The BIGGS Museum

Open - March 6
2024-03-06 08:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Art Works for All: Celebration of Creativity
2024-01-11 - 2024-03-24
JANUARY 11, 2024 – MARCH 24, 2024
Presented in partnership with Art Works for All (AWA), this community-focused exhibit, highlights the creative achievements of children and adults with disabilities.
Art Works for All (AWA) is an organization committed to providing educational opportunities through the arts, and their exhibit at The Biggs showcases the remarkable artwork produced by program participants. This collaborative effort not only recognizes the artistic talents of individuals with disabilities but also professionally presents their creations to a wider audience, fostering inclusivity and appreciation for the power of art.
Award Winners XXIV
Circe of Truth
Raubacher

The Wyeths: Three Generations
2023-11-02 - 2024-02-19
Works From the Bank of AmericNCWyeth_Eight-Bellsa Collection
This exhibition brings together more than seventy works of art by three generations of artists. Paintings, drawings, and illustrations created by N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew, his daughter Henriette, and his grandson Jamie return home to Delaware at the Biggs for the first time since entering the Bank of America collection.
This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities program®

Front Row Center: Icons of Rock, Blues, and Soul
2023-03-17 - 2023-06-19
MARCH 17, 2023 – JUNE 19, 2023
The iconic photographs of Larry Hulst capture the freewheeling energy of live music and the enduring visual spectacle of rock’s greatest performers. From Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to David Bowie and Lauryn Hill, Front Row Center: Icons of Rock, Blues and Soul brings together over 70 images of legendary musicians and singers across three genres and generations. The exhibition charts Hulst’s extraordinary path through the pulsing heart of the most exciting live music of the last century, showcasing a unique visual anthology of rock, blues, and soul music from 1970–1999. These images, which have been featured on album art and Rolling Stone spreads, convey Hulst’s lifelong passion for the magnetism, immediacy, and unpredictability of live music. With photos that also document the unforgettable voices of funk, punk, and beyond, Front Row Center grants viewers an all-access pass to some of the most memorable performances in popular music history.

Mary Putman: Art is About Us
2023-02-16 - 2023-03-23
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 – MARCH 26, 2023
For the Delaware-based painter Mary Putman, art is—and has always been—about us. Putman’s focus on the landscape over the course of her prolific career has allowed her to probe this simple yet powerful statement. Her paintings explore the vast and complicated interconnections between the land and its occupants. Putman meticulously depicts the world she lives in, representing recognizable buildings, farmland, cars, road signs, bridges, people, animals, trees, and bodies of water from unusual and sometimes surprising perspectives. As a result, her paintings often combine the familiar with the unfamiliar, drawing viewers in to visually examine the landscape of Delaware and its surrounding areas so we can see ourselves anew.
An exhibition catalogue co-authored by the University of Delaware and the Biggs Museum of American Art will be available on March 2.

Art Deco Glass from the David Huchthausen Collection
2022-11-05 - 2023-02-20
NOVEMBER 5, 2022 – FEBRUARY 20, 2023
Clean lines, geometric shapes and bright colors characterize this exhibition of more than 100 early 20th century works by iconic Art Deco Studios such as René Lalique, Daum Frères, Steuben Glass Works, and many others. Assembled through the keen and practiced eye of renowned contemporary glass artist David Huchthausen, each piece in this exhibition takes viewers back to an extraordinary time in glass history.
Organized by the Museum of Glass, Tacoma Washington.

Tom Wilson: Super-Realist/Surrealist
2022-07-01 - 2022-10-16
JULY 1, 2022 – OCTOBER 16, 2022
From international male supermodel to renowned artist: once-famous for his looks, Tom’s career morphed brilliantly into a body of work that indelibly graces the collections of many of Delaware’s prominent arts patrons in the Rehoboth/Lewes area. Today, 50 pieces on loan from these collectors were curated into a comprehensive exhibition capturing Southern Delaware and highlighting beach neighborhoods, while showcasing Wilson’s artistic range and preserving his lasting legacy on the people of Delaware and the Delaware arts scene.

