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Upcoming Exhibitions
BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire: Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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28th Annual Iris Foundation Awards
Honoring Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Dr. Julius Bryant, Dr. Meredith Martin, and Katherine Purcell





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BGC Gallery reopens this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire: Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.

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The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.



Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today presents the history of the Sèvres Manufactory and its production of extraordinary sculptural objects in various ceramic pastes. Organized by Sèvres, Manufacture et Musée nationaux, and Bard Graduate Center, the exhibition is the first outside of France to highlight the production of sculpture made at the famed porcelain manufactory.

From extravagant Rococo to restrained Neoclassical, from romantic, neo-Gothic inventions to the elegant curves of the Art Nouveau or the geometries of the Art Deco, and in partnership with artists associated with Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop art, Sèvres has continually pushed the boundaries of ceramic production, creating objects that are neither functional nor decorative but rather art that it simply calls “sculpture.”
Catalogue
Object Highlights
Online Exhibition


Credits
Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today is curated by Tamara Préaud, former archivist of the Sèvres Manufactory, Soazig Guilmin, Sèvres, Manufacture et Musée nationaux, head of the registrar’s department (Service de Récolement et du Mouvement des Oeuvres), Charlotte Vignon, former director of the department of patrimony and collections (Département de Patrimoine et des Collections), Sèvres, Manufacture et Musée nationaux, and Susan Weber, founder and director, Bard Graduate Center.


Support for Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today is generously provided by the Lee B. Anderson Memorial Foundation, the Majolica International Society, the Belvedere Trust, Michele Beiny Harkins, Giles Ellwood and Philippe Sacerdot, and other donors to Bard Graduate Center.