Exhibitions

<h1 style="font-size: 2.75rem;">Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes</h1>
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Photographers have long focused upon the human form: Heads, shoulders, knees, toes, and more can convey meaning through the smallest of gestures. Drawn from Mia’s permanent collection, all of the photographs in this show invite us to revel in the wonder of corporeal nature.
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On view

Yoshida Hodaka (1926–1995) was born into a family of artists. He was the second son of Yoshida Hiroshi (1876–1950), a leading Western-style artist in Japan during the early 20th century. Hodaka leaned toward abstraction and began exploring that path after his father&#8217;s death in 1950. In 1953, Hodaka married Chizuko (1924–2017), a trained painter. In addition to oil painting, both Hodaka and Chizuko worked in the woodblock print medium. In 1992, Hodaka created a set of six extraordinarily large prints that depict walls with great attention to structural features and surface details. This exhibition showcases the entire wall set together for the first time, along with Chizuko’s abstract works and playful groups of butterflies.

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abstract image: layers of bright orange and bright red loops and curlicues over brown circles extending from the upper left across to the lower right of the painting; bright blue, orange, brown, red, and tan squares throughout; horizontal bright blue narrow rectangles almost dance across the image.

The Abstract Worlds of Yoshida Hodaka and Chizuko

This exhibition explores the intimate world of Chinese fan painting—where poetry, calligraphy, and painted images converge in the palm of the hand. Featuring circular silk fans from the Song and Yuan dynasties (10th–14th centuries) and folding fans from the Ming and Qing period (14th–early 20th centuries), these works reflect centuries of refined aesthetic practice, personal expression, seasonal contemplation, and spiritual reflection.
Whether created by court artists or literati scholars, each fan carries the rhythm of the brush and the breeze: a fleeting moment captured in ink. Drawn from Mia’s rich collection, the selected fans invite viewers to experience how art, nature, and verse were held—literally and symbolically—in one’s grasp.

fan mounted as an album leaf; two fishermen at sea during a storm; rocks and bending trees in foreground lower right, fishermen at lower left, bamboo behind boat with a mountain range in the distance

Ink Rhythms on the Breeze: The Art of Chinese Fan Paintings

Contemplative, humorous, inventive, and surreal. These are just a few of many apt descriptions of the artworks of the Japanese artist Kenji Nakahashi. His active imagination, curiosity for his immediate environment, and embrace of the mundane provided endless inspiration and subjects for his art, inviting questions and reflections about life and everyday objects.
Born and educated in Japan, Nakahashi moved to New York City in 1973 at the age of 26, finding in the bustling metropolis the creative stimuli that would sustain his practice for the rest of his life. Best known for his concept-driven photography, Nakahashi actively experimented with a diverse range of mediums, including drawing, painting, collage, and printmaking. Relying on absurdity, visual and textual puns, and unusual juxtapositions, Nakahashi’s enigmatic images encourage viewers to contemplate both the strange and captivating aspects of everyday life.
Blending playfulness and intellectual vigor, Nakahashi often toyed with viewer’s expectations, depicting such mundane objects as street signs, drinking glasses, a hot-water bottle, and analog clocks in unfamiliar or even surreal contexts. Other subjects include storefronts, subway platforms, soaring skyscrapers, and mysterious fictional landscapes. He routinely flattened and fragmented the built environment of the city and its inhabitants into abstract geometric and kaleidoscopic forms, resulting in images that surprise, challenge, and delight.
Celebrating a recent anonymous gift of Nakahashi’s work to Mia’s collection, this exhibition showcases more than 60 photographs, prints, drawings, watercolors, collages, and one painting, representing the artist’s career from the 1970s through the early 1990s.

Two identical round clocks placed on opposite trays of a metal balance scale. Both clocks have white faces with black numbers and hands. The clock on the left shows the time at 12:04, while the clock on the right displays 12:15.

