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The exuberant 20-century ceramic artist Clarice Cliff famously said, in response to critics, “Having a little fun at my work does not make me any less of an artist, and people who appreciate truly beautiful and original creations in pottery are not frightened by innocent tomfoolery.&#8221;
Drawing from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, along with gifts from the Tamara and Michael Root collection of studio ceramics, this exhibition at the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis showcases the delights and talents of women in the fields of modern and contemporary industrial design and craft. The exhibition features examples of design from Cliff as well as British silver designer Kate Harris, American inventor Marion Weeber, and prolific designer Eva Zeisel. Studio ceramics include works from important American ceramic educator Laura Andreson, Finnish contemporary artist Kirsi Kivivirta, and clay sculptor Karen Karnes, among others. The exhibition is on view in twenty cases in the ground-floor concourse and skyway levels of the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis.
Wells Fargo Center Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. &#8211; 5 p.m. 
Generous support provided by:  <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-69398" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png" alt="" width="85" height="85" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 85w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 32w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 50w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 64w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 85px) 100vw, 85px" />

A Little Fun at My Work: Women in Design and Craft

Rajput paintings evoke many moods and senses. They tell stories about the beliefs, desires, myths, poetry, and power that shaped the royal Rajput courts of northern India during the 16th to 19th centuries. Rajput artists chose subject matter that was meant to engage all of our senses (taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight) and elicit emotional responses—an aesthetic experience known as rasa. Love, laughter, fury, compassion, disgust, horror, heroism, wonder, and tranquility are the nine rasas of Indian aesthetics and offer one way to interpret Rajput paintings.

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A watercolor painting of over 10 people watching a thunderstorm approach. Some people are inside and some are on a balcony.

Painted Poetry: Art of the Rajput Courts

Yōzō Hamaguchi (1909–2000) was a master of color mezzotints, a technique that allowed printmakers to reproduce complex details of an artwork. Photography had rendered it obsolete by the 1900s, but Hamaguchi revived the technique after encountering it during a stay in Paris in the 1930s. There, he met American poet e.e. cummings, who gifted him a tool to achieve the signature tones in mezzotint. In the 1980s, Hamaguchi paid homage to the poet with the “e.e. cummings suite” of prints titled with lines from the poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town.”
This exhibition explores how Hamaguchi transformed the ordinary into the uncanny, featuring prints generously donated by Charles and Robyn Citrin and Bill and Roberta Stein.
This exhibition is presented in two parts:
<ul>
<li data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Part I: November 27, 2024–July 20, 2025</li>
<li>Part II: August 2, 2025–April 5, 2026</li>
</ul>

abstract painting of wavy green, pink, and blue lines against a black background

2023.101.8

And More by More They Dream Their Sleep: Mezzotints by Yōzō Hamaguchi Part II

This exhibition presents vibrant artworks created during 12 Vitality Arts workshops for adults 55 and better that took place this year. Vitality Arts workshops spark creativity, make meaningful connections, and celebrate participants as artists vital to our community. These workshops encourage older adults to tap into their creativity while connecting with others and the museum’s collection. 
The participants, guided by professional teaching artists, explored a variety of artistic mediums, honing their skills and discovering their creative voices. From drawing and portraiture to watercolor, acrylic, collage, weaving, and pastels, this exhibition celebrates the unique talents and vision of each student. Diverse community partnerships are also a vital part of the Vitality Arts program at Mia, helping us invite older adults of all backgrounds to experience the joy of making art.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-115288" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-855x196.png" alt="Logos for E. A. Michelson Philanthropy and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, sponsors of Vitality Arts " width="440" height="101" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-855x196.png 855w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2000x459.png 2000w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-385x88.png 385w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-768x176.png 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-1536x352.png 1536w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25143917/Vitality-Arts-Sponsor-Lockup_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2048x470.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px" />

photograph of three paintings hanging on the wall

Vitality Arts: A Celebration of Creativity, Connection, and Community

Daoism, one of China’s major belief systems, envisions a universe guided by harmony and natural order. Emerging as an organized religion after 100 CE, Daoism developed sacred texts, temples, and a celestial pantheon. Among its vivid rituals are embroidered priestly robes—chiefly the sleeveless jiangyi and the long-sleeved daopao. These garments, rich in cosmic symbolism, feature diagrams of paradise, sacred mountains, phoenixes, and zodiac animals. Worn during rituals, they transform priests into embodiments of the cosmos.
Drawn from Mia’s collection, this exhibition reveals the spiritual depth, artistic brilliance, and ritual significance woven into these rare Daoist robes.

