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.

Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South
The Summer Art Garden: A Flash of Sun
Navigating Knowledge
Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet
In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now
Memphis on the Mississippi (Ode to Tom Lee)
Art of the African Diaspora
Power & Absence: Women in Europe, 1500 – 1680
2025 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards
Art Builds Creativity 2023 - 2024
2024 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards
Inspired Aging: Wellness and Creative Courage
Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy
David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water
Who You See and Who We Are: A reflection on teenage identity, culture, and change
Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides
Thomas Jackson: Chaotic Equilibrium
Starry, Starry, Winter Garden
Beyond the Surface: The Art of Handmade Paper
List of paintings
Provenance Research ProjectProvenance Research Project
'Balthazar, from an altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi,' Unknown Artist (Netherlandish (probably Antwerp), ca. 1515

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.

Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South
The Summer Art Garden: A Flash of Sun
Navigating Knowledge
Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet
In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now
Memphis on the Mississippi (Ode to Tom Lee)
Art of the African Diaspora
Power & Absence: Women in Europe, 1500 – 1680
David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water
Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy
Who You See and Who We Are: A reflection on teenage identity, culture, and change
Thomas Jackson: Chaotic Equilibrium
Starry, Starry, Winter Garden
Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides
Beyond the Surface: The Art of Handmade Paper
Summer Art Garden: Creatures of Paradise
China Blues: The World in Blue and White
Andrea Morales: Roll Down Like Water
Christian Siriano: People Are People
Thomas Jackson: Chaotic Equilibrium
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
Provenance Research Project
'Balthazar, from an altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi,' Unknown Artist (Netherlandish (probably Antwerp), ca. 1515
No exhibitions were found
No exhibitions were found

April 26th - June 8th

Who You See and Who We Are: A reflection on teenage identity, culture, and change

Every day you interact with countless amounts of people, but have you ever truly seen them for who they are? In our diverse society, it is important to celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of all identities and experiences.

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Julian Ward, Misdiagnosis, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36
Julian Ward, Misdiagnosis, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36

April 17 - November 17

Summer Art Garden: A Flash of Sun

Memphis-based artist and designer Khara Woods presents A Flash of Sun, an installation of sun-drenched shades, dazzling patterns, and geometric sculptures.

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Axis, 2021, Spray Paint on Wood Panel, 30x40 in
Axis, 2021, Spray Paint on Wood Panel, 30x40 in

March 19, 2025 - September 7, 2025

Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides

In her first solo museum presentation, Calida Rawles envisions water as a space for Black healing. Merging hyperrealism, poetic abstraction, and water's cultural and historical symbolisms, Rawles creates unique portraits of Black bodies submerged in and interacting with bright and mysterious bodies of water.

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Calida Rawles, 'Towner for Life', 2024 acrylic on canvas 72 x 102 inches 182.9 x 259.1 cm © Calida Rawles Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo by Marten Elder
Calida Rawles, 'Towner for Life', 2024 acrylic on canvas 72 x 102 inches 182.9 x 259.1 cm © Calida Rawles Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo by Marten Elder

January 24 - February 23, 2025

2025 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

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Avajayne Ortega, August 21, painting, 12th grade, Central High, James Dycus, Senior Division Best-In-Show Bill Hicks Honorarium Award
Avajayne Ortega, August 21, painting, 12th grade, Central High, James Dycus, Senior Division Best-In-Show Bill Hicks Honorarium Award

Part II: December 11, 2024 – April 28, 2025

Thomas Jackson: Chaotic Equilibrium

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

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Thomas Jackson, Tulle no. 045, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2022
Thomas Jackson, Tulle no. 045, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2022

November 22, 2024 - January 2025

Starry, Starry, Winter Garden

For the museum’s inaugural Winter Art Garden, Memphis-based artist Greely Myatt uses found objects including metal scraps, neon, and discarded signage to create Starry, Starry – an illuminated starscape on the museum’s plaza. Teasing the boundaries of sculpture through the use of flat forms, Myatt ponders and plays with line and light.

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Big Star, 2023. Photography by Selavie Photography
Big Star, 2023. Photography by Selavie Photography

Part I: September 20 - December 15, 2024 | Part II: December 20, 2024 - April 6 2025

Beyond the Surface: The Art of Handmade Paper

More than just a surface on which to paint, draw, or sketch, paper can be a dynamic art form that encourages collaboration and welcomes spontaneity. 'Beyond the Surface: The Art of Handmade Paper' explores the shape-shifting quality of paper—how it can transform from pulpy fiber into vibrant works of art through hand papermaking.

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Amy Jacobs, Coronet I, 2023. Pigmented cotton with stenciled blowout. Gift of Dieu Donné, New York, 2024.10.4
Amy Jacobs, Coronet I, 2023. Pigmented cotton with stenciled blowout. Gift of Dieu Donné, New York, 2024.10.4

September 2024 - January 2025

Andrea Morales: Roll Down Like Water

'Roll Down Like Water' features sixty-five photographs spanning a decade of work by the Memphis-based, Peruvian-American photographer Andrea Morales. Through her captivating images of the South in moments of turbulence, stillness, darkness, and beauty, Morales charts new paths in sustainable journalism, while reflecting upon identity, community, and the power of 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.
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.

Febuary 25 - September 2026

Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy

For eighty-four years, the Memphis College of Art offered a rigorous arts education to students from across the country and around the world. Through this exhibition of ninety faculty, administrators, and graduates, 'Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy' reflects on the school’s historical impact and celebrates its continued legacy regionally and beyond.

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June 10, 2026 - Sept. 2026

David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water

David Uzochukwu: Bodies of Water is a poetic meditation on identity, migration, and belonging. In his first solo museum exhibition, Uzochukwu presents hybrid beings—part human, part animal—who inhabit surreal, dreamlike landscapes. His use of nonhuman features amplifies, rather than diminishes, the strength and dignity of his subjects.‍

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David Uzochukwu, Gurgle, 2020. Archival inkjet print, 40 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist. © 2025 David Uzochukwu. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Gomis.
David Uzochukwu, Gurgle, 2020. Archival inkjet print, 40 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist. © 2025 David Uzochukwu. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Gomis.

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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Permanent Collections

Information about the permanent collections of the Brooks Museum

Interior with Soldiers
Provenance Research Paintings
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