Kenji Nakahashi: A Confident Life

For as long as there have been cameras, photographers have trained their lenses upon the human form: our heads, shoulders, knees, toes, and much more. The body is an expressive instrument, able to convey meaning through the smallest of gestures: a flick of the wrist, a purse of the lips, a bow from the waist.
Drawn from Mia’s permanent collection, all of the print photography in this show invites us to revel in the wonder of our corporeal nature—our vast capacities for communication, even in stillness, to manifest joy, playfulness, sorrow, alienation, and many other emotions through bodily signs and signatures.

Two separate photographic images forming one large image; large black-and-white image of three clasped hands at bottom center; smaller color images surrounding image of hands and handwritten notes

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Meruhen, the Japanese word for fairy tales, originated from the German word Märchen, coined in the 15th century. The word meruhen first appeared in the early 20th century among Japanese writers interested in European romanticism and children’s literature. It soon became mainstream, and fairy tales, not only of German origin, remain popular today.
Several print artists like Kawano Kaoru (1916–1965) and Minami Keiko (1911–2004) presented fairy tale settings in their work, depicting young girls in innocent, dream-like scenarios, interacting with birds or other animals. This exhibition showcases their work along with prints by Kanamori Yoshio (1922–2016), Hori Hikaru (1952–2019), and Suzuki Atsuko (born 1968).

The illustration shows a stylized figure standing on a hill, holding a staff. Next to the person is a small dog. The hill is covered with curved, dotted lines creating a stippled pattern. To the left, a cluster of sheep is also depicted using similar lines. In the upper background, a sun with radiating lines is visible. The entire image is monochromatic, with shades of beige and light brown.

Meruhen: Japanese Prints of Fairy Tales

Few people outshine Mary’s glorious stardom. During 2,000 years of veneration, many legends have augmented the biblical outlines of her life. The stories have provided rich inspiration for artists, who often made their best efforts to create beautiful and affecting images of the Blessed Mother, Virgin, Mother of God, Our Lady, Madonna, Queen of Heaven.
This exhibition traces the life of this modest, yet courageous woman through prints and drawings from Mia’s extensive collection. They show her doing the ordinary—caring for children, moving house, and picnicking—and the extraordinary—greeting royalty and physically rising to heaven.

Black and white drawing depicting two figures, Mary and Joseph, seated in a forest-like setting with trees and bushes. Both are wearing flowing garments, and Mary is holding a child.

Mary

This exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and religious images from the collection of Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad, a longtime trustee and supporter of Mia. Living between Minneapolis and Palm Springs, California, the collector has built a collection that reflects California as a place where American and Latin American cultures intersect.
Blending depictions of the arid landscapes of the American West with works by artists of Latin American descent—many of whom have lived or worked in the United States—the collection offers a lens through which to understand the region’s cultural interplay. Artists such as Diego Rivera, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, and Miguel Covarrubias invite viewers to consider the resilience and creativity that emerge from these crossings, where geography and identity continuously shape one another.

abstract painting of a woman's face with expressive eyes and gray-brown hair and swirls of orange, red, and brown colors in the background

Meeting Point: The Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad Collection of Latin American Art

What is physically the largest Italian Renaissance masterpiece in the United States? The answer has been in storage at Mia for nearly 70 years.
This exhibition brings back to view Francesco Salviati’s tapestry depicting the meeting of Dante and Virgil at the beginning of the Inferno. Over 17 feet tall, the tapestry was created to cover an entire wall of the Palazzo Salviati in Florence and was woven in the 1540s at a workshop established by the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici.
Thanks to a grant from The European Fine Arts Foundation (TEFAF), the tapestry has recently undergone conservation, allowing it to be stabilized and safely displayed once again. Due to its sensitivity to light, however, it can only be exhibited for a limited time—making this a rare opportunity to experience the work in person.
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Max Bryant, Mia’s James Ford Bell Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, explores the tapestry’s artistic significance and the fascinating story of its conservation.
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The Tapestry of the Meeting of Dante and Virgil (1547–49) by Francesco Salviati

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Medieval tapestry depicting people and animals in a forest setting.