Photograph of an outstretch Daoist robe with long sleeves, with white fabric at the cuffs and beige fabric with orange, yellow, and brown embroidery on the body

Threads of the Way: Daoist Priest Robes from China’s Qing Dynasty

This exhibition centers on Egon Schiele’s haunting and rarely seen masterpiece, Sawmill (1913), on loan from a private collection. A mill, located on the boundary of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is surrounded by piles of freshly cut timber, but itself seems to be in a process of collapse. The mill can be read as a symbol of the empire, which in 1913 was in a precarious state as its provinces demanded autonomy. The exhibition represents two outcomes for the sawmill’s timber: a wooden bridge in another painting by Schiele and avant-garde wooden furniture, created mostly by Schiele’s friend and mentor, the designer Josef Hoffmann.

Abstract painting of a sawmill surrounded by dark green landscape and distant dark gray mountains

Timber! Art and Woodwork at the Fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

“Gatsby at 100” explores how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby shaped—and was shaped by—the visual art of his time. This exhibition brings together works from Mia’s collection that embody the decadence, excess, and social upheaval of Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, highlighting paintings, books, and works on paper that are rarely on view. Like Fitzgerald, artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Fernand Léger, and Henri Matisse, as well as regional artists like Wanda Gág and Clement Haupers, endeavored to capture the contradictions of the Jazz Age, a term coined by Fitzgerald himself.
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To mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library is convening a variety of programs that invite us to revisit the book and consider how its themes apply today.
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The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library

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Lithograph of a woman in a black dress reclining on a sofa set against a yellow background

Gatsby at 100

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.

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

The exhibition “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico” celebrates one of the greatest 19th-century landscape painters in the Americas. Trained at the prestigious Academia de San Carlos, Mexico&#8217;s fine arts academy, Velasco became an influential figure in his home country of Mexico, much like his contemporaries Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Church in the United States. His impressive panoramic views of the Valley of Mexico—home of modern-day Mexico City—are painted with exquisite detail, honoring both the country’s rich historical heritage and the rapid modernization it underwent in the late 1800s.
Organized by the National Gallery, London, and Mia, the exhibition showcases paintings coming from renowned museums in Mexico and the Czech Republic. It offers an unprecedented opportunity for Mia’s audience to view Velasco&#8217;s works, as many have seldom been displayed outside their home countries.
<h2>Access Art Your Way</h2>
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Look for the “C” symbol next to artworks in the gallery. With your phone, simply tap the icon to view label information in the format that works best for you, whether that’s translation into 136 languages, large-print text, or other accessible options.
Please note: This accessibility feature is available exclusively for this exhibition.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-113411" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-855x111.png" alt="lockup of sponsor logos" width="723" height="94" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-855x111.png 855w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-2000x259.png 2000w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-385x50.png 385w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-768x99.png 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-1536x199.png 1536w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07111531/Velasco_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-2048x265.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" />
</div>
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This guide highlights a selection of Velasco’s paintings featured in the exhibition. Use the discussion prompts and activities to look closely at the paintings and think about some of the ideas that were so important to Velasco and his art.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teacher-resources/exhibition-guide-jose-maria-velasco"><button class="background-black">Go to Guide</button></a>

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painting of a valley in Mexico, with ridges of brown, yellow and green, and a lake and snow-capped mountains in the distance

