This exhibition draws from the Museum’s extensive collections of modern art to place Gorky among European artists who inspired him, American artists whom he influenced, and expatriate Russian artists with whom he exhibited and worked while living in New York.

The first exhibition of Sommer’s work in Philadelphia since 1968, Frederick Sommer Photographs presents some forty images spanning the artist’s career, along with a small number of drawings and collages. Included is a rare suite of macabre yet poignant photographs the artist made in 1939 using chicken parts collected from his local butcher.

The masterpieces in this exhibition encompass nearly a millennium of art from across the Himalayan region (centered on Tibet and Nepal) and from neighboring areas under its cultural influence.

Common Ground examines a critical period for the art of photography and for the Philadelphia art scene. In the 1960s, photographers including Emmet Gowin, Will Larson, and Ray K. Metzker, among the first generation of photographers trained in university art departments, all came to Philadelphia to teach in the city’s renowned art schools, bringing with them experimental approaches to the medium.