Back from the Underworld: Mia’s Dante Tapestry Restored

Drawing on ancient practices from the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia, Ziba Rajabi’s exhibition features textile works that explore the emotions following grief—peace, acceptance, healing, and progress. Presented with a soundtrack and cushions, the installation invites visitors to gather and experience collective reflection.
Rajabi (Tehran, Iran) was the inaugural recipient of the DAG Prize in Visual Art, DAG Foundation. She&#8217;s received additional support from the Jerome Foundation and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Her work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions, including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; CICA Museum, South Korea; 21C Museum, Arkansas; and Araan Gallery, Iran, among others. She was in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center, and Terrain Residency. She received her MFA from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and her BFA from the Sooreh University, Tehran.
This exhibition is part of the <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

Photo of a wall made up of small squares in bright red, orange, pink, and blue

Ziba Rajabi: Belly Laugh at a Funeral

Over the course of a year, a group of talented artisans in Yautepec created an intricately beaded and feathered costume known as a Chinelo as a gift to members of the Mexican diaspora in the Twin Cities. The suit, titled Immigrants, celebrates working people across national borders and highlights the essential contributions of Mexican workers in North America.
As a form of artistic resistance that emerged during the colonial period, Chinelos also embody cultural resilience. Blending Catholic and Indigenous visual traditions, elaborately masked Chinelo dancers could anonymously mock—especially during Carnival celebrations—the governing authority of European colonizers. Today, Chinelos are a popular feature of Independence Day and Carnival celebrations throughout the Mexican state of Morelos, parts of the State of Mexico, and Mexico City, especially in the boroughs of Milpa Alta, Tlalpan, Xochimilco, and Magdalena Contreras.
Through the efforts of artist and educator Xavier Tavera and the collective generosity of the artisans of Morelos, Immigrants entered Mia’s collection in 2025, ensuring future public appreciation of this one-of-a-kind work of art.

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colorful mosaic illustrating a variety of workers engaged in different activities, including construction, food service, and agricultural work.

“Immigrants”: A Gift from Morelos to Mia

In the 1957 movie Funny Face, Audrey Hepburn tells Fred Astaire, whose character is based on the photographer Richard Avedon, to “Take the picture! Take the picture!” This memorable scene homes in on the importance of the sitter and photographer relationship in determining when the moment is just right to take a photograph.
This exhibition draws mainly from Mia’s photography collection and from across the medium’s history to explore different types of portraiture. The selection includes artworks in which performance, collaboration, and experimentation are at the core of their making—and others when chance proves pivotal to depicting someone’s likeness.

Black and white photo of a dresser with a portrait, bottles, and figurine

Take the Picture!

Exhibiting Forgiveness

María Berrío: Songlines

Cream of the Crop: The Second Harvest

Paris Couture

Bare Bones: Skeletons in Japanese Art

Breaking Tradition: The Avant-Garde in Japanese Ceramics, 1948 to 1990

Gilles Peress: The Northern Ireland Conflict, 1968–1998

Rotem Tamir: Latitude 33°

Quiet Visions: Chinese Album Painting from Ming to Qing

Artists at Work: The Mia Staff Art Show

Ovid

Dutch Art from Van Gogh to Van Breda

How can a life in art help one to heal from generational trauma? In his landmark exhibition and feature-length film “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” celebrated contemporary artist Titus Kaphar draws upon his early life and coming of age to create a transmedial and deeply personal response to that question.
Through a selection of paintings made specifically for the film, this exhibition focuses upon essential moments in Kaphar’s storyline to immerse visitors in a process of recognition, understanding, and acceptance that parallels his character’s journey to adulthood within the film.

Large painting of a house with a figure of a child pushing on its edge.