José María Velasco: A View of Mexico

Step into the splendor of Cambodia’s Khmer Empire in &#8220;Royal Bronzes: Cambodian Art of the Divine,&#8221; a groundbreaking exhibition in collaboration with the Guimet – National Museum of Asian Arts, France, and the National Museum of Cambodia. While Angkor’s monumental stone temples are world renowned, this exhibition highlights the empire’s exquisite bronze artistry—statues, ritual objects, and artifacts that reveal a fascinating blend of artistic mastery, religious devotion, and royal power.
Featuring more than 200 objects, including a colossal sculpture of the Hindu god Vishnu—a Cambodian national treasure—this exhibition offers an unprecedented look at Khmer bronze craftsmanship brought to light through recent archaeological discoveries. Witness the enduring legacy of Cambodia’s sacred metallurgical traditions and their profound cultural significance.
<a href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/0198af28-0f9f-de55-ebe8-962395d8c8bb" 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.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-115694" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-855x428.jpg" alt="logos of sponsors for the exhibition" width="581" height="291" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-855x428.jpg 855w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-2000x1000.jpg 2000w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-385x193.jpg 385w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-768x384.jpg 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-2048x1024.jpg 2048w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/23152439/ADV253062_Royal-Bronzes_Sponsor_Lockup-V8-Approved-PlusV2_WEB-800x400.jpg 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 581px) 100vw, 581px" />

Mia members at all levels can see the exhibition free on Member Days: Sunday, December 14, 2025; Thursday, January 1, 2026; Saturday, January 10, 2026; and Saturday, January 17, 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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Learn about Cambodian history and copper metallurgy, and prepare your students for a visit to the special exhibition.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teacher-resources/teachers-guide-royal-bronzes"><button class="black-background">Go to Guide</button></a>

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Discover the story behind one of Cambodia’s greatest treasures: the monumental bronze statue of the Hindu god Vishnu, reclining on the serpent Ananta. This statue, dated from the second half of the 11th century, was first unearthed at Angkor’s West Mebon temple in 1936. But its secrets have remained untold—until recently.
<a href="https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962?video=1136977395" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="black-background">Watch Video</button></a>

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Learn more about the exhibition. Pierre Baptiste from the Guimet – National Museum of Asian Arts, France highlights masterworks in the show, archaeological discoveries, and scientific breakthroughs that shed new light on bronze production under the Khmer kings.
<a href="https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962?video=1130987695" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="black-background">Watch Video</button></a>

Cambodian Masterpieces from Phnom Penh and Paris

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https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962?video=1130987695

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.
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Family day is a free monthly event for families, filled with hands-on art activities, gallery hunts, and more. Join us to celebrate Cambodian culture with dance performances and a metal stamping workshop.
Sunday, December 14, 2025 
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
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Mia&#8217;s Young Adult Night is for individuals age 18 to 26 who love art, free food, and chill vibes. Enjoy a special evening that includes live music and free access to the exhibition.
Thursday, November 13, 2025 
6–9 p.m.
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Meet at Mia is a free Thursday evening event for adults, filled with live music, art making, and more. Watch traditional Cambodian dance performances, learn about metal casting, and enjoy free access to the exhibition.
Thursday, November 13, 2025 
5–9 p.m.
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Watch Ragamala Dance Company brings to life the gods and goddesses of Hindu mythology. The performance intertwines music, movement, and poetry rooted in South Indian tradition that resonates across cultures.
Saturday, November 8, 2025 
2–4:30 p.m.
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Ragamala Dance Company Presents Moving Bronzes

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Join us for a special reception to celebrate the exhibition and experience the beauty of Cambodian heritage while connecting with the Minnesota Cambodian community.
Thursday, November 6, 2025 
5–8 p.m.
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Join us for an evening designed just for educators and discover what’s new at Mia. Get a first look at current exhibitions, including free admission to &#8220;Royal Bronzes,&#8221; and discover new classroom-ready learning resources.
Thursday, October 30, 2025 
4:30–6:30 p.m.
<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/educators-evening-gatsby-velasco-bronzes"><button class="black-background">Learn More</button></a>

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bronze sculpture of a reclining Vishnu showing his face with two arms bent at the elbow

Royal Bronzes: Cambodian Art of the Divine

“In the Presence Of” presents four key artworks, all on loan to Mia, by the renowned Cambodian-born artist Sopheap Pich. Buddha 3 (2010), Caged Heart (2009), Upstream 2 (2011), and Rang Phnom Flower (2015) evoke key moments in Pich’s practice and his engagement with Cambodian culture, history, and nature.
The artist transforms rattan, bamboo, and burlap into arduously made, yet delicate sculptures that gesture to, rather than replicate, his chosen subjects. His embrace of these natural materials alludes to Cambodia’s recent histories, through his childhood memories there, as well as his eventual return as an adult.

