Exhibitions
The Palmer Museum of Art presents new and changing special exhibitions and related programming every year. See below to explore what’s on view, what’s coming up, or what past exhibitions have been at the museum.
Now on View
What can you see when you visit the Palmer? Check below for special exhibitions now on view!![Edna Andrade (American, 1917–2008), Radiants, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 41 x 41 inches. Reading Public Museum, Gift of Luther W. Brady, M.D., 2012.15.1](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Andrade.png)
MADE IN PA
June 1-December 1, 2024
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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![Unknown photographer, Hand, c. 1920s–1930s, X-ray, selenium-toned gelatin silver print, 7-1/2 x 6 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Gift of Jon Randall Plummer, 2012.92](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Hand.png)
The Art of Teaching: Medical Education and the Integrated Curriculum
June 1-September 1, 2024
Barbara and Lee Maimon Teaching Gallery, Level 2
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Upcoming Exhibitions
Plan ahead to see the below special exhibitions when they go on view at the Palmer!![Re/Collecting the Andes: Andean Art, Science, and the Sacred at Penn State](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/75_27-scaled.jpg)
Re/Collecting the Andes: Andean Art, Science, and the Sacred at Penn State
September 14-December 8, 2024
Barbara and Lee Maimon Teaching Gallery, Level 2
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![Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Waterlily Vase, 1900, blown and cameo glass, 6-1/4 × 7-3/8 × 3-7/8 inches. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., image courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art. Photograph by Edward Pollard © Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Triumph-of-Nature.png)
The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art
February 12-May 11, 2025
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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![Walter Iooss (American, b. 1943), Havana, Cuba, 1999, archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Gift of Jacqueline and Fred McAlpin III, 2019.289.6](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Global-Majority.png)
The Global Majority: Counternarratives in Photography and Print
January 18-April 13, 2025
Greider Family Gallery, Level 2
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![Kakuko Ishii, Japanese Paper Strings Musubu R, 2012, Washi paper and pigment; image courtesy of the artist © Kakuko Ishii](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-02-at-2.11.43 PM.png)
Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper
June 7-July 27, 2025
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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![](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/DionRockman.png)
Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld
August 23-December 7, 2025
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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Past Exhibitions
Missed a recent show? Check out our past special exhibitions.![The new Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State. View from the Overlook Pavilion in the Arboretum. Architect: Allied Works. Rendering: Courtesy of MIR.](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Palmer-Museum-Rendering-View-from-Overlook-Pavilion-Arboretum.jpg)
Designed for the Future: The New Palmer Museum of Art at the Arboretum
October 15-May 14, 2023
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Eleanor Antin (American, b. 1935), Going Home from Roman Allegories, 2004, chromogenic print, 48-1/2 x 102-3/4 x 2 inches. Purchased with funds provided by the Donald W. Hamer Endowment for Art Acquisitions and Exhibitions, 2006.29. © Eleanor Antin](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Antin-Going-Home_1344x904.jpg)
Looking at Who We Are: The Palmer at Fifty
September 23-December 22, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Pancrace Bessa (French, 1772–1846), Hyacinthus Orientalis, 1810–1826, watercolor on white vellum, 7 3/8 x 4 9/16 inches. Presented in memory of James Rea Maxwell Jr., Class of 1921, 74.4](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Bessa-Hyacinthus.jpg)
The Art of Remembering: A Selection of Gifts
August 26-December 22, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Home/Studio wordmark](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-05-04-at-9.52.22-AM.png)
HOME/STUDIO: 2022 Penn State School of Visual Arts Faculty Show
May 28-August 28, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Martin Lewis (American, 1881–1962), Little Penthouse, 1931](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Lewis-Little-Penthouse_1344x904.jpg)
Staff Picks: A Selection of Palmer Favorites
June 3-September 18, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![William P. Hanson (American, 1928–2017), Grasses, Branches, and Shore, Maine, 1963/1969, watercolor, pencil, and crayon, 14 x 10 inches. Gift of Professor Cortland Eyer, 88.7, AS B056](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/IMG_1518-1-scaled.jpg)
Those Who Taught: Selected Works by Former Faculty
May 20-August 14, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975), Shallow Creek, 1938–39, oil and Egg tempera on canvas mounted on board, 36 x 25 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer, 2019.31. © 2021 T.H. and R.P. Benton Trusts / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/archive_Benton-Shallow-Creek.jpg)
An American Place: Selections from the James and Barbara Palmer Collection
January 29-May 1, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Lee Krasner (American, 1908–1984), Composition, 1949, oil on canvas, 38-1/16 x 27-13/16 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of the Aaron E. Norman Fund, Inc., 1959, 1959-31-1 © Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Krasner.jpg)
A Way Through: Abstract Art of the 1940s
