Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at a Window, c. 1820
Join art historian Karen Pope for study tours, day trips, and informal coffee and online programs to expand your horizons or fill gaps in your world of art. No background or experience is necessary--just curiosity!
Upcoming events, near and far, offer art history experiences in the good company of companions with similar interests.
EXPLORE Recommended temporary museum exhibitions around Texas are listed on this page
CONTACT Add your name to the email list or begin a registration for an event at Contact Art inSight
PARTICIPATE Day Trips, Study Tours, and future destinations are described on the Study Tours page
A chronological survey from Colonial times to the Present
The pdf at the right is a printable illustrated schedule for 2026 >
Zoom meetings $20/person on Thursdays (recordings available) Coffee meetings $30/person on Fridays [St Matthews, Steck @ Mesa] Reviews and notes are sent following each program
You are welcome to register one month at a time or for the whole year at once!
Checks: Art inSight, PO Box 5730, Austin TX 78763-5730 Venmo: @karenpope95
January: Colonial Beginnings 22 via Zoom / 23 Coffee @ St Matt’s
February: Georgian America 12 via Zoom / 13 Coffee @ St Matt’s March: The New Republic 12 via Zoom / 13 Coffee @ St Matt’s
April: Greek to Gothic 09th via Zoom / repeat 10th via Zoom
May: Pre-Civil War Painting 28 via Zoom / 29 Coffee @ St Matt’s
June: Democratic Art (mid-century prints and sculpture) 19 Coffee @ St Matt’s
June 24:SPECIAL EVENT, "Great American Images"
June: Democratic Art (mid-century prints and sculpture) 25 via Zoom
July: Painting after the Civil War 09 via Zoom / 10 Coffee @ St Matt’s
August: Architecture & Sculpture 27 via Zoom / 28 Coffee @ St Matt’s
September: Painting the 20th Century 24 via Zoom / 25 Coffee @ St Matt’s
October: XX Architecture & Sculpture 29 via Zoom / 30 Coffee @ St Matt’s
November: Art Now 12 via Zoom / 13 Coffee @ St Matt’s
December: A Review 03 via Zoom / 04 Coffee @ St Matt’s
Othmar Schimtowitz, Angels, Leopold Church "Am Steinhof," c.1900, Vienna
Past series:
2025 Painting across the Nineteenth Century: Neoclassicism to the Fauves 2024 Painters of Modern Life, Courbet to Picasso 2023 Great Women Artists, Part II 2022 Women Artists in Their Birthday Months, honoring the 50th anniversary of Feminist Art History Studies, f. 1972 2021 Artists in Their Birthday Months 2020 Masterpieces: Method, Meaning, Context 2019 Great Art Museums, part 2 2018 Great Art Museums, part 1 2017 Great Collectors and Their Collections, part 2 2016 Great Collectors and Their Collections, part 1 2015 Japan & the West 2014 9 Great Cities and Their Depiction by Artists 2013 Back to the Birthdays, Artists in Their Birthday Months 2012 The World's Great Buildings: Milestones in Architecture 2011 Women in Art/Art of Women 2010 Art of Nations: Survey of Art History, One Country at a Time 2009 Angels, Saints and Their Friends in Art History 2008 Time Capsules: A Survey of Seven Centuries 2007 Un-Birthday Parties (for great artists with inconvenient birthdates) 1995-2006 Birthday Parties for great artists, on their true birthdays
Potential Future Series Topics:
Key Works of American Art (Painting, Sculpture, Architecture): A Salute to Our Nation and Its 250th Birthday Key Works of World Architecture, Stonehenge to Safdie Great Moments in Art History, Antiquity to Modern Perspectives on Movies about Great Artists A Year with Prints: Basics of the major printmaking processes, handling examples, studio and collection visits Art History Survey: Prehistory through the Present Great Works in each medium, one medium at a time, emphasis on process and effect (marble, etching, tempera, etc.)
Texas Museum Exhibition Recommendations and Special Events
This is a selective list. Check museum offerings before you go--
BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART ♦ www.blantonmuseum.org American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection: From Edward Hopper to Alma Thomas (through August 2, 2026)
BRISCOE CENTER FOR AMERICAN HISTORY • www.cah.utexas.edu From Commemoration to Education: Pompeo Coppini's Statue of Jefferson Davis Commissioned in 1919 by university regent Major George W. Littlefield the statue was envisioned as part of a much larger allegorical memorial, the Littlefield Fountain, intended to honor Texans who died in the Civil War and World War I while also addressing the reconciliation of the northern and southern states between those wars. However, the memorial and its campus setting and cultural context changed significantly over the course of its development. No longer an object of commemoration, the statue was moved in 2015 and now forms part of a new exhibition that explores the statue's history, as well as its significance as both a work of art and evidence of the past.
