by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

6/11/2025

Odyssey, Hero Story, Haying Scene, Julien Dupre, Farm to Table: Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism

Everyone likes a good hero story, a protagonist struggling against the odds, yearning for home or homeland.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Directors

5/14/2025

Sacred Art, Jacopo Tintoretto

For billions of people worldwide, there is spiritual significance to the fact that the papal conclave is held in the Sistine Chapel inside Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica, immersing the participants in one of the most profound works of sacred art ever made.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

4/30/2025

Cycle Thru, Bicycle, SketchCAM

Bikes are not just a useful invention for transport and recreation. They are constantly reimagined and redesigned in practical and artful ways.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

3/13/2025

A lawyer friend of mine says that when he was a kid his mom had a way of mixing metaphors when she was giving mom advice. “We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it, son.” This turn of phrase got his attention not only with words but more memorably with visual imagery.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

3/10/2025

SketchCAM, Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior, geometry

In this edition of SketchCAM, we look at the amazing exhibition Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior in a way you might imagine belongs in math class. Using our simple tools of pencil and sketchbook, we'll reveal the “secret geometry” of great artwork.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

2/6/2025

SketchCAM, tessellations

A tessellation is a geometric pattern of shapes that fit together and can repeat infinitely. For starters, think checkerboards, tile floors, honeycombs, soccer ball patterns—but tessellations go way beyond these familiarities, taking an infinite number of shapes and forms.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

12/23/2024

SketchCAM, Mr. Paint, Marek Family Commons, Marek-Weaver Family Commons

Our roving SketchCAM reporter was on site to interview Mr. Paint and asked if we could paint his portrait.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

11/27/2024

SketchCAM, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Rosenthal Education Center

We've watched our fair share of Bluey, Paw Patrol, and Minions with seven grandkids; but when we encourage kids to be creators themselves, we move from screen to sketch, from passive to active.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

11/14/2024

SketchCAM, Isabella, Jaume Plensa

Let’s see how this works with Isabella, the museum’s outdoor sculpture by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

10/16/2024

SketchCAM, Nazca Desert, Peru

More than 2,000 years ago, people living in the Nazca Desert in Peru discovered an artform using the unique earthen materials of their harsh environment.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

9/12/2024

Sketching, SketchCAM, Ansel Adams, Discovering Ansel Adams, photograph, landscapes

For this edition of SketchCAM, let’s take our sketchbook and pencil into Discovering Ansel Adams, featuring the landscape photography of Ansel Adams (1902–1984) on view from September 27, 2024 to January 19, 2025.

by Bruce Petrie, President, Board of Trustees

9/4/2024

Sketching, SketchCAM, Pinocchio, Jim Dine, Pinocchio (Emotional), outdoor sculpture, sculpture

SketchCAM is a quick sketch showing how the museum’s mission and art work together. Our mission: Through the power of art, we contribute to a more vibrant Cincinnati by inspiring its people and connecting our communities.

by Serena Urry, Chief Conservator

8/29/2024

CAMConservation, paintings conservation, Constable, British catalog project

A few weeks ago, we posted about cleaning this landscape painting by British artist John Constable (1776–1837). The conservation treatment proceeded as quickly as we expected.

by Kiara Galloway, Visitor Services

8/28/2024

Yinka Shonibare, Public art, outdoor art, sculpture, outdoor sculpture, British Nigerian, Colonialism

Titled Wind Sculpture (SG) IX, Shonibare made this large-scale (22 feet tall!) mixed-media work from stainless steel, hand-painted glass, and reinforced polyester.

by Sai Ashish Bommasani, Visitor Services

8/26/2024

Rodin | Response: FIELD family secrets, sculpture, DAAP, University of Cincinnati, School of Art, Taft Marsh, Diluted Lineage, Camille Claudel

The pieces in Rodin | Response: FIELD family secrets are a mixture of Rodin’s own sculptures with works from students in the DAAP School of Art at the University of Cincinnati.

by Cecile Mear, Conservator of Works on Paper

8/22/2024

CAMConservation, Chuck Close, Keith Hollingworth, paper pulp print, Art Bridges, Denison Museum, Denison University, portrait, paintings conservation

Denison Museum at Denison University (Granville, Ohio) will show nine Cincinnati Art Museum pieces in different media from August 29 to November 29, 2024, in their exhibition Portraying Identity .

