As the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding, Museum staff have been looking to the past as we plan for our future. The artists included in this exhibition similarly draw upon history in the creation of their work, whether as a source of inspiration, a critical reframing, or an act of reclamation. Some artists layer historical archival materials with their own interventions, creating new syncretic images to comment on both the past and the present. Several draw on the art historical canon, referencing and reinventing older forms. Much of the work in this exhibition can be understood as corrective, aiming to reassess and repair by bringing to the forefront perspectives typically excluded from Eurocentric narratives. 

Who decides the stories we tell about history? How are personal and collective memories intertwined? What can the past tell us about the present? By interrogating these questions, the exhibition explores contemporary artists’ fascination with both history and the history of art. On the occasion of the Museum’s anniversary, the works in this exhibition also allow us to reflect on the long history of our own collection and how we are reinterpreting it for the future.

This exhibition is made possible by the Susan B. Weatherbie Exhibition Fund.