NEILL-COCHRAN HOUSE MUSEUM ♦ www.nchmuseum.org Jack White Retrospective (through September 6, 2026) Over a career that spanned more than seven decades, Jack White explored the world around him as well as his African heritage through naturalistic drawings as well as abstract collages, totems, and paintings. The pieces shown come from his widow's private collection in the home they shared and bring together more than twenty examples of White’s work that are diverse in subject matter, style, and medium
UMLAUF SCULPTURE GARDEN & MUSEUM • www.umlaufsculpture.org 35x35x35 (through October 18, 2026) Special exhibition of rarely-seen work by Austin's sculptor in celebration of the Umlauf Museum's 35th anniversary.
The Carter Collection (permanent collection highlights, reinstalled)
KIMBELL ART MUSEUM ♦ www.kimbellart.org MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH ♦ www.themodern.org NATIONAL COWGIRL MUSEUM & HALL OF FAME ♦ www.cowgirl.net Dare to Wear: a spectacular display of designer cowgirl fashion
SID RICHARDSON MUSEUMCelebrating Remington & Russell ♦ www.sidrichardsonmuseum.org
BAYOU BEND A Unique Gathering of Americana ♦ www.mfah.org/bayoubend
CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM ♦ www.camh.org
HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT ♦ www.crafthouston.org
MENIL COLLECTION ♦ www.menil.org
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ♦ www.mfah.org
THE PEARL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS • www.pearlmfa.org The Pearl is a non-collecting fine art museum, borrowing from public and private collections. The museum complements its exhibitions with an active schedule of programs and services. Founded on the community center concept, the Pearl reaches beyond traditional museums to enlighten, educate, and entertain. The Pearl is housed in a former county library, leased to the museum and renovated through private funds, grants, and gifts. The Pearl is wholly supported through the community. Over 3,000 donors have given to the museum to date.
RIENZI A Home for European Decorative Arts ♦ www.mfah.org/rienzi
Steuben Glass: Stories Engraved in Crystal (ongoing)
THE W. H. STARK HOUSE♦http://www.whstarkhouse.org/ The 14,000 square-foot three-story house built in 1894 by William Henry Stark and his wife, Miriam M. Lutcher Stark, prominent philanthropists who occupied the home until 1936, was designed in the Queen Anne architectural style. It house features a distinctive turret, stained glass windows, and ornate woodwork in cypress and long leaf yellow pine.
As a historic house museum (National Register of Historic Places) it is interpreted to c. 1900 with fifteen rooms of original family furnishings, personal effects and decorative arts, including antique rugs, original textiles, silver, cut glass, and antique porcelain. Also featured are the Stark family’s impressive collections of American Brilliant Period cut glass, pressed and pattern glass, milk glass, porcelains, and other 18th and 19th century decorative accessories.
Attractive Special Exhibitions beyond Texas Not a comprehensive list, just items of interest ... NB: Italics below are a glitch, not meaningful ...
The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived in London! and will be on view at the British Museum until July 2027.
Tickets (for 40-minute timeslots) go on sale July 1 to see the Tapestry September 2026 - July 2027 Per Apollo Magazine (May 24th, 2026 issue) Tapestry will be displayed in a straight line – as it has not been in the old Bayeux Tapestry Museum – which requires visitors to keep moving. It’s also worth considering that when the work’s permanent home in Bayeux reopens in 2027 it has been reported that visitors will have only 25 minutes to see it.
AMSTERDAMRijksmuseum • https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/enMetamorphoses (February 6 - May 25, 2026) An exhibition of major Old Master works demonstrating the long-lived appeal of Ovid's great work as a source of subject matter. Nice overview: https://www.thetimes.com/article/10e32543-4263-4b9a-87d4-f25e420b8a6f?shareToken=7488c2995504c79a6d61f9c778ff7a36 Van Gogh Museum • https://vangoghmuseum.nl/enVincent's Path to Fame (until Septemer 5, 2026)When he died, his work was still barely known. This exhibition tells what happened next. It shows how Theo van Gogh, Jo van Gogh-Bonger and later Vincent’s nephew kept his work safe, shared it with others and passed it on. ANTWERP Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp • https://kmska.be/nlA Red that Sings: Masterpieces of Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug (through August 30, 2026) ASHEVILLE Biltmore • https://www.biltmore.com/ ATLANTAHigh Museum • https://high.org/Pioneers, Influencers, and Rising Voices: Women in the Collection (new installation)
Shaheen Collection of French Works (ongoing)
A family collection focused on French art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone (through January 3, 2027) Get to know the first African-American sculptor to become fmous at home and abroaad
Cassirer and the Breakthrough of Impressionism (through September 27, 2026_
A tribute to Paul Cassirer (1871-1926), one of the most important art dealers of his time, whose dense and continuous exhibition program spread French Impressionism in Germany; 120 works of Impressionism and Classical Modernism showcase Cassirer'sremarkable commitment to the arts.