Photo of a mound of woven bamboo orbs and tubes amassed together

Sopheap Pich: In the Presence Of

Bergen, a vital Hanseatic port, nurtured a centuries-long silversmithing tradition shaped by global trade and European influence. This exhibition traces the craft’s evolution from the Baroque period of the early 17th century to the early 20th century, culminating in the Viking Revival of the late 18th and 19th centuries—a period of national awakening inspired by archaeological finds and Norse mythology.
Notable are the fantastical silver Viking ships by Marius Hammer, a master of the revival style, blending historical motifs with dazzling craftsmanship. Alongside bridal crowns, tankards, and domestic wares, these works reflect how Norwegian silversmiths expressed identity, wealth, and cultural pride through silver across eras of profound artistic transformation.
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in collaboration with KODE and Mia.

small silver and enamel sculpture of a Viking dragon boat

Crowning the North: Silver Treasures from Bergen, Norway

When we photograph a landmark, we zoom in to capture a detail. We pan out to better document the expanse of a vista. We might even include a person as a reference for scale.
Drawn entirely from Mia’s collection, the artworks in “Site Lines: Photographing Historic Spaces” reveal how photographers have chosen to document historical sites since the 19th century. What emerges are conventions that cut across countries and time, providing us insight into photography’s role in determining the history and meaning of built environments around the world.

Photograph of the Sphinx, partially excavated, in the foreground and one of the great pyramids in the background

Site Lines: Photographing Historic Spaces

Amy Usdin portrays the continuous cycle of life and entropy in her fiber art. Her exhibition explores the blurred lines between past and present, emphasizing our fragile ties with each other and the earth while advocating for the stewardship of both.
With a BFA in graphic communications from Washington University in St. Louis, Usdin spent years as an art director before starting her studio practice in 2018. She&#8217;s exhibited widely, including prestigious surveys that represent the diversity and breadth of contemporary craft and fiber art. Usdin&#8217;s work has been published in Fiber Art Now’s Excellence in Fibers, and she&#8217;s received multiple awards and grants from the Surface Design Association, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Usdin is a 2024 recipient of the Stone &amp; DeGuire Contemporary Art Award from Washington University, the 2024–2025 Minneapolis College of Art and Design–Jerome Fellowship, and the 2025–2028 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship.
This exhibition is part of the <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>, celebrating 50 years in 2025.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

view of a room with a hanging sheer textile in neutral shades with three small display tables places in front

Amy Usdin: After All

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

In the 1830s, Scottish artist David Roberts journeyed through Egypt, capturing its monumental temples, tombs, palaces, and timeless landscapes with dramatic vision. Trained as a theatrical scene painter, Roberts conveyed romantic grandeur and scale like few before him, balancing accuracy with artistic imagination.
His on-site drawings were later transformed into hand-colored lithographs and published in the landmark series The Holy Land, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (1842–1849). With the invention of photography in 1839, these prints, widely celebrated in their day, became the last of the great hand-made views of Egypt.

view into an Egyptian temple hall lined with colossal carved statues of pharaohs, buried up the knees in sand, with a small group of men in Arab dress gathered at the center of the hall

Calendar

Sunday, December 10, 2023

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Featured Events

Public Tours

“José María Velasco: A View of Mexico” Public Tours

“Royal Bronzes” Public Tour

Royal Bronzes Member Days

Family Day

Art & Wine After Dark

Art & Dining After Dark

Meet at Mia

Minneapolis Institute of Ice

Studio Sessions

Institute of Hearts 2026

Calendar

Sunday, December 10, 2023

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Ongoing Exhibitions

A Little Fun at My Work: Women in Design and Craft

Painted Poetry: Art of the Rajput Courts

And More by More They Dream Their Sleep: Mezzotints by Yōzō Hamaguchi Part II