2026.16a,b

In &#8220;María Berrío: Songlines,&#8221; the Colombian artist builds monumental scenes by layering hand-cut Japanese paper onto canvas—constructing images mostly piece by piece with rare areas of painting. Figures and forms emerge through this meticulous process, creating dense compositions that shift between precision and abstraction. Bringing together close to 20 works from the past decade, the exhibition traces how Berrío draws on literature, music, and global histories to create symbolic, open-ended narratives.
&#8220;María Berrío: Songlines&#8221; is organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and San José Museum of Art.
Generous support for the national exhibition tour provided by Hauser &amp; Wirth and Victoria Miro. Mia&#8217;s presentation made possible with kind support from iArtis Foundation and Maria G Bales.

Painting of group of people gathered indoors, seated on chairs arranged in a circle. In the foreground, a person in a blue dress with intricate patterns and a fur collar lies back on an armchair, eyes open. To the left, a person bends over a container, preparing something. Several other individuals sit closely together, some holding papers and others interacting or playing games.

Come enjoy crop art without the crowds! The Great Minnesota Get-Together returns to Mia in 2026 as curators once again pick outstanding pieces from the Minnesota State Fair’s beloved crop art showcase.
Expanding on last year’s celebration, this exhibition presents more than 20 works by crop artists, featuring the five that earned the coveted “Best in Show” ribbons.

Collage of crop art from the 2025 Minnesota State Fair.

Step into Parisian luxury at Mia. &#8220;Paris Couture&#8221; brings more than 80 haute couture masterpieces from the Palais Galliera, spanning the late 19th century to today.
The exhibition features icons such as Dior, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, and Grès. Together, these extraordinary garments show couture as one of the great art forms of the modern era. You’ll see imagination matched with flawless technique and lavish materials. Get close to the details and discover how couture ateliers transformed dressmaking into high art.
The galleries create an immersive, opulent experience built for shared wonder and slow looking. It’s an ideal evening or weekend outing—only at Mia for a limited time.
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Join fellow art enthusiasts and tastemakers for an unforgettable after-hours party in the galleries celebrating the opening of the exhibition.
Saturday, October 3 
8–11:30 p.m.
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Mia members at all levels can see the exhibition for free on Member Days: Sunday, October 11; Thursday, October 29; Saturday, November 21; and Thursday, December 17, 2026; and Friday, January 1, 2027.
Not a member yet? Learn more and join today.
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Enjoy Mia in an entirely different way, with exhibition-inspired food, wine, and spirits experiences held after hours in the museum’s galleries.
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The image shows a person posing with their back to the camera. They are wearing an intricately patterned outfit. The top features yellow and black horizontal stripes and is adorned with ornate designs. The sleeves are detailed with black feathered cuffs.

Skulls and skeletons are a popular subject in Japanese art. They appear in paintings, prints, and book illustrations as secondary elements but also as primary subjects, especially with the increased understanding of anatomy in the 19th century.
This exhibition shows skeletons in a life-like, humorous manner, exhibiting a playfulness to the usually terrifying and haunting nature of skeletons. The highlight is the recently acquired pair of six-panel folding screens by Takeuchi Ryūa, a truly memorable and unique work of skeletons at play.

Skeletons with plants and lanterns on a textured background.

For many Japanese artists, the process of conceptualizing and producing an artwork underwent fundamental, widespread change after the end of World War II in 1945. The strong emphasis on continuity was abandoned by some in favor of a radical new path, previously unheard of, especially in the crafts section.
The birth of an avant-garde and formal declaration for innovations is notable throughout different media. One approach for avant-garde artists was to create sculptures instead of functional objects. In 1948, a group of five ceramic artists, among them Yagi Kazuo (1918–1979), Yamada Hikaru (1923–2001), and Suzuki Osamu (1926–2001), founded Sōdeisha, literally the Crawling through Mud Association. The Sōdeisha group was active until 1998. While more than 60 artists were members at some point, not every ceramic artist who created innovative sculptures joined. Artists like Kawamoto Gorō (1919–1986) and Morino Taimei (born 1934) preferred to work independently and pursued their own paths.
Individualism is a key factor in Japanese contemporary ceramics today. This exhibition sheds light on the beginning of the break with Japanese ceramics traditions by showcasing works from independent artists and Sōdeisha members created before 1990.
Generous support is provided by the Joan B. Mirviss and Robert J. Levine Endowment Fund for Japanese Ceramics and the Gale Family Endowment—named for a generous gift from Alfred P. Gale—which strengthens the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s efforts to reach a spectrum of audiences through a variety of programs, events, exhibitions, and publications focused on the museum’s renowned collection of Asian Art.