January 15-May 15, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), Melencolia I, 1514, engraving, 9-7/16 × 7-5/16 inches. Anonymous loan](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Dürer-Melencolia_archive.jpg)
Printmaking in the Age of Dürer
January 18-May 8, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Jun Kaneko (Japanese, b. 1942), Untitled, Tanuki, 2014](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GLOBAL-ASIAS_Jun-Kaneko-Untitled-Tanuki-2014-cropped-e1635360207161.jpg)
Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
August 28-December 12, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Colin Campbell Cooper (American, 1856–1937), The Grand Place, Antwerp, 1908](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PLACE-TO-PLACE_Cooper-cropped.png)
Place to Place: Recent Gifts of American Drawings and Watercolors, 1900-1950
September 14-December 12, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1798-1861), Kuwana: Legend of the Sailor Tokuzo, c. 1844-45, woodblock print, 14-5/8 x 10-1/4 inches, oban format. Gift of Dr. William E. Harkins, 75.84](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/UKIYO-E_archive_75_84-copy.jpg)
Ukiyo-e: Images from the Floating World, Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Permanent Collection
August 28-December 5, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![George Loftus Noyes (American, 1865-1954), Sunlit Road, c. 1910](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SUMMER-LIGHT_Noyes.png)
Summer Light: American Impressionist Paintings from the Thomas Clark Collection
May 8-August 29, 2021
Permanent Collection
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![Warren Rohrer, Fields: Amish I, 1974, oil on linen, 60 x 60 inches, Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley. Gift of Dr. Charles McCrae, 1977 (1977.37)](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/WEB_Rohrer.jpg)
Field Language: The Painting and Poetry of Warren and Jane Rohrer
February 10-April 25, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Archibald Dick after Charles Cousen after William Henry Bartlett, View on the Susquehanna (Above Owego), 1846, engraving and etching on steel, with hand coloring, 6 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches. From the January 1846 issue of The Ladies’ Repository. Partial gift and purchase from John C. O’Connor and Ralph M. Yeager, 86.631](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/86.631.jpg)
Pennsylvania Scenery: Early Landscape Prints from the Tavern Collection
January 31-May 1, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Lucille Corcos, Everybody’s Downtown, 1948, tempera on board, 14 ½ x 11 1/8 inches. Collection of David and Susan Werner](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Everybodys-Downtown.jpg)
The Wit and Whimsy of Lucille Corcos
February 8-May 9, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Makonde Mask from Mozambique](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2020-African-Brilliance.jpg)
African Brilliance: A Diplomat’s Sixty Years of Collecting
February 8-May 24, 2020
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![John William Hill, Under the Falls, Niagara, c. 1870, watercolor on paper, 29 x 21½ inches. Palmer Museum of Art, The John Driscoll American Drawings Collection, 2018.153](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2020-Drawing-on-a-Legacy.jpg)
Drawing on a Legacy: Highlights from the John Driscoll American Drawings Collection
January 21-June 7, 2020
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Félix Buhot, Convoi Funèbre au Boulevard de Clichy (Funeral Procession on the Boulevard de Clichy), 1887, etching, drypoint, aquatint, roulette, soft ground, and lift ground over heliogravure, second state of three, 14 1/8 x 19 inches. Private collection](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Fantasy-and-Reality.jpg)
Fantasy and Reality: The World According to Félix Buhot
September 29-December 15, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Installation shot of Bauhaus Transfers: Albers / Rauschenberg](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Bauhaus-Transfers.jpg)
Bauhaus Transfers: Albers / Rauschenberg
September 3-December 15, 2019
Pincus Gallery, Second Floor
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![Augusta Savage, Gamin, c. 1930, painted plaster, 9¼ x 6 x 4 inches. The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, Florida. Purchased with funds from the Morton R. Hirschberg Bequest, AP.2013.1.1](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Augusta-Savage.jpg)
Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman
August 24-December 8, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![John Biggers, Dancers of the Ghana Harvest Festival, 1957, conté crayon, 39¼ x 29 5/8 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Purchased in memory of Charles V. Hallman (Class of 1928) with funds provided by a bequest from Mabel P. Hansen, 99.44. © John T. Biggers Estate / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, Estate Represented by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Web-of-Life.jpg)
The Web of Life: John Biggers and the Power of Pedagogy
August 20-December 15, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Ellison Hoover, George C. Miller, Lithographer, lithograph, 15 5/8 x 11½ inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 2018.11](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-George-Miller-and-American-Lithography.jpg)
George Miller and American Lithography
June 18-September 15, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Carrizo y tele (Reed and Television), c. 1976, printed 1977, gelatin silver print, 6 13/16 x 9 3/16 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. H. S. Arukian, 80.62.1](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Myth-Meets-Modernism.jpg)
Myth Meets Modernism: The Manuel Álvarez Bravo Portfolio
June 11-August 4, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Edward Weston, Rosa Covarrubias, 1926, gelatin silver print, 9 x 63/4 inches. Collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg. © 1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Under-the-Mexican-Sky.jpg)
