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Provenance Research

Provenance Research Project

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is participating in the nationwide effort to identify works of art that may have been illegally confiscated from their rightful owners by the Nazi regime during World War II. Committed to the responsible stewardship of its collection, the museum is conducting in-depth provenance research on a number of paintings in the permanent collection, in compliance with the guidelines issued by the American Association of Museums in 1999 and 2001.

China Blues: The World in Blue and White

Christian Siriano: People Are People

Thomas Jackson, 'Chaotic Equilibrium'

In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now

Memphis on the Mississippi (Ode to Tom Lee)

Art of the African Diaspora

Power and Absence: Women in Europe: 1500-1680

Art Builds Creativity 2023 - 2024

2024 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

Inspired Aging: Wellness and Creative Courage

Summer Art Garden: Creatures of Paradise

Andrea Morales: Roll Down Like Water

MCA at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

The Human Zoo by Kent Monkman

Black American Portraits

Sense-ational!: The Art of the Five Senses

Art Builds Creativity 2022 - 2023

2023 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

List of paintings

'Balthazar, from an altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi,' Unknown Artist (Netherlandish (probably Antwerp), ca. 1515

Provenance Research

Provenance Research Project

China Blues: The World in Blue and White

Christian Siriano: People Are People

Thomas Jackson, 'Chaotic Equilibrium'

In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now

Memphis on the Mississippi (Ode to Tom Lee)

Art of the African Diaspora

Power and Absence: Women in Europe: 1500-1680

Summer Art Garden: Creatures of Paradise

MCA at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Andrea Morales: Roll Down Like Water

Sense-ational!: The Art of the Five Senses

Art Builds Creativity 2022 - 2023

Black American Portraits

Tommy Kha: Eye is Another

2023 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

The Human Zoo by Kent Monkman

Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Opera and Ballet

Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative

Persevere and Resist: The Strong Black Women of Elizabeth Catlett

Ofrendas: Día de los Muertos Altars

Brooks Outside: Evanescent

Another Dimension: Digital Art in Memphis

Henry Ossawa Tanner: The Thankful Poor

Decorative Arts Trust: A 35th Anniversary Exhibition

Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars

Brooks Outside: RedBall Memphis

Wonder, Whimsy, Wild: Folk Art in America

Rotunda Projects: Yinka Shonibare MBE

Veda Reed: Day into Night

Red Grooms: Traveling Correspondent

2017 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

Brooks Outside: Tape Art

A Feast for the Eyes: 200 Years of American Still-Life Painting from the Hevrdejs Collection

100 Gifts for 100 Years

Coming to America: Lachaise, Laurent, Nadelman, and Zorach, 1914 - 1945

Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawai'i

2019 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

American Haiku: The Woodcuts of Ted Faiers

Bouguereau & America

Rotunda Projects: Federico Uribe

Painted Words: Poets and Painters in Print, 1869 – 1967

Natural Curiosity: Beth Van Hoesen

Renditions with Terry Adkins: Native Son (Circus)

Play Station

Ernest C. Withers: Baseball Photographs

Albrecht Dürer's "Small Passion" Series

Photography in Memphis

Claire Van Vliet: Illustrating Babel

2020 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

Native Voices, 1950s to Now: Art for a New Understanding

A Journey Towards Self-Definition: African American Artists in the Permanent Collection

Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition 2021

Brooks Outside: Pour Me Another

Faig Ahmed: Secret Garden

Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards and Exhibition

Rotunda Projects: Monika Grzymala

Paradise Lost: Albrecht Dürer's Stolen Eden

Ke Francis and Hoopsnake Press

Andy Warhol's Little Red Book

Memphis Artists in Real Time

Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds

Dia de los Muertos: Student Altar Exhibition

Mona Hatoum: Misbah

On Christopher Street: Transgender Portraits by Mark Seliger

List of paintings

'Balthazar, from an altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi,' Unknown Artist (Netherlandish (probably Antwerp), ca. 1515

March 22 - August 4, 2024

Christian Siriano: People Are People

'People Are People' honors famed American designer Christian Siriano’s electrifying contributions to fashion. Drawn from his extensive archive, the exhibition features bold creations from Siriano’s decade-plus career that celebrate self-expression for every body at every age.

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Christian Siriano prepping his 2019 Met Gala look for Janelle Monáe, Christian Siriano: People Are People, 2021, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia.

On View

Thomas Jackson, 'Chaotic Equilibrium'

Pennsylvania-based artist Thomas Jackson (b. 1971; Philadelphia) harnesses the wind and lightweight fabrics to create ethereal works of art that blur the boundaries between landscape photography, sculpture, and kinetic art.

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Thomas Jackson, 'Chaotic Equilibrium'. Photo Credit: Lucy Garrett.

October 2023 – May 2024

China Blues: The World in Blue and White

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art has recently received a generous gift of 95 spectacular works of Chinese art. The collection includes a range of objects from the Ming and Qing dynasties in a wide array of materials, including beautifully carved jades, paintings, textiles, and ceramics.

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Ongoing

In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now

Contemporary art can capture the political and cultural essence of our time while contemplating and transcending our everyday realities. As time passes, this art connects us with the defining spirit of an era, becoming a visual record of a moment.

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Rashid Johnson, 'Seascape "Milestones"', 2022 Oil on linen; 95 × 122 in. From the collection of Pitt and Barbara Hyde

Ongoing

Memphis on the Mississippi (Ode to Tom Lee)

To further build Memphis' Art Collection, the Brooks has commissioned the Memphis-based artist Carl E. Moore to create a work inspired by our soon-to-be new location Downtown on the banks of the Mississippi River.