Cracked ceramic with textured pattern and straight lines.

Gilles Peress is one of the most esteemed documentary photographers of his generation. Born in France, Peress made his first photographic series in 1970, having previously studied political science and philosophy in Paris. He soon joined Magnum Photos, the international cooperative photography agency committed to documenting world events, people, places, daily life, and culture.
This exhibition features selected photographs Peress made in the 1970s and 1980s that bear witness to the ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland. Commonly called “The Troubles,” this political and nationalistic struggle saw the Unionist, mostly Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, who pledged loyalty to the United Kingdom, in violent conflict with Irish nationalists and republicans, mostly Irish Catholics, who sought a re-united Ireland. The violent civil unrest persisted from the late 1960s until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Peress employs a humanist aesthetic in his photographs, portraying his subjects with respect and compassion. His images reveal a poignant manifestation of the human condition, reflecting his belief that photography holds the power to illuminate human suffering and inspire empathy.

People wearing masks and holding objects in a street setting.

2009.68.9

&#8220;Latitude 33°&#8221; explores migration, inheritance, and belonging through objects shaped by displacement. Named after the cartographic line crossing North Africa and the Middle East, the exhibition traces artist Tamir’s cultural lineage.
When migration forces people to leave material possessions behind, stories, embodied knowledge, and remade craft traditions become vital vessels of cultural transmission. Within Mia, these objects exist in a state of quiet dislocation, powerfully echoing the profound, universal tensions of departure and arrival.
Tamir has exhibited at institutions including the Rochester Art Center, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the Haifa City Museum, Locust Projects, and the Harn Museum of Art, among others. She was a 2021 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship recipient and received support from the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, and an Exhibition Grant from Artis Contemporary.
This exhibition is part of the <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

Blue circular fabric sculpture next to golden Hebrew letters on wall.

This exhibition presents a rare selection of Chinese album leaves from the Ming through the Qing dynasty (14th–19th Century) from Mia&#8217;s collection. Intended for intimate viewing by hand, album leaves fostered quiet reflection and close looking. Within these modest formats, artists condensed expansive worlds into refined spaces filled with landscapes, flowers, birds, and poetic scenes.
The exhibition juxtaposes the meticulous elegance of court academy gongbi painting with the expressive freedom of literati xieyi styles. Executed on silk and paper with ink and color, these works reveal centuries of technical mastery, literary imagination, and contemplative artistic vision.

Two open books with Chinese calligraphy and drawings next to a wooden box.

Not all of the artistry at Mia comes from outside the museum—many employees are artists as well, and this exhibition spotlights their work.
The Staff Art Show was organized and curated by Team Mia, a group of museum staff devoted to cultivating a positive work environment, encouraging generosity and relationship-building among staff, providing accessible opportunities for connection and growth, and recognizing and celebrating museum employees. We are pleased to showcase the immense talent among us.

Painting of six people in an office setting with colorful attire, sitting and standing.

2018.13.1

In the year 8 CE, Roman author Ovidius Naso—a.k.a. Ovid—completed a wild, messy, wonderful poem reimagining and combining more than 250 myths. The 11,995-line tale is as elusive as its shape-shifting characters, who magically disguise themselves or are transformed into stars, animals, and plants. Eros, god of love, propels the besotted to eternal glory or embarrassment and death.
With its rediscovery, translation, and publication into multiple languages during the Renaissance, Ovid&#8217;s poem became a fountain of ideas for artists, second only to the Bible. This exhibition highlights prints exploring the myths of change found in the poem by artists such as Giuseppe Scolari and Lucas van Leyden.

