Make an impact. Donate today.
The highly influential California artist and teacher, John Baldessari, was an obsessive collector of images from magazines, newspapers, and film stills. He recombined these images to create fascinating compositions whose narratives the artist wanted the viewer to interpret. Baldessari would often obscure, with circles of primary colors, certain key elements of the narrative making interpretation more difficult. Meaning becomes secondary in Baldessari’s work. What matters most is how the artist could take disparate elements and turn them into art that is formally balanced and pleasing to the eye. His work, especially when presented in an exhibition like California Dreaming, is just fun to look at. Trying to puzzle out the meaning is icing on the cake.
The exhibition includes important loans from collections in San Antonio and Austin as well as a recently acquired Baldessari titled French Horn Player (With Three Contexts—One Uncoded) of 1994. This is the first time this work has been on public view at the McNay.
John Baldessari: California Dreaming is organized for the McNay Art Museum by Lyle W. Williams, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Curator of Modern Art.
In The Art of SA Eats, five San Antonio artists speak to the unique culinary vernacular of the city.
This exhibition features drawings and other works on paper by San Antonio artists who are part of a long drawing tradition in…
Esparza highlights hidden histories of Mexican American, Tejano, and Indigenous narratives in the South Texas region.
Thirteen contemporary designers share their artwork allowing San Antonio to experience excellence in the theatre arts—set, costume, lighting, and projection design.
This exhibition is the Museum’s first comprehensive celebration of our founder’s transformational gift to her beloved, adopted city and community.
"The world turns. Day deepens to night. People multiply. Flora and fauna surrender land and a place in the sun. The artist,…
Since 2011, the Spotlight exhibition series has celebrated the remarkable achievements of student artists reflecting on one work in the McNay collection.…
Masterpieces by the two pioneering rebels of Cubism.
This exhibition has been extended by popular demand. Georgia O’Keeffe and American Modernism is organized with a focus on a wider, more…
Asian Americans in Texas: Unmasking Stereotypes presents five Texas artists pushing against societal perceptions of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.