THIS EXHIBITION CURRENTLY CLOSED DURING RENOVATION.  IT WILL REOPEN IN FALL, 2008.

This installation features glass art from the Museum's permanent collection and works on loan from significant private collections of contemporary fine art glass in the desert communities. With a new emphasis on collecting glass, the museum has established a gallery in which to exhibit new gifts and loans.

THIS EXHIBITION CURRENTLY CLOSED DURING RENOVATION.  IT WILL REOPEN IN FALL, 2008.

This exhibition explores the relationship between ancient Mexican objects and 20th-century art. Created as early as 100 B.C., the ancient objects provide insights into the creativity and beliefs of Latin American indigenous cultures while Modern artworks by Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and others reveal a direct link between Mesoamerican objects and modern art forms. Inspired by the archaeological discovery and exploration of Aztec, Mayan and West Mexico Amerindian cultures, 20th-century artists recognized and appreciated the aesthetic importance and significance of these ancient cultures. For Mexico, the concept of national identity has been shaped in large part by the ongoing discovery of its own antiquity.

"A world of cultural hybrids and collisions" animates the work of Mexican-born San Francisco artist Enrique Chagoya, who taps Mexico's complex history, international politics, world religions and popular culture in his art. A single work incorporates a diverse selection of visual material from various cultures and time periods. Contemporary icons like Mickey Mouse, Superman, Wonder Woman, Che Guevara, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush may intermingle with more ancient figures, such as the Aztec god Mictlantecutli, Buddha, and the Virgin of Guadalupe among other religious icons in fantastic compositions. In his lively work, Chagoya also pays homage to history's other socially engaged artists, such as Honore Daumier, Francisco Goya, Jose Guadalupe Posada, John Heartfield and Philip Guston.

Born on a ranch near Fresno, California, Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) became a noted illustrator, landscape artist and mural painter of the early 20^th-century American West. His favored subjects included landscapes (especially the desert), Indians, early settlers and cowboys. Influenced by modernism, he developed a unique style of painting bold masses of color with simple lines which led him into mural painting where he excelled much of his professional life

This exhibition, specifically organized for the Palm Springs Art Museum and personally curated by Mark Coetzee, Rubell Family Collection director, is the first of other future collaborations between the two museums involving a range of initiatives featuring exhibitions drawn from the rich holdings of the Rubell Family Collection.