Engraving depicting a story from Metamorphosis, where Actaeon surprises Diana, the goddess of the hunt, as she bathes. As punishment for his intrusion, Actaeon is turned into a stag and eaten by his dogs. The print depicts the exact moment of Actaeon’s transformation.

2024.95.1

The Netherlands played an outsized role in the emergence of modern art. Beyond Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian, most Dutch artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries remain unfamiliar to American audiences. This exhibition invites visitors to meet innovators who forged new artistic paths and expanded the possibilities of artistic expression.
Through drawings, prints, paintings, and more, discover how Dutch artists helped shape modern art across an extraordinary range of styles, from Realism and Impressionism to Symbolism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. The works on view include beloved Mia favorites alongside several recent additions to the collection.

The image is an abstract painting featuring swirling shapes and patterns in warm shades of brown, beige, and red.

L2026.41

Upcoming Exhibitions

Teen Perspectives: Yesterday and Today

Hiroshige&#8217;s 100 Views of Edo x Emily Allchurch

Year of the Horse: Hoofbeats through Time

An Indigenous Art: Huipiles from Mia&#8217;s Collection

Containing Multitudes

Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945: Masterworks from the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

This exhibition features artwork by Twin Cities high school students that explores the connection between art and wellness. The teen artists look at how mental and behavioral health, identity, and creativity have been linked over time, and how people today use creative tools to heal, express themselves, and care for their communities.
The students met with artist-mentors at Mia for seven weeks this winter. Alexandra Beaumont, Shea Maze, and BakiBakiBaki shared their experiences and approaches to art making and contributed their own works to the exhibition. Facilitator Lissa Karpeh provided art therapy directives, or prompts, to guide the creative process.
Funding for this project is provided by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, as part of its commitment to investing in community-led solutions so everyone has the opportunity to achieve their healthiest life.
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People viewing a mixed media artwork featuring two figures.

Utagawa Hiroshige&#8217;s (1797–1858) iconic landscape series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (modern-day Tokyo), first published in the 1850s, stands as one of the most celebrated collections of Japanese prints. Individual prints from this series of 118 are widely regarded as some of the finest achievements in Japanese art. Hiroshige captures locations in and around Edo during all four seasons, often from unique perspectives.
Inspired by Hiroshige’s compositions, British artist Emily Allchurch (born 1974) created “Tokyo Story” using digital collage and photography. Allchurch traveled to Tokyo in 2009 and visited places pictured by Hiroshige. While many places have changed radically and bear no resemblance to Hiroshige&#8217;s images, Allchurch photographed details of the urban landscapes she encountered through various angles and focuses.
Following Hiroshige&#8217;s compositional arrangements, dramatic cropping, and color gradations, Allchurch also manipulated details of the photographic data to create views that are at once familiar and strangely fresh. This exhibition connects the past and the present by featuring Hiroshige’s captivating sceneries along with Allchurch’s modern adaptations.

Print of a Japanese temple covered in snow with people walking around

&#8220;Year of the Horse: Hoofbeats through Time&#8221; celebrates the enduring power, beauty, and symbolism of horses in Chinese art and culture. Across millennia, the horse has galloped through China’s imagination—as chariot puller, zodiac sign, loyal companion, and poetic metaphor.
This exhibition explores the horse as both a real creature and a cultural emblem—embodying strength, status, virtue, and aspiration. From ritual bronzes to scholar’s miniatures, imperial scrolls to popular expressions, the horse reveals a rich interplay of mythology, mobility, and meaning. As we welcome a new Year of the Horse, these timeless images invite reflection on what it means to move, strive, and endure.

