Installation view of artworks by Nora Naranjo Morse and Eliza Naranjo Morse in "In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships," at the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, February 16-July 20,2025
Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi
José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez
Nora Naranjo Morse and Eliza Naranjo Morse
Type
Major Exhibition
No artist creates in isolation. Shared visual languages, techniques, and concerns shape artistic innovation.
In Creative Harmony explores the ways in which artists inspire each other by highlighting the relationships between three pairs of artists: inter-generational Mexican printmakers José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez; friends and innovators in abstract painting and sculpture Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi; and Nora Naranjo Morse and her daughter Eliza Naranjo Morse, who will be creating new work together for the first time.
This three-part exhibition—each partnership organized by a different Blanton curator—reveals the diversity of connections and contexts that drive creativity.
One of the nine U.S. museum shows you shouldn’t miss in the first half of 2025.
CULTURED
Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi: Outside In
From the late 1920s through the 1940s, painter Arshile Gorky (circa 1904–1948) and sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) developed their distinctive abstract vocabularies grounded in the natural world or evoking organic forms. Simultaneously, the artists established a friendship informed not only by their work, but also by a shared sense of otherness. The tension between “outside” and “inside” structured their stylistic synthesis of nature, memory, and myth, as well as their national and ethnic identities, resulting in highly personal visual languages.
Outside In reunites for the first time the three known collaborative drawings Gorky and Noguchi produced with De Hirsh Margules in 1939 in response to the outbreak of war in Europe. It will also present works shown by Gorky and Noguchi in landmark exhibitions of the 1940s but not seen together in over 70 years. These works ground Gorky and Noguchi in their historical moment—between Surrealism and the emerging New York School—and reveal the originality and impact of their visions.
Organized by Claire Howard, Associate Curator, Collections and Exhibitions, Blanton Museum of Art
José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez: Calaveras y Corazones
Calaveras y Corazones explores a cross-generational conversation between two radical Mexican printmakers. Known as “The Mexican Goya,” José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) is also considered the father of modern Mexican printmaking. Inspired by Posada’s use of irony, satire, and caustic social critique as potent artistic strategies, Artemio Rodríguez (b. 1972) employs the same grim humor in works challenging contemporary social and political injustice.
Both Posada and Rodríguez depict imagined, sometimes apocalyptic, worlds where “all’s fair in love and war.” These two thematic throughlines connect their bodies of work with scenes of murderous skeletons and damsels in distress, often depicted as calaveras y corazones (“skulls and hearts/sweethearts”). This section will feature approximately 80 carefully chosen works, including many Posada prints drawn from Rodríguez’s personal collection and loans from esteemed institutions.
Organized by Vanessa Davidson, Curator of Latin American Art, Blanton Museum of Art
Nora Naranjo Morse and Eliza Naranjo Morse: Lifelong
For Lifelong, contemporary artists Nora Naranjo Morse (b. 1953) and Eliza Naranjo Morse (b. 1980), the mother-daughter descendants of a renowned artistic family of the Kha’p’o Owingeh (Santa Clara Pueblo, NM), are collectively creating an immersive environment. Together, they’ll merge their familial and personal artistic practices through artworks that center Indigenous ways of thinking about our relationship to the planet, the sacredness of life, and acts of creativity. Their new collaborative work is grounded in the materiality of their community, from the micaceous clay of Pueblo ceramicists to local found and recycled materials, all imbued with legacies of storytelling.
Working together at this scale for the first time, Nora and Eliza Naranjo Morse explore the deep roots of how materials and languages embody meaning, how images and forms narrate ancestral journeys and how art can help envision a better future for all of us.
Join us for a guided experience of In Creative Harmony, exploring the ways in which artists inspire each other by highlighting the relationships between three pairs of artists: inter-generational Mexican printmakers José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez; friends and innovators in abstract painting and sculpture Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi; and Nora Naranjo Morse and her daughter Eliza Naranjo Morse. Through close looking and conversation, we will make meaningful connections to the works of art on display. Learn more about the show on the “In Creative Harmony” exhibition page.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the tour. Our tours can accommodate a maximum of 25 people on a first come, first serve basis. Please check-in with our Visitor Services Desk to secure your place.
Acompáñenos en una experiencia guiada de In Creative Harmony, que explora las formas en que los artistas se inspiran mutuamente, destacando las relaciones entre tres parejas de artistas: los grabadores mexicanos intergeneracionales José Guadalupe Posada y Artemio Rodríguez; los amigos e innovadores de la pintura y la escultura abstractas Arshile Gorky e Isamu Noguchi; y Nora Naranjo Morse y su hija Eliza Naranjo Morse. A través de la observación atenta y la conversación, formaremos conexiones significativas con las obras de arte expuestas. Aprenda más sobre la exposición en la página «In Creative Harmony».
Se ruega llegar al menos 15 minutos antes del comienzo de la visita. Nuestras visitas tienen capacidad para un máximo de 25 personas, atendidas por orden de llegada. Por favor, regístrese en nuestro mostrador de atención al visitante para asegurar su lugar.
Busque actualizaciones revisando nuestra página Antes de Su Visita (Before You Visit) cuando planifique su visita. El Blanton está ubicado en la intersección de Congress Avenue y Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Hay estacionamiento de pago disponible en el Brazos Garage, localizado en la esquina de Brazos Street y Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Los miembros de Blanton sólo pagan 4 dólares por estacionarse ahí: traiga su boleto de estacionamiento al mostrador de servicios al visitante para pagarlo. El público en general debe pagar la tarifa normal directamente en la caja del estacionamiento.
Join us for a guided experience of In Creative Harmony, exploring the ways in which artists inspire each other by highlighting the relationships between three pairs of artists: inter-generational Mexican printmakers José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez; friends and innovators in abstract painting and sculpture Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi; and Nora Naranjo Morse and her daughter Eliza Naranjo Morse. Through close looking and conversation, we will make meaningful connections to the works of art on display. Learn more about the show on the “In Creative Harmony” exhibition page.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the tour. Our tours can accommodate a maximum of 25 people on a first come, first serve basis. Please check-in with our Visitor Services Desk to secure your place.
Join us for a guided experience of In Creative Harmony, exploring the ways in which artists inspire each other by highlighting the relationships between three pairs of artists: inter-generational Mexican printmakers José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez; friends and innovators in abstract painting and sculpture Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi; and Nora Naranjo Morse and her daughter Eliza Naranjo Morse. Through close looking and conversation, we will make meaningful connections to the works of art on display. Learn more about the show on the “In Creative Harmony” exhibition page.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the tour. Our tours can accommodate a maximum of 25 people on a first come, first serve basis. Please check-in with our Visitor Services Desk to secure your place.
Two visitors looking at a sculpture by Nora Naranjo Morse titled “Healers from Some Other Place,” 2020-24, Burlap, paint, reclaimed materials and clay, 96 x 50 x 120 in., Courtesy of the artist
A visitor looking at an artwork by Eliza Naranjo Morse titled “When the Sun sets Differently,” 2024, acrylic and clay on canvas, 36 x 72 x 2 in., Courtesy of the artist
Credit
In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art.
Major support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided by The Moody Foundation. This exhibition is supported in part by David and Ellen Berman.