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Carl E. Moore, 'Memphis on the Mississippi (Ode to Tom Lee)', 2022. Acrylic on canvas.

Ongoing

Art of the African Diaspora

As conversations around the African Diaspora shift and evolve, so too will this display, aided by the museum actively acquiring works that reflect these varied, global experiences.

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Ongoing

Power and Absence

This reimagining of the Schilling Gallery explores the representation of women in Europe from around 1500 to 1680, known as the Renaissance and Early Baroque period. Most of the works in this room have been made by men.

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Sofonisba Anguissola, 'Self-Portrait', 1560, oil on wood panel, Memphis Park Commission Purchase, 43.11

No exhibitions were found

January 26 - February 25, 2024

2024 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

Every year, we are honored to host what some artists have called the "championships for our young artists": the Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards. Featuring artworks by the Mid-South's best and brightest creative youths, this is a visual celebration of the Mid-South's best creativity.

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Emily Zhang, Sewing, Senior Division Best-In-Show, Drawing & Illustration, 11th grade, White Station High School, educator Wenjun Huang.

January 24 - March 17 2024

Art Builds Creativity 2023 - 2024

This dynamic exhibition features artwork created by the Memphis-area students who participated in the 2023-24 Art Builds Creativity (ABC) program.

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Photo from Dr. Elizabeth Woodard at Shelby Oaks Elementary

PAST

The Human Zoo by Kent Monkman

Experience the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s latest acquisition: The Human Zoo (2015) by Cree artist Kent Monkman (b. 1965).

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Kent Monkman, The Human Zoo, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Museum Purchase. 2022.7a-e

November 11 2023 - January 7 2024

Inspired Aging: Wellness and Creative Courage

The Inspired Aging: Art and Wellness course brings to life the many ways mindfulness and creativity can both inspire and positively impact well-being.

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August 17, 2023 - January 7, 2024

Black American Portraits

'Black American Portraits' reframes the history of portraiture to center Black American subjects, sitters, and spaces. The exhibition chronicles the many ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture to envision themselves in their own eyes.

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May 12th - July/August 2023

Sense-ational!: The Art of the Five Senses

Explore how artists convey sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch in their masterpieces. This interactive exhibit will highlight art from Memphis’s art collection ranging from floral watercolor to Cubist prints.

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Walter I. Anderson (American (active in Mississippi), 1903 - 1965), Floral Decorative, 1951, Watercolor, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery purchase, funds provided by the Memphis Park Commission, the Brooks Fine Arts Foundation and Mrs. Walter I. Anderson, 69.7.2

February 15th - April 30th

Art Builds Creativity

This dynamic exhibition features artwork created by the Memphis-area students who participated in the 2022-23 Art Builds Creativity (ABC) program.

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January 20 - February 19, 2023

2023 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

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“Kendall” by Sydney Wickens, age 18, grade 12, Arlington High School, Drawing & Illustration, Senior Division Best in Show

May 8 - October 26 2024

Summer Art Garden: Creatures of Paradise

Bask in the summer air on the museum’s plaza surrounded by vibrant and whimsical creatures at our second annual Summer Art Garden! This year’s featured artist is the Memphis-based duo Banana Plastik with their installation Creatures of Paradise, where monstrous bugs and tiny Thumbelinas relax in a fantasy landscape.

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Banana Plastik, 2024.

September 2024 - January 2025

Andrea Morales: Roll Down Like Water

Memphis-based Peruvian-American photographer Andrea Morales’s (b. 1984; Lima, Peru) portrayal of the Delta South is deeply rooted in the communities she engages with, and because of this, a truer account of this region that is often portrayed through stereotypes, misperceptions, nostalgia, and storytelling.

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Andrea Morales, Kaylin McCain and Jakayla Davis wait for their grandmother to sign up for the Affordable Care Act at Impact Baptist Church in Frayser, a Memphis, Tennessee, neighborhood, in February 2015.

Fall 2025

MCA at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

For eighty-four years, the Memphis College of Art (MCA) offered rigorous arts education to students from across the country and around the world. To celebrate the illustrious history of the college, in 2025 the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art will open an exhibition with works by faculty, administrators, and graduates.

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Nazi-Era Research

Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi Party systemically persecuted and stripped Jewish people from Nazi-occupied Europe of their possessions. These objects were looted, sold, dispersed, or destroyed. The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art began Nazi-Era provenance research in 2002, focusing on all European paintings in the permanent collection that transferred ownership or have gaps in their provenance from 1933 to 1945.

Although we cannot conclude that a work of art was looted or appropriated by the Nazis simply because it has incomplete or unverified information in its provenance, gaps do indicate that more robust research must be conducted. Many times, these gaps in provenance are the result of lost or destroyed gallery records, or the requested anonymity of a past owner. Several of the museum’s paintings have been researched and their provenance has been established, while others continue to be investigated.

The American Association of Museums has developed a Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal which provides a searchable registry of objects in United States museum collections that fit the criteria discussed above.

In allowing public access, we join with the international art museum community in the diligent search for items seized or looted during the Nazi era. If you have any inquiries or information about these items, please contact the museum at provresearch@brooksmuseum.org.

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Colonial-Era Research

Throughout history, many works of art from around the world were stolen, forcibly sold, or taken without consent as the direct result of Colonialism. The communities whose objects were taken experienced trauma, violence, and loss. Looting is not just an issue of the past. These problems persist globally due to war, riot, shifts in government, organized crime, terrorism, and natural disasters and, unfortunately, looted objects emerge on the art market to this day.

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is committed to not only investigating the history of objects in our collection with possible links to Colonialism, but also to ensuring that all incoming acquisitions and gifts have a verified past that align with our ethical obligations.

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