Brooklyn Museum

In memory of the revolutionary and resourceful Betye Saar, who was born on July 30, 1926.

As a prominent member of the , Saar developed a politically potent and personally meaningful practice rooted in assemblage—composing works with found, inherited, or discarded objects.

In “Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail” (shown here), Saar transforms a Gallo wine jug, a 1970s marker of middle-class sophistication, into a tool for Black liberation.

Combining the iconography of the Black Power Movement, political violence, and aspirational middle-class American culture, this object critiques the racist stereotypes of Black femininity (notice the “mammy” figure on the front) and speaks to the revolutionary aims of Black Liberation movements (see the Black Power first on the back).

This work was on view in the 2017 exhibition, “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” at the Brooklyn Museum and became part of our collection thereafter.

Saar’s ability to imbue ordinary objects with remarkable resonance is just one piece of the legacy she leaves behind. ♥️

🎨 Betye Saar. Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail, 1973. Glass, paper, textile, metal, Overall: 12 1/2 × 5 3/4 in. (31.8 × 14.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Elizabeth A. Sackler, gift of the Contemporary Art Committee, and William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, 2017.17.

Late-night stroll in Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, anyone? 🌃

On Saturday, August 1, will be open late during First Saturday: Where Brooklyn Meets the Caribbean. Last entry for the exhibition is 8:45 pm!

🎟️ Reserve your tickets today through the link in our bio.

📷 → → → Installation view of Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, Brooklyn Museum, 2026. (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)

How do you grow up without becoming a grown-up? 💭

That’s the question at-hand for Brooklyn Talks with Julian Shapiro-Barnum and Tefi Pessoa on August 6 at 7 pm.

Drawing from five years of interviews with thousands of children, comedian and creator of , Julian Shapiro-Barnum shares lessons from wise young people about how adults can reconnect with the joy and play of their childhood selves.

In this talk, celebrate the release of his debut book How to Grow Up Without Becoming a Grown-Up by exploring how to reclaim imagination and return wonder to your work, and when to break the rules.

Julian is joined in conversation by Tefi Pessoa, a multihyphenate entertainer and host of the podcast Tefi Talks. Stick around for a signing with the author afterward.

🎟️ Tickets are $25 ($15 for Members). Tickets including a copy of How to Grow Up Without Becoming a Grown-Up are $40 ($30 for Members). Get yours through the link in our bio.

📷 Julian Shapiro-Barnum. (Photo: Justin J Wee) → Tefi Pessoa. (Photo: Sarah Krick)

New York City through Edward Hopper’s eyes…🚶

in 1882, Hopper is known for his depictions of modern American life and landscapes with a contemplative and melancholic touch.

Born in Nyack, New York, Hopper moved to New York City in 1908, living and working in a studio in Greenwich Village until his death in 1967.

Using etching techniques, Hopper’s prints in our collection explore tension between human presence and emptiness, capturing moments of introspection and isolation of the city we all love so much.

📷 Edward Hopper. Night Shadows, 1921. Etching. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Edwin De T. Bechtel, 68.192.17. → Housetops, 1921. Etching. Brooklyn Museum, 25.887. → East Side Interior, 1922. Etching on paper. Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 58.49. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Celebrate City of Water Day with us in Coney Island! 🎢

The Museum on Wheels will be in Kaiser Park day of free, family-friendly events on or near the water inspired by New York City’s waterfront.

Transform beach finds into art, discover coastal treasures through touch tours, create colorful pinwheels, and connect with local organizations that support the community.

🗓️ Saturday, July 25, 10 am–2 pm
📍 Kaiser Park,​ 3053 Neptune Avenue​,​ Brooklyn,​ NY 11224
👪 All ages are welcome

Join us there and enter an on-site giveaway to win a free 6-month Brooklyn Museum Membership!

This program is created in partnership with Coney Island Beautification Project, Inc. and the Waterfront Alliance.

Additional program partners include: NYC Health + Hospitals, Staten Island Museum, One Love Community Fridge

📷 Museum on Wheels: Flatbush, June 2026. (Photo: Argenis Apolinario)

From the 1980s to today. 🍽️

Happy birthday to the iconic feminist artist Judy Chicago, creator of The Dinner Party!

First opened to the public at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1979, The Dinner Party celebrates the lives and achievements of historical and mythical women across Western civilization in the form of a lavish banquet table set for 39.

After being on tour around the world and in storage at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., The Dinner Party was permanently installed as the central work in our Center for Feminist Art in March 2007.

Visit The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago currently on view on the fourth floor. ♥️

📷 Judy Chicago: The Dinner Party. [10/18/1980 - 02/01/1981]. → Institutional photography, June 2024. Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Adrianna Glaviano) → Installation view. Judy Chicago. The Dinner Party, 1974-1979. Ceramic, porcelain, textile; triangular table. Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Gift of The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10.

This one is for the art lovers who pay attention to details. 🫵

Gamify your next gallery walk by filling each space on one of our bingo cards. Win bingo or blackout for up to 50% discounts you can redeem in the Museum Shop.

Pick-up your bingo card at the admissions desk during your next visit!

📷 Institutional photography, June 2024. Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Adrianna Glaviano)

First Saturday: