Addison Gallery of American Art

08/21/2026

It’s kinda chic to…DON’T WORRY, we respect you too much to engage in that meme (I also don’t really know how to overlay text on images). Anyhow, we’ve been closed all month busily preparing for our fall blockbuster—America in the Making! ⁣
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With this exhibition, the Addison marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We have taken this opportunity to do something unusual for this museum, devoting the entire building to a chronological installation of works from our permanent collection from the dawn of the 18th century to the present. The story of American art told through our collection is neither comprehensive nor objective. Like the artworks it contains, the Addison’s collection can also be read as a window into the conditions, values, and assumptions under which it has been assembled and continues to grow. Its strengths and omissions reflect the circumstances of its formation, including individual taste, institutional priorities, and broader social and cultural forces. In this sense, the exhibition also offers a portrait of a collection in formation, one that, like America itself, remains continually “in the making.”⁣
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Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see well over 300 works from the Addison’s permanent collection—including many of our “greatest hits” when America in the Making opens on September 8th. Stay tuned for more information about an exciting public opening on September 26th from 4 to 6!⁣
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America in the Making was curated collaboratively by Ricardo Mercado Ruiz Allison Kemmerer, Rachel Vogel, and Gordon Wilkins.⁣
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This exhibition is generously supported by the Sidney R. Knafel Fund and the Bernard and Louise Palitz Exhibitions Fund. Additional support is provided by Jana Paley (PA ’81).⁣
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07/24/2026

Last chance! All of our current exhibitions—including Parasol Press: Breaking New Ground and Both Sides of the Line: Carmen Herrera & Leon Polk Smith—close in ONE WEEK on Friday, July 31st at 5:00! See you in the galleries!⁣
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Installation photographs by Julia Featheringill.

07/22/2026

07/22/2026

Squirrel eating a shrimp out of our dumpster the other evening/Susan Catherine Waters (1823-1900). Squirrels in a Chestnut Tree, c. 1865. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase, 1964.14

07/03/2026

We’re closed on the 4th. See you on Sunday from 1 to 5. Plenty of AC and incredible art to spare.⁣
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Hollis Frampton (PA 1954, 1936-1984) and Marion Faller (1941-2014). Plate 8 (Flag) from Rites of Passage, 1983-84. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Frank Stella (PA 1954), 1990.53.8

06/30/2026

“I think that allowing young people to have access to that kind of art is transformative in their lives.” —Olivia Wilde ’02⁣
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In case you missed it—the acclaimed actress and director Olivia Wilde, a member of the Phillips Academy class of 2002, sat down yesterday with our dear friend Jared Bowen on the The Culture Show | GBH to discuss her latest film, “The Invite.” The entire interview is fantastic, of course, but we were particularly excited to hear Olivia speak so passionately about the Addison and about the crucial importance of the arts in the lives of students! Thank you so much for your beautiful words and for sharing your fond memories of Phillips Academy and the Addison! ⁣
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We welcome you all to visit the “magical place” that is the Addison. As a reminder, we are completely free and open to all!

06/01/2026

“That’s the trouble, a s*x symbol becomes a thing. But if I’m going to be a symbol of something, I’d rather it be s*x than some of the things we’ve got symbols of... I hate to be a thing.” —Marilyn Monroe⁣
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Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on this day 100 years ago in Los Angeles. ⁣
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Philippe Halsman (1906-1979). Marilyn Monroe, 1952. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), 2025.135⁣
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Unidentified maker. Marilyn Monroe, mid-20th century. Commercial offset lithograph on card stock. Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2021.72.20⁣
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Robert Frank (1924-2019). Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1962. Gelatin silver print. Gift of the Robert Frank Foundation, 2025.129.69⁣
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Unidentified photographer. Twins with Marilyn Monroe Impersonator, c. 1970s. Polaroid. Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2021.72.568

05/30/2026

Welcoming back to Andover!⁣
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Artist and alum Peter Halley ’71 returned to campus this spring as the Addison’s Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence, in conjunction with his work on view in the exhibition Little Boxes. Halley’s works explore both the physical and psychological structures of space, connecting the visual language of geometric abstraction to critiques of the mechanization and commercialism of the modern world.⁣
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Halley discussed AI technology with students in English courses reading texts that explore the dark side of biotechnology and posthumanity, which provided a dynamic perspective on the overlap between their course reading and contemporary life. Students in the philosophy course Aesthetics have spent the term discussing art’s definition and evaluation, and engaged in lively discussion about whether art should always serve as societal critique.⁣
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Painting students were intrigued by Halley’s artistic trajectory and he, in turn, visited students in the Advanced Studio course in their workspace to see their in-progress artwork and talk about their direction as artists.⁣
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Halley’s time in conversation with students and faculty on campus inspired future projects as well, as he looks to include campus perspectives in a new mural to be installed this fall in conjunction with America in the Making, the Addison’s upcoming exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

05/14/2026

The Addison Gallery of American Art is delighted to announce that Cynthia Talmadge will be the third recipient of the Bartlett H. Hayes Jr. Prize, awarded by the Addison Artist Council (AAC)!