by Harlem Lennox, Marketing Intern

8/15/2024

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, graffiti, street art, Rammellzee

ho could've guessed back then that graffiti, this revolutionary art form, would become a powerhouse influencing the art world, graphic design, and global media.

by Kelly Rectenwald, Conservator of Objects

8/8/2024

CAMConservation, objects conservation, Giambologna, Mercury, bronze, marble, scuplture

This week in objects conservation, we are cleaning marble.

by Julie Aronson, PhD, Curator of American Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings

8/7/2024

John C. Lutz, Curatorial Blog, Works Progress Administration, WPA, Great Depression, Black Sunday

The Cincinnati Art Museum recently acquired the painting Black Sunday of 1937 by John C. Lutz, the only Black artist in Cincinnati (and one of four in Ohio) hired on the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the government program that provided employment during the Great Depression.

by Serena Urry, Chief Conservator

8/1/2024

CAMConservation, paintings conservation, Constable, British catalog project

We brought this lovely landscape, Waterloo Bridge by British artist John Constable (1776-1837), into the conservation lab to be examined for the British catalog project. Not conserved for more than 60 years, the painting’s varnish is now noticeably yellow.

by e.m.i., Digital Content Manager

7/26/2024

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Kendrick Lamar, Kahlil Joseph, m.A.A.d, Good Kid M.A.A.D City, video, video art

Being #1 is nothing new for Kendrick Lamar.

by Cecile Mear, Conservator of Works on Paper

7/25/2024

George Bellows, lithograph, paper conservation, CAMConservation, slant washing, John L. Sullivan

One of Bellow’s larger lithographs, Introducing John L. Sullivan, is torn in places along its right side; these tears could worsen with handling if not mended.

by C. Obie Linn, Conservator of Textiles

7/18/2024

CAMConservation, Rei Kawakubo, textile conservation

Wanting to do a little more analysis of this piece, I took the jacket back to the museum’s Conservation lab and created a toile, which is like a test version of a pattern used to study and perfect how an original flat pattern works.

by Kelly Rectenwald, Conservator of Objects

7/11/2024

Art Deco, CAMConservation, Joseph Urban, 1920s desk lamps, brass, tarnish, objects conservation

This pair of art deco lamps, designed by Joseph Urban, was last on view in 2022 as part of the exhibition Unlocking an Art Deco Bedroom by Joseph Urban.

by Serena Urry, Chief Conservator

7/4/2024

CAMConservation, Vouet, pigments, pigment analysis, pigment identification

A few weeks ago, two scientists from the Center for Archaeometry & Art Research Palatinate (CAAP) in Germany spent the morning in one of our European galleries to analyze Toilette of Venus, a painting by French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649).

by Franck Mercurio, Publications Editor

6/27/2024

frank benson, early evening, American Impressionism, summer, summer vacation, beach towns, north haven, maine, escape the heat

Cincinnati’s summertime temps and high humidity make me long for the beach resorts of the Northeast—towns like Fire Island and Provincetown where generations of urban (and suburban) folk have flocked to escape the heat of summer.

by Jason Rawls, Guest Curator

6/27/2024

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century

Get to know Jason Rawls, EdD Guest Curator and Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University.

by C. Obie Linn, Conservator of Textiles

6/20/2024

textile conservation, CAMConservation, historic upholstery, colonial dames, colonial furniture

It was time for the ladderback chairs in Gallery 218 to get a refresh! The chairs’ silk upholstery wasn’t original and over the years, while on display, the fabric had grown dingy and stained. Curator of Decorative Arts & Design Amy Dehan selected some appropriate, modern fabric in consultation with me, and I recovered the seats!

by Sai Ashish Bommasani, Visitor Services

6/20/2024

public tours, docents

In addition to exhibitions, CAM also offers free public tours of the collection open to everyone from all walks of life.

by Rose Milnes, Curatorial Assistant for South Asian Art, Islamic Art, and Antiquities

6/17/2024

South Asian Art, Islamic Art, antiquities, Gulistan, Sa'di

There’s always that time at the Cincinnati Art Museum when magic happens—when departments like curatorial, conservation, and design and installation come together twice a year to rotate light-sensitive works in our galleries, including works on paper and textiles, to preserve the artwork for future generations.