BIRMINGHAM, England Barber Institute of Fine Arts • [reopening 2026] BLOOMINGTON Eskenazi Museum of Art (Indiana University) • https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/ BONN Bundestkunsthalle • www.bundeskunsthalle.de Museum Reinhard Ernst •
BUFFALO • Albright-Knox Gallery (Buffalo AKG Art Museum) BURLINGTON VT Shelburne Museum • shelburnemuseum.org
CADORE (PIEVE DI CADORE)Palazzo della Magnifica Communità di Cadore + Titian's Birthplace • Titian and the Landscape (through October 18, 2026) The painter's birthplace marks the 450th anniversary of his death https://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/9707_Titian_and_the_Landscape_in_Pieve_di_Cadore CAMBRIDGE Fitzwilliam Museum • http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/
CHARLESTONBrookgreen Gardens • https://www.brookgreen.org/ CHICAGO Art Institute of Chicago• http://www.artic.edu
Willem deKooning Drawing (through September 20, 2026)
Korean National Treasures: 2000 Years of Art (through July 5, 2026)
from 6th-century gilt bronze Buddhist sculptures through Joseon dynasty porcelain and 20th-century paintings.
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Marking the centennial of her death, Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism examines her paintings, pastels, and prints of this pivotal period when she took her art making in new directions, including "Modern Woman," the mural for the Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Chicago's "White City")
DUBLINNational Gallery of Ireland • https://www.nationalgallery.ie/William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy (through July 19, 2026)Blake's visionary paintings and prints alongside work by the artist's peers
Rembrandt to Matisse: A Celebration of Works on Paper (through December 6, 2026)A special opportunity, sicne museum practice prohibts frequent display of light-sensitive works on paper DUSSELDORF
FLORENCE Palazzo Strozzi + Museo di San Marco • Museu del Bargello • https://www.florence-museum.com/bargello-museum Uffizi • https://www.uffizi-gallery
William Morris Gallery • https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/ exhibitions celebrating 75 years of WMG Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textile Designs (opening October 2025)
The museum's holdings include one of the world's great collections of Pre-Raphaelite art Develop an appreciation by watching Andrew Lloyd Webber, "A Passion for the Pre-Raphaelites" video
Exhibition devoted to the story of Morgan's "personal librarian," who built the library collection and eventually directed the Library; subject of the acclaimed book by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian, 2021 See video on website: "The Most Fascinating Librarian in American History"
Martin Schongauer: The Beautiful Immortal (through July 20, 2026)
The painter and engraver who counted Bosch, Dürer and Michelangelo among his admirers (the Kimbell painting considered to be Michelangelo's first painting is a color interpretation of a woodcut by Schongauer)
Michelangelo and Rodin: Living Bodies (through July 20, 2026)
Exquisite collection of French XVIII art and furnishings assembled by Moise da Camondo in memory of his son, Nissim; the Camondo Family were neighbors of the Ephrussi Family close to Parc Monceau, the inspiration behind Edmund de Waal's Letters to Camondo
Musée d'Orsay • www.musee-orsay. Renoir and Love: A Joyful Modernity 1865-1885 (through July 19, 2026)
Rodin Museum • rodinmuseum.orgRethinking the Modern Monument (ongoing) Applauded and despised in equal measure, Rodin’s public sculptures were viewed as a shocking departure from the methods used for centuries to pay homage to famous figures, and he changed the form forever. See many of the artist’s best-known sculptures alongside works by artists who came after, inspired by the radical intimacy of his public monuments. PLYMOUTH The Box • https://www.thebox PORTLAND (Maine) Portland Museum of Art • www.portlandmuseum.orgTours of the Winslow Homer studio at Prout's Neck:Available from April through October, twice a day, on select days of the week (207) 775-6148
De Young/Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco • http://deyoung.famsf.org San Francisco Museum of Modern Art • https://www.sfmoma.org/ Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal (May 16 - September 13, 2026)