The AAC builds on the Addison’s nearly century-long commitment to championing living artists by providing important institutional support to emerging and underrecognized American artists. Through the initiative, the Addison will organize the first solo museum exhibition of Talmadge’s work, opening in fall 2027, with an accompanying publication, an artist’s residency, and an acquisition of the artist’s work for the museum’s permanent collection.

Working in painting, photography, and installation, Talmadge (b. 1989, New York, NY) draws on tabloid culture and the darker undercurrents of contemporary Americana. Tinged with fantasy and desolation and born out of deep historical research, her work betrays a fascination with heightened emotional states, mediated portrayals of those states, and, particularly, the places where both converge.

Talmadge holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and currently lives and works in New York City. While primarily a painter, she works across several mediums, using a variety of techniques to bring to life a body of work that is simultaneously fact and fiction, dramatic and melodramatic, cerebral and kitschy. Whether depicting the interiors of famous psychiatric hospitals and celebrity rehab centers, high society funeral parlors, deserted liberal arts college campuses, or even Marilyn Monroe’s imagined storage unit, Talmadge’s shimmering pointillist paintings composed of sand or oil paint, as well as her room-sized installations, possess a visual and psychic tension and wit that keeps meaning evasive and viewers captivated. Transforming physical spaces into psychological ones and vice versa, Talmadge spins narratives that offer insight into the psychology of society at large and our current cultural moment.

“Cynthia Talmadge is an ideal choice to receive the Hayes Prize. The artist’s conceptually layered practice, its rootedness in history and culture, and her enthralling storytelling will resonate with students and in the wider community. We are proud to support artists like Talmadge who are making exceptional contributions in the visual arts, at a moment in their career when such support can have a lasting impact,” said Allison Kemmerer, the Mary Stripp and R. Crosby Kemper Director of the Addison Gallery of American Art.

“Receiving the Hayes Prize is a dream come true. I am deeply honored and grateful for this vote of confidence in me as an artist. The Hayes Prize will give me the opportunity to explore one of my most ambitious and dear projects, something that I’ve been researching and conceptualizing for over a year now. I can’t wait to get started at the Addison,” said Talmadge.

Photo by Charlie Rubin.

05/12/2026

Today marks what would have been the 90th birthday of Frank Stella (1936-2024). Frank was not only one of the most important artists of the postwar period, he was also a beloved and devoted member of the Class of 1954! The Addison is very pleased to take this occasion to announce it will lend nearly 70 works to a major European exhibition of Stella’s work this summer—Frank Stella: Minimal/Maximal at the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain (MAMC+) in Saint-Étienne, France.⁣
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The exhibition, the first major showing of work by Stella in France since the 1980s, will “reveal to French audiences the scope and evolution of his work,” bringing together “painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and architecture.” The first section of the show will shed new light on Stella’s formative years—with a particular focus on his transformative time at Phillips Academy. We’re lending not only major mature works by Frank Stella but also examples of his student work, work by his Phillips Academy mentors Maud and Patrick Morgan and his classmates Carl Andre (PA 1953) and Hollis Frampton (PA 1954), along with works that served as early sources of inspiration (notably Hans Hofmann’s Exaltment, which was formerly owned by Maud Morgan), and works once personally owned by Stella (Larry Bell, Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin). ⁣
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The show, which will be on view from June 27, 2026 through January 3, 2027, was curated by Alexandre Quoi of MAMC+ and Rachel Stella, the artist’s daughter and a member of the PA class of 1980! Seems like a great excuse to spend a big blue summer in France!⁣
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Frank Stella (1936-2024). East Broadway, 1958. Oil on canvas. Gift of the artist (PA 1954), 1980.14⁣
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Maud Morgan (1903-1999). Gyre III, 1947. Oil on canvas. Gift or Mr. and Mrs. Caleb D. Elliot, Jr., 1991.85⁣
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Agnes Martin (1912-2004). Untitled, 1960. Ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper. Gift of Frank Stella (PA 1954), Addison Art Drive, 1991.46⁣
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Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). Exaltment, 1947. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase, 1960.6⁣
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Hollis Frampton (1936-1984). #5 from The Secret World of Frank Stella, 1958-62. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Marion Faller, 1990.34.5