Screenprinting’s present day ubiquity took root during the Great Depression when, through programs administered by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the government encouraged the production and consumption of art by the general public. Serigraphy: The Rise of Screenprinting in America explores how the technique was adapted to create fine art that was accessible and affordable to the middle class during the 1930s and 1940s. Despite the ongoing devastation that followed the nation’s worst financial disaster, public support for the arts reached one of its highest levels in history.

A collaboration between Mason Gross School of the Arts and the Zimmerli provides a window into the working process of American contemporary artist Kara Walker and a cohort of Rutgers students in a project that explores the history of the United States as a slave-owning nation and the shadows that it continues to cast over the 21st century.

The interdisciplinary symposium “Reinventing Documentary Photography in the 1970s” explores the multiple ways that documentary work was rethought and contested during the decade, in both critical discourse and artistic practice.

Reflections: Photographs of Iconic African Americans by Terrence A. Reese (TAR) presents important figures, from a variety of walks of life, who have made significant contributions to American society. Featuring 65 of the artist’s black-and-white photographs of individuals selected from his 2012 book, the exhibition incorporates the artist’s signature strategy, which bridges history and the present.

The works in Toutes Les Nouvelles – All the News: Current Events in Nineteenth-Century French Prints present images of various Parisian news items from the mid- to late 19th century, ranging from mundane political intrigues to serious foreign affairs.

Innovation and Abstraction: Women Artists and Atelier 17 examines the formal innovations and burgeoning feminist consciousness of eight artists who worked in the studio’s New York location. Atelier 17, a legendary printmaking studio, had relocated from Paris to New York at the outbreak of World War II, providing a workspace and support for some 200 artists – nearly half of whom were women – during this period of upheaval and uncertainty in Europe.

When the Zimmerli’s curators first devised two complementary exhibitions of American art titled Circa 1966 – American Prints from the Collection and Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection – the intention was to commemorate the museum’s golden anniversary by spotlighting key works created around the time of its founding. But in addition to spotlighting revolutionary movements that now have an established presence in art history, the subjects of many of the works focus on social and political discussions from the era that have prominently re-emerged across the nation.

Beloved characters Fletcher and the Knobby Boys charmingly remind viewers about childhood lessons that remain relevant no matter one’s age: the value of teamwork and lending a hand (or paw) when others face tough dilemmas. In celebration of Rutgers University’s 250th anniversary and the Zimmerli Art Museum’s 50th year, the new exhibition Fletcher and the Knobby Boys: Illustrations by Harry Devlin spotlights artwork from two early stories by the New Jersey artist, who also was an instrumental figure in developing the university’s resources related to children’s literature.

The exhibition explores the development of conceptual art in Moscow through pivotal works by nearly 50 artists, including many on view for the first time in the United States. It introduces audiences to the evolution of conceptual art in Moscow in the 1970s and 1980s, highlighting the unique sociopolitical contexts that made it distinct from analogous developments in the west.

The historic re-establishment of trade between Japan and Western nations in 1853 also greatly influenced exhibitions at museums and world’s fairs, which introduced Asian artists and traditions in North America and Europe, where artists enthusiastically embraced subjects, compositions, and materials they rarely – if ever – had seen before.

Thinking Pictures features approximately 80 works, including major installations, works on paper, paintings, mixed-media works, and documentary materials, many of which have not been publicly displayed in the U.S.

The Zimmerli welcomed a new appointment and announced two promotions to key museum positions, allowing the museum to continue serving both scholarly and general audiences from the Rutgers campus and beyond.