Award Winners XXII
2022-06-03 - 2022-07-23
JUNE 3, 2022 – JULY 23, 2022
Each year, the Biggs Museum of American Art, in partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts, exhibits the work of the Division’s annual Individual Artist Fellows at the Award Winners exhibition. The Division recognizes artists throughout the state for their outstanding quality of work in the areas of choreography, folk art, jazz, literature, media arts, music, and visual arts through these awards.

Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum
2022-03-04 - 2022-06-18
MARCH 4, 2022 – JUNE 18, 2022
Featuring 72 works from the permanent collection of Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York, this exhibition notably includes artwork by Jackson Pollock, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Chuck Close. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and mixed media works will trace the progression of art movements in the U.S. from Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism to Contemporary Arts of the 1980s and 1990s.
Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum was organized the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY in association with Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA.
Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts : Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum is made possible through support from the Choptank Foundation, The Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware and the Delaware Division of the Arts. ​

Children's Abstract Art Exhibition
2022-03-04 - 2022-05-07
MARCH 4, 2022 – MAY 7, 2022
Inspired by Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum, the Biggs Museum of American Art put out a call for abstract art created by artists in Pre – K through 12th grade. Nearly 100 submissions were received and installed. Come see the future of Delaware arts!

Visions & Voices: A juried exhibition of Mid-Atlantic African American Artists
2022-02-04 - 2022-05-21
FEBRUARY 4, 2022 – MAY 21, 2022
After years of successfully hosting juried art competitions for photographers, landscape artists, and figural artists of the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Biggs Museum is proud to introduce a new juried exhibition highlighting the work of regional African American artists. This exhibition will present art from all visual art media including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, fiber, and video. The physical exhibition will be accompanied by an opening reception, artist talks, public programming and gallery sales of the accepted works.

Mi Frida: Children’s Portrait Contest Exhibition
2021-11-05 - 2022-02-12
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – FEBRUARY 12, 2022
Frida Kahlo and portraits of her have become iconic in pop culture because of her unique sense of self. Kahlo’s Tehuana-inspired dress, elaborate hairstyles, and dignified unibrow are as recognizable as her paintings. The Biggs put out a call to young artists in grades K – 12 to submit their portraits of Frida Kahlo to celebrate her powerful and uncompromising sense of self. With talent beyond their years, this exhibition will showcase all of the submissions to the Mi Frida Portrait Contest by our amazing Biggs Kids.

Unmasking Culture: An Examination of the Ritual Masks of Mexico
2021-11-05 - 2022-02-12
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – FEBRUARY 12, 2022
Unmasking Culture will accompany Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray to celebrate and enhance the understanding of the cultural heritage of Mexico for which Kahlo has become a global icon. This exhibition presents antique masks and figures used by Mexican indigenous people in their centuries-old religious dances and ceremonies. Items in this collection are on loan from The Althouse Collection, which was established by the late Thomas and Charlotte Althouse during their travels and residence in Mexico in the 1950s and 1970s. The private collection was later passed on to their son, artist Stephen Althouse.

Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray
2021-11-05 - 2022-02-12
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – FEBRUARY 12, 2022
In May 1931 the eminent photographer Nickolas Muray traveled to Mexico on vacation where he met Frida Kahlo, a woman he would never forget. The two started a romance that continued on and off for the next ten years and a friendship that lasted until her death in 1954. Approximately forty photographic portraits taken by Muray of Kahlo comprise the exhibition. The photographs, dating from 1937 to 1946, explore Muray’s unique perspective; as Kahlo’s friend, lover and confidant. Muray’s photographs bring to light Kahlo’s deep interest in her Mexican heritage, her life and the people with whom she shared a close friendship.
Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray is made possible through support from the Choptank Foundation, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware and The Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware. Additionally, these exhibitions and related programming are supported by the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Delaware Division of the Arts promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.

Contemporary Refresh
2021-11-05 - 2022-01-22
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – JANUARY 22, 2022
The Biggs Museum will create a fresh showcase of modern and contemporary artworks curated from its permanent collection in Galleries 23-25. This exhibition will feature paintings, prints, sculptures and more created by artists from the 1960s through practicing artists today.

Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction - The Engraved Works
2021-07-02 - 2021-10-16
JULY 2, 2021 – OCTOBER 16, 2021
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) captured a cross section of American society that tells a story of triumph and tragedy in American history through his monochromatic engravings created during the pre-war years, the Civil War and the following decade. Featuring Homer’s early work that was produced in New York’s Hudson River Valley, this exhibition is accompanied by never-before-exhibited period photographs of his subjects.

Inventing Illustration: Illuminating Vintage Children's Literature & Other Stories
2021-07-02 - 2021-10-16
JULY 2, 2021 – OCTOBER 16, 2021
Wilmington-based artist Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) created thousands of book illustrations throughout his career, including the cover art for such well-known stories as Swiss Family Robinson (1921), Gulliver’s Travels (1921) and Treasure Island (1921). This exhibition traces Schoonover’s design steps, beginning with preparatory photographs, drawings and sketches for illustrations and ending with paintings and book covers that he created for best-selling children’s literature. Inventing Illustration – generously loaned to the Biggs Museum by the late Dr. Edward Burka – is the perfect accompaniment to Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction—The Engraved Works.

Award Winners XXI
2021-06-04 - 2021-07-24
JUNE 4, 2021 – JULY 24, 2021
The Delaware Division of the Arts annually recognizes outstanding artists across the state in the areas of visual, literary and performing arts through their Individual Artist Fellowships. The Division awarded 25 Delaware artists with a prestigious Fellowship award this year. The Fellows’ work is exhibited among the Biggs’ fine and decorative arts collection, creating a stark contrast and a unique experience for museum visitors.

Out of the Vault: Modern and Contemporary Art
2021-03-05 - 2021-06-19
MARCH 5, 2021 – JUNE 19, 2021
Allow us to reintroduce ourselves. Witness an evolution of the Biggs through a reinstallation of the museum’s entire third-floor galleries to feature rarely exhibited paintings, photographs, sculpture and crafts from the Post WWI period to the contemporary arts of the present day. Much of this work has been added to the collection in the past ten years, but has rarely been shared with the public.

In Fresh Air: Impressionism and the Plein Air Movement
2021-03-05 - 2021-06-19
MARCH 5, 2021 – JUNE 19, 2021
The artistic drive to leave the studio and to collect inspiration, impressions and ideas directly from nature is featured in this new exhibition. Drawn from works rarely seen at the Biggs Museum, the exhibition tracks the influence of plein air painting in the United States, particularly in Delaware, with a focus on the museum’s extensive Barbizon, Tonalist and Impressionist collections. Over 100 years of paintings connected by the plein air tradition will be brought together in this comprehensive exhibition.

Toni Frissell: In Italy with the Tuskegee Airmen
2021-01-08 - 2021-04-24
JANUARY 8, 2021 – APRIL 24, 2021
The imminent fashion and society photographer, Toni Frissell (1907-88), held several official positions with the American Red Cross, the Women’s Army Corp and the US Air Force to document World War II. This exhibition highlights her images of the Tuskegee Airmen, the 332d Fighter Group, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Stairway to Heaven: Life and Death in the Visions of Salvador Dalí Illustrations for Les Chants de Maldoror and The Divine Comedy
2020-12-04 - 2021-02-20
DECEMBER 4, 2020 – FEBRUARY 20, 2021
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) is among the most recognized and eccentric artists of the 20th century. He layered the surreal imagery of his “paranoiac-critical method” onto hundreds of artworks, including paintings, theatrical designs, films, architecture, sculptures, jewelry and fine art prints, such as those featured in Life and Death in the Visions of Salvador Dalí. Created for two publications, the artworks in this exhibition signal two distinct periods in Dalí’s career: the hedonism of his youth and the redemption he sought later in life. These two sets of artworks also signal his transition from Surrealism to Mysticism, which can be seen in this exhibition through his unwavering technical mastery in printmaking and draftsmanship. With nearly 150 individual artworks on view, this exhibition provides an expansive selection to interpret Dalí‘s dream-like subjects.

Jack Lewis: Delaware's Hidden Gem
2020-08-07 - 2020-11-22
AUGUST 7, 2020 – NOVEMBER 22, 2020
The Biggs Museum is proud to feature the work of our “Ultimate Hidden Gem” artists, Jack Lewis. This exhibition highlights rarely seen views across the Delmarva Peninsula from the collections of the Biggs Museum, the Rehoboth Art League and the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
Since Lewis was known for his local scenes, we invite you to participate in a self guided socially distanced road trip, to see some of the sites that inspired these works, noting how they were painted and what they look like today.
Explore the Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as each County in Delaware. Download our Jack Lewis Driving Tour with map for side by side comparisons, or explore our interactive map.

Delaware Watercolor Society
2020-08-07 - 2020-09-20
AUGUST 7, 2020 – SEPTEMBER 20, 2020
The Biggs welcomes back the winners of the juried competition of Delaware’s premier membership of artists of the watercolor medium. This year’s juror, Joel Popadics, is an esteemed watercolorist whose work has been collected widely and who teaches and exhibits internationally.

Award Winners Reunion
2020-06-05 - 2020-08-29
JUNE 5, 2020 – AUGUST 29, 2020
Even though the Biggs Museum’s annual Award Winners exhibition, featuring each year’s fellowship winners of the Delaware Division of the Arts, has moved to CAMP Rehoboth for the rest of the summer, past recipients of this award are still on view within the museum through August. This is the 20th Anniversary of hosting the winners of this important artist prize and to commemorate this long-standing relationship, the Biggs staff asked back a few of our favorite past winners to show the success they have enjoyed since their time as a DDOA Fellow.

Elite 8: Fan-Favorites
2020-06-05 - 2020-07-23
JUNE 5, 2020 – JULY 23, 2020
In the spirit of the NCAA March Madness Tournament, the Biggs hosted the Interactive BMAA March Madness Tournament, where we let the public vote on 64 rarely seen artworks packed away in the Biggs Museum’s object storage, the Elite 8 features the top winners of the museum’s first people’s choice award. Chosen through an on-line competition this spring by hundreds of participants, these works represent the best-from-the-vault.

Award Winners: XX
2020-06-05 - 2020-07-23
JUNE 5, 2020 – JULY 23, 2020
Award Winners: XX – the 20th anniversary exhibition of the Biggs Museum’s annual presentation of visual, performing and literary arts fellowship winners of the Delaware Division of the Arts.
The Biggs Museum’s exhibition will combine this year’s fellowship winners with a selection of new works by notable past winners. The 2020 fellows’ works will also travel to be on view at CAMP Rehoboth in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Cab Calloway School for the Arts in Wilmington, Delaware.

Stephen Althouse: Relics
2020-05-14 - 2020-07-14
MAY 14, 2020 – JULY 14, 2020
After receiving a Fulbright Grant to participate in an artist-in-residency program in Belgium, sculptor and photographer Stephen Althouse began exhibiting his uniquely constructed photographs in museums and galleries internationally. Featuring enormous images captured between 2003 and 2017, this exhibition elevates and transforms antique tools and decorative arts into universal symbols. The monumental scale and spiritualizing compositions of these artworks reference artifacts of the past to illuminate a collective human experience that transcends time.

Lessons: an Exhibition by Billy Colbert
2020-02-07 - 2020-03-29
FEBRUARY 7, 2020 – MARCH 29, 2020
The Biggs Museum has partnered with University of Delaware Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Barber to curate an exhibition of recent works by Billy Colbert of the Delaware State University Fine Art Department in conjunction with Dover’s Citywide Black History Celebration.
Colbert’s works are drawn from the theme of this year’s celebration “African American Education Under Segregation.” His exhibition incorporates rare historic video and photographs of black life in the U.S. in the early 20th century alongside artifacts of the separate and unequal educational system on loan from the African American community of Kent County. The artist and museum staff will collect oral histories on this topic during the exhibition to create an original documentary sharing memories of local segregated schools.

Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural
2019-11-01 - 2020-01-19
NOVEMBER 1, 2019 – JANUARY 19, 2020
A mural-arts project highlighting the Past, Present and Future of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware. This public art project was created through a partnership between Cheyney University professor and painter Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, Cheyney art students and the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware.
