunswick, ME 04011 | 207.725.3275

artmuseum@bowdoin.edu bowdoin.edu/art-museum

Banner: Anna Boberg, The Blue Roof (Det bla taket), n.d., oil on canvas. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund.