The “Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art” exhibit is on the move and will open in a new home this fall. Earlier this year I wrote that it would be on display at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio from June 12 through September 5, 2021. Well, on October 8 it will open at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY.
When I first reported about it, I only knew that the exhibit examined the relationship between American artists and the supernatural. I also knew that it would display 150 objects from the early 19th century through the present, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and sketchbooks to journals, photographs, clothing, and more.
As far as exactly which artists might be included, other than “many living and contemporary artists,” I didn’t have any specific artists’ names though. I still don’t.
However, the Courier Journal shared that the exhibit will now feature more than 220 objects which will include everything already mentioned in addition to furniture, textiles, videos, scientific instruments, and mediumistic/occult paraphernalia.
Even more info was gleaned from a visit to the Speed Art Museum’s site. It didn’t mention artists’ names specifically, but it did mention it would include some “well-known artists.” Let’s take a closer look.
About the Supernatural America Exhibit
The following was from the Speed’s website page about the exhibition:
Supernatural America examines the artwork that has shaped our collective imagination of the supernatural and paranormal and asks why America is haunted. Ghosts of a violent US history, whether Native American genocide, slavery, or the Civil War, remain unsettled and periodically resurface to make the present face the past. In intimate moments of mourning, the will to make contact with spirits of the dead drove cultures of mediumship, new ritual practices, and a popular culture around Spiritualism. Artists have been integral to visualizing these ghosts, whether national or personal, and in doing so have embraced the mysterious and unexplained. In the twentieth century, anxieties about technology, atomic weapons, and the trauma of war inspired ideas about worlds beyond a troubled America. This exhibition explores the numerous ways artists in the U.S. made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and supernatural, and in doing so developed a rich visual culture of the intangible.
From Native American spiritual traditions to the Salem Witch Trials to Afrofuturism, the exhibition tracks this country’s complex and complicated relationship to the otherworldly. Most importantly, the exhibition will include well-known artists and objects alongside artists who will be new to art historical analysis, never before included in museum exhibitions of American art.
Supernatural America Exhibit at the Speed Dates
The Supernatural America exhibit runs October 7, 2021 – January 2, 2022, at the Speed Art Museum.
For More Info
Visit https://www.speedmuseum.org.
Note: As of October 15, 2021, you’ll need to show proof that you’re vaxxed for admission to the museum.
Check-In
Lousiville’s just a quick three-hour jaunt up the road from my house. Anyone want to take a road trip with me to check out this exhibit?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I bet it’s a wonderful exhibit. If you get to go, enjoy!
LOL Thank you!