Under the Mexican Sky: A Revolution in Modern Photography
June 1-July 28, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![John Sloan, Red Kimono on the Roof, 1912, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, James E. Roberts Fund, 54.55](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-From-the-Rooftops.jpg)
From the Rooftops: John Sloan and the Art of a New Urban Space
February 3-May 12, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Roger Shimomura, Kansas Samurai, 2004, lithograph, 44¾ x 31 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by the Sidney and Helen S. Friedman Endowment, 2018.12, © Roger Shimomura](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Amazing-Stories.jpg)
Amazing Stories: Recent Acquisitions
January 12-May 26, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Robert Reed, Le Relais Du Postillon, Florence Room 2012—Untitled #122, 2012, collage with ink, acrylic, and metal fasteners, 6 3/8 x 4 7/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist’s estate](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2019-Subjective-Spaces.jpg)
Subjective Spaces: Drawings and Collages by Robert Reed
January 5-May 19, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![G. Daniel Massad, Six Wooden Blocks, 2007, pastel on paper, 24 x 23½ inches. Private collection. © G. Daniel Massad](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2018-Small-Radius-of-Light.jpg)
A Small Radius of Light: G. Daniel Massad, A Retrospective
September 25-December 9, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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![Still-life painting was popular with many nineteenth-century American artists and viewers. Pennsylvania, in particular, has a rich tradition of specialists in still life. This exhibition featured works by skilled still-life painters identified with the Commonwealth, notably William Michael Harnett, Albert F. King, Rubens Peale, John Frederick Peto, and Severin Roesen. Object Lessons also included a varied roster of important artists who gravitated to depicting inanimate objects amid the rising commodity culture and cosmopolitan networks of the Gilded Age, among them William Mason Brown, William Merritt Chase, Charles Caryl Coleman, Martin Johnson Heade, and Elihu Vedder. Surveying the early chapter of still life in America through twenty-two paintings, this exhibition reflected on the close scrutiny and meaning of commonplace things. Rarely seen loans from private collectors complement the holdings of the Palmer to explore how flowers, fruit, and simple household objects have transfixed and beguiled viewers from the nineteenth century to the present day. Organized by the Palmer Museum of Art. Generous support for this project is provided by Art Bridges.](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2018-Object-Lessons.jpg)
Object Lessons: American Still-Life Painting in the Nineteenth Century
September 4-December 16, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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![Jan Baltzell, Untitled, 2006, oil on Mylar, 24 x 32 ½ inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Gift of The Fishman-MacElderry Collection, 2016.121. © Jan Baltzell](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2018-Instinctive-Gestures.jpg)
Instinctive Gestures: Recent Gifts from The Fishman-MacElderry Collection
August 28-December 16, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, second floor
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![Julie Heffernan, Self-Portrait as Standing My Ground, 2016, oil on canvas, 68 x 66 inches. Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery. © Julie Heffernan](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2018-When-the-Water-Rises.jpg)
When the Water Rises: Recent Paintings by Julie Heffernan
July 10-September 12, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, second floor
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![Lewis Hine, Mona Lisa Madonna Ellis Island, from the Ellis Island series, 1905, printed later, gelatin silver print. Palmer Museum of Art, Gift of Mayzette Stover, 2000.16.](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2018-Framing-the-City.jpg)
Framing the City: Photographs from the Permanent Collection
June 5-August 19, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor
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![Edward Penfield, Harper’s February, 1897, color lithograph, 18 1/2 x 13 7/16 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, Gift of Jack R. Bershad, 95.107.](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2018-American-Art-Posters.jpg)
American Art Posters of the 1890s
May 22-August 19, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor
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![Aurora Robson, Isla, 2014, plastic debris (PET + HDPE), aluminum rivets, tinted polycrylic, and mica powder. © Aurora Robson](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2018-Plastic-Entanglements.jpg)
Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials
February 13-June 17, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, second floor
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![Dox Thrash, Saturday Night, c. 1944–45, etching. Courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell, Philadelphia](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2018-Dox-Thrash.jpg)
Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint
January 16-May 20, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor
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![Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving, 9 7/8 × 7 9/16 inches. Bequest of Charles J. Rosenbloom, Carnegie Museum of Art, 74.7.81. Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh](https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2016-Small-Prints.jpg)
Small Prints, Big Artists: Renaissance and Baroque Masterpieces from Carnegie Museum of Art
February 2-May 15, 2016
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