See what’s going on at the Frist during the dates you are planning to visit.

Exhibitions

A Landmark Repurposed: From Post Office to Art Museum

Jan 8, 2021–Jan 9, 2022
Celebrating the Frist Art Museum’s 20th anniversary, this reimagined exhibition highlights the landmark building’s role as a civic institution, from its creation as Nashville’s main post office in 1934 to its reopening as a museum on April 8, 2001. Read More

Liliana Porter:
Man with Axe and Other Stories

Feb 5–May 2, 2021
Argentina-born artist Liliana Porter’s provocative arrangements of objects and toys tell stories that are at once psychologically charged and slyly humorous. The centerpiece of the exhibition, Man with Axe, features a tiny plastic figure of an axe-wielding man who appears to have demolished an array of items, from dollhouse furniture to… Read More

Picasso. Figures

Feb 5–May 2, 2021
This exhibition offers an in-depth look at Pablo Picasso’s career-long fascination with the human figure as a means of expressing a range of subjects and emotions. Featuring approximately 75 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures, Picasso. Figures will make its sole U.S. appearance at the Frist. Read More

N2020: Community Reflections

Mar 3–Aug 1, 2021
Organized by the Frist Art Museum, with guest curator Woke3 One early January 2020 morning, artist Woke3 stepped out of his home in North Nashville to find the remains of a car engulfed in a raging fire. He interpreted the blaze as a premonition of the year to come. No… Read More

Creating the American West in Art

Mar 5–Jun 27, 2021
The American West is an idea and a process as much as it is a location. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, depictions of the people, landscapes, and wildlife of the West fostered a sense of American identity that was rooted in a pioneering spirit of adventure and opportunity. Through… Read More

Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style

Jun 11–Sep 12, 2021
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Glasgow Style emerged as the major manifestation of Art Nouveau in Britain. This exhibition showcases Charles Rennie Mackintosh—the greatest exponent of the Glasgow Style—as an architect, designer, and artist, and contextualizes his production within a larger circle of designers and craftspeople in… Read More

Bethany Collins: Evensong

Jun 11–Sep 12, 2021
Chicago-based artist Bethany Collins (b. 1984) explores the intersection of language and race in her conceptually driven practice. She alters existing documents—such as the daily Birmingham News from 1963 or the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the Ferguson, Missouri, police department—to critique the truthfulness and completeness of the official record. Since 2016, Collins… Read More

Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick
From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

Jul 23–Oct 10, 2021
A leading artist of her generation, Kara Walker (b. 1969) works in a range of mediums, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, film, and the large-scale silhouette cutouts for which she is perhaps most recognized. Her powerful and provocative images employ contradictions to critique the painful legacies of slavery, sexism, violence, imperialism, and other power structures, including those in the history and hierarchies of art and contemporary culture. Read More

American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918–1939

Oct 8, 2021–Jan 2, 2022
Appropriately presented within the Frist’s own art deco interior during the museum’s 20th anniversary year, this exhibition offers an in-depth examination of an international style that manifested stateside in decorative arts, fine arts, architecture, and design during the 1920s and 1930s. Read More

Mary Sibande:
Blue Red Purple

Oct 8, 2021–Jan 2, 2022
Johannesburg-based Mary Sibande creates hyperrealistic figurative sculptures, photographs, and virtual reality installations that address inequities of race, gender, politics, and economics in postcolonial South Africa. Read More

Medieval Bologna:
Art for a University City

Nov 5, 2021–Jan 30, 2022
This is the first museum exhibition in the United States to focus on medieval art made in the northern Italian city of Bologna. Home to the oldest university in Europe, Bologna fostered a unique artistic culture at the end of the Middle Ages. With its large population of sophisticated readers,… Read More

Events

Frist at Home: Picasso. Figures

Thursday, March 4, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Free; registration required
Presented on Zoom

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art-lovers. This conversation will focus on Picasso. Figures. Read More
Register

Rethinking the Boundaries of Western American Art

Friday, March 5, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join Thomas Brent Smith, director and curator, Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum for a discussion about rethinking the boundaries of western American art with a consideration for artistic merit rather than historical authenticity. Read More
Register

Frist at Home: Creating the American West in Art

Thursday, March 11, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Free; registration required
Presented on Zoom

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art-lovers. This conversation will focus on Creating the American West in Art. Read More
Register

Frist at Home: Picasso. Figures

Thursday, March 18, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Free; registration required
Presented on Zoom

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art-lovers. This conversation will focus on Picasso. Figures. Read More
Register

Frist at Home: Picasso. Figures

Thursday, March 25, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Free; registration required
Presented on Zoom

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art-lovers. This conversation will focus on Picasso. Figures. Read More
Register

Conversation: Looking at Bodies in Picasso’s Art

Thursday, March 25, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

Free; registration required; presented on Zoom

Look closely at works from the exhibition Picasso. Figures during this conversation on Zoom. Join art historians Leonard Folgarait and Amy Von Lintel as they present their perspectives and respond to each other’s interpretations of select paintings and sculptures from the exhibition. Participants will be invited to contribute to the dialogue by sharing their thoughts as well. Read More
Register

Educator Workshop: Creating the American West in Art

Thursday, April 1, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 3, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Registration required
Location: Studio and Upper-Level Galleries

During this workshop, explore the nuances of the complex American West, including its vibrant cultural and artistic diversity. Participate in a tour, spend time on your own in the galleries, receive teaching materials, discuss curriculum connections, and participate in art-making activities. Read More

Art History Course: Picasso and Modernism

Thursday, April 8, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

Registration required; presented on Zoom

Learn more about European modernism, Pablo Picasso’s contributions to the artistic movement, and his lasting influence on Western art history in this three-part course presented on Zoom. Read More
DONATE. GIVE. SUPPORT.
Please consider supporting the Frist Art Museum with a donation. Your gift is essential to our mission of serving the community through the arts and art access, in particular. We truly appreciate your generosity.
Support the Frist