Derived from a Nahuatl word, a huipil is a traditional blouse worn by women throughout Mesoamerica, particularly among the Maya, since before the 16th century when the Spanish arrived in the region. The garment remains especially prevalent in Guatemala’s highland regions, where a majority of Maya descendants reside today.
Huipiles are traditionally handwoven on a backstrap loom in two or three rectangular panels, later sewn together. Decoration, motifs, and color choices serve as a visual language that uniquely identifies the wearer’s village and social standing.
The selection presented in this exhibition comes from a significant donation of textiles made to the museum by Richard Simmons and his wife. Their contribution has greatly enhanced representation of Latin American culture in the museum’s collection.

Guatemala woman's ceremonial blouse, or huipil, featuring white, red and orange colors

<blockquote>“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
&nbsp; 

—Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself, 51,” Leaves of Grass (1855)
</blockquote>
For 250 years, the United States has defined itself in terms of plurality. Its Latin motto, e pluribus unum (out of many, one), notes the interdependence of the multiple and the singular in our national conception.
This exhibition explores the diversity of American experience that photographs can hold, and the manner in which photographers have sought to “contain multitudes,” in the words of the 19th-century writer Walt Whitman, by maintaining an expansive ecosystem of images celebrating the contradictions of American life, culture, and history.

young woman wearing a turquoise tank top, turquoise and black skirt, white shoes and white beaded headdress, seated bareback on a white speckled horse, standing in front of a backdrop painted with blue sky and white clouds

In the first half of the 20th century, Germany experienced the last years of the German Empire, World War I and the revolution that followed, the liberal Weimar Republic, the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust. Modern art played an important role in the discourse of the period, and politics influenced the arts.
This exhibition features more than 70 paintings and sculptures from the collections of the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), the distinguished modern art museum of the Berlin State Museums. It traces the German experience in the visual arts over four decades.
Beginning with the Expressionist reaction and opposition to the conservative artistic regime of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the exhibition moves on to the New Objectivity movement, the modern style of the 1920s. Between the wars, German artists participated in international experiments with abstraction. Painters and sculptors critiqued social currents, but most were silenced under the Nazis. This exhibition concludes with an epilogue that examines the ambiguous aftermath of World War II.
<a href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/019be170-4164-b8ea-8658-3daeb6e02f86" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="black-background">Purchase Tickets</button></a>
Mia offers free admission to ticketed exhibitions for veterans and active-duty military and families, Minnesota WIC, MCAD students and staff, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board staff, and museum professionals. You can reserve free admission tickets by calling Visitor Experience at 612-870-3000.
Use our <a href="https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/minneapolisInstituteOfArt/exhibition/6883a787-6181-449a-a25c-da42110a78e4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">free audio guide</a> to explore the exhibition wherever you are or to enhance your visit to the museum. For the best listening experience during your visit, bring your own headsets to listen to the audio guide on your personal device.
Note: This exhibition includes depictions of nudity, scenes of war and violence, and Nazi and Holocaust imagery.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-117077" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20140451/MAAP_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_K-855x142.png" alt="lockup of sponsor logos for the Modern Art and Politics exhibition" width="614" height="102" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20140451/MAAP_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_K-855x142.png 855w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20140451/MAAP_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_K-385x64.png 385w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20140451/MAAP_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_K-768x128.png 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20140451/MAAP_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_K-1536x256.png 1536w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20140451/MAAP_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_K.png 1539w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px" />

Mia members at all levels can see the exhibition for free on Member Days: Thursday, March 12; Tuesday, March 31; Thursday, April 9; Saturday, April 18; Friday, May 15; Sunday, June 7; Thursday, June 18; and Wednesday, July 8, 2026.
Not a member yet? Learn more and join today.
<a href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/b1f97274-08d7-6122-801b-4182fe5d7c54" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="black-background">Explore Membership</button></a>

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Enhance your visit with a free audio guide that uncovers the bold, urgent art of a nation in upheaval. Hear how artists challenged power, endured persecution, and redefined modern art in a time of revolution and war.
<a href="https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/minneapolisInstituteOfArt/exhibition/6883a787-6181-449a-a25c-da42110a78e4" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="black-background">Listen Now</button></a>

