Past ExhibitionsExhibition
Villains in the Frame

Organized by

The National Museum of Western Art

With the cooperation of

The Western Art Foundation

There are lots of villains at the NMWA! But we don’t mean the staff members! These are villains whose stories are told in some NMWA collection art works. Youths blinded by money, men lusting after young women, jealous old hags, thieves, and their like. Personifications of evil, witches, demons, and their groveling henchmen. Death – that which we most fear – appears in the works of some periods as vicious, loathsome skeletons.

While we are meant to shun these villains, and not just those in human guise, their richly individualistic, at times comical, appearance in pictures fascinate us, often more so than those of the worthy, angels, or saints. Surely, in these depictions of villains we can sense and enjoy each artist’s flights of fancy.

And, yet, while there are some depictions of evil and the improper from the far-off past that carry the same meaning today, there are also those we struggle to understand. While we still find murder and jealousy evil and improper, we might feel it strange that gluttony was considered a sin. The line between good and evil is unchanging in some ways, while in others, it is a wavering moving line, depending on period, region, and society. This exhibition provides an encounter with one aspect of past European value systems. In addition to dozens of prints, this exhibition will also display several paintings.

Exhibition Checklist (PDF file, about 1.10MB)

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