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Kimbell Announces 2027 Exhibitions
The Kimbell Art Museum today announced two special exhibitions for 2027: Treasures of the Pharaohs in the spring, followed by Thomas Gainsborough opening in the fall.
The Kimbell will be one of only two museums in North America to display 130 carefully selected artifacts from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum, offering rare insights into the daily life, social structures, religious practices, and legacies of the Egyptian pharaohs. Then, Thomas Gainsborough will receive an exhibition befitting his legacy on the 300th anniversary of his birth – the first major survey of his work in more than two decades.
“From Egypt’s ‘Golden City’ in the fourteenth century BC to the ‘golden age’ of British portraiture in the eighteenth century AD, the Kimbell’s 2027 exhibitions will continue the museum’s tradition of giving its visitors once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to experience great works of art from throughout history,” said Eric M. Lee, the museum’s director.
Outer Anthropoid Coffin of Thuya, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of
Amenhotep III (c. 1386–1349 BC). Wood covered with gilded stucco with
inlays of blue glass, obsidian (eyes), light blue, dark blue, and red glass, 86
x 26 1/2 x 37 in. (218.5 x 67.5 x 94 cm). Tomb of Yuya and Thuya (KV 46),
Valley of the Kings. Luxor Museum
Photograph by Massimo Listri
Treasures of the Pharaohs
March 14–September 19, 2027
Through 130 artifacts from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum, this landmark exhibition offers rare insights into the daily life, social structures, religious practices, and legacies of the Egyptian pharaohs. Three thousand years of ancient Egyptian history are presented through an array of dazzling royal treasures: monumental granite sculptures, elegant gold jewelry, carved and painted stone stele, lavishly decorated sarcophagi, and other exquisite furnishings demonstrate the sophistication of Egyptian craftsmanship and belief systems. And newly discovered artifacts from King Amenhotep III’s workers’ community within the “Golden City” in the Valley of the Kings provide a glimpse into the lives of artisans and laborers often absent from presentations of Egyptian art history.
The exhibition curator is Dr. Tarek el-Awady, former director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is organized by the Kimbell Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), in collaboration with ALES SpA, the in-house company of the Italian Ministry of Culture, and MondoMostre. It is accompanied by a major scholarly catalogue by Egyptian archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass.
Pomeranian and Puppy, c. 1777, Thomas Gainsborough. Tate, bequeathed
by Mrs. Arthur James 1948. Photo: Tate
Thomas Gainsborough
November 14, 2027–March 19, 2028
Celebrating the leading figure of the glamorous, “golden age” of British portraiture on the 300th anniversary of his birth, Thomas Gainsborough brings together some 120 paintings, drawings, and prints for the first major survey of his work in more than two decades. The exhibition explores the seeming tension in the artist’s career between, on the one hand, his enormous success as a society portraitist, and, on the other, his personal passion for innovative landscape painting, as well as experimental drawing and printmaking. The artist will be brought vividly to life through an emphasis on his family, and his ardent love of music and theater.
This exhibition is organized by the Kimbell Art Museum in association with Tate Britain.