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https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/minneapolisInstituteOfArt/exhibition/6883a787-6181-449a-a25c-da42110a78e4

Join us for a free public tour of the exhibition and gain deeper insight into the pieces in the exhibition. Note: The tour is free, but you need a ticket to enter the exhibition.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/modern-art-politics-public-tours"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

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Learn about the exhibition’s main themes and artworks, and prepare your students for a visit.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teacher-resources/educator-guide-modern-art-politics"><button class="black-background">Go to Guide</button></a>

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https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teacher-resources/educator-guide-modern-art-politics

Highlighting the influences and antipathies among art, politics, identity, and censorship, this book brings together more than 70 painting and sculptures from the distinguished modern art collections of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
<a href="https://shop.artsmia.org/collections/exhibition-catalogues/products/modern-art-and-politics-in-germany-1910-1945-masterworks-from-the-neue-nationalgalerie-berlin" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="black-background">Purchase Book</button></a>

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Join us for a free workshop that uses art as a classroom resource for exploring the Holocaust and other genocides.
Friday, June 26 
10 a.m.–4 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/teacher-workshop-teaching-genocide-through-art"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

Teacher Workshop: Teaching Genocide through Art

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Experience the special exhibition through the artist’s lens. In this five-part series, Mia teaching artists will help you explore the creative periods reflected in the exhibition.
Saturday, March 14, 10 a.m.; Saturday, April 11, 10 a.m.; Saturday, May 9, 10 a.m.; Saturday, June 13, 10 a.m.; and Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/studio-sessions-modern-art-politics"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

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Vision and Voice, Mia’s event for young adults, is your stop for chill vibes, good food, and amazing art. Plus enjoy free access to “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945.”
Thursday, April 9 
6–9 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/vision-and-voice-young-adult-night"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

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https://new.artsmia.org/event/vision-and-voice-young-adult-night

Join Mia and The National WWII Museum for a free educator workshop exploring the powerful connections between art, history, and culture.
Saturday, March 14 
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/educator-workshop-art-politics-german-history"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

Educator Workshop: Art, Politics, and the History of Germany in Turbulent Times

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https://new.artsmia.org/event/educator-workshop-art-politics-german-history

Join us for an evening designed just for educators, featuring free admission to the special exhibition, new classroom-ready learning resources, light refreshments, and time to connect with colleagues.
Thursday, March 12 
4:30–7 p.m
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/studio-sessions-modern-art-politics"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

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https://new.artsmia.org/event/educators-evening-modern-art-politics

Mia welcomes experts from the University of Minnesota for a lively talk about the intertwined nature of politics and aesthetics, the relationship of painting to other art forms, ambiguity in art, and the idea of the New Woman.
Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/panel-discussion-modern-art-politics"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

Panel Discussion: Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945

https://new.artsmia.org/event/panel-discussion-modern-art-politics

Join Emily Evans of the Neue Nationalgalerie for a closer look at specific works in the exhibition and stories about what happened to them between creation and joining the Neue Nationalgalerie&#8217;s collection.
Thursday, April 30, 6:30 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/guest-speaker-emily-evans-case-studies-modern-art-politics-germany"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

Emily Evans: Case Studies from “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945”

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https://new.artsmia.org/event/guest-speaker-emily-evans-case-studies-modern-art-politics-germany

Join Irina Hiebert Grun, a curator at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (NNg), as she discusses the history and collections of the NNg and how both reflect the turbulent history of Germany in the 20th century.
Saturday, March 7, 2 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/curator-talk-neue-nationalgalerie-modern-art-politics"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

The Neue Nationalgalerie: Modern Art and Politics in Berlin

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https://new.artsmia.org/event/curator-talk-neue-nationalgalerie-modern-art-politics

Painting of a woman with black-brown bobbed hair and curls falling over her forehead wearing a black dress and holding a cigarette seated at a table in a nightclub setting with two men behind her and a champagne chiller holding an opened bottle of champagne

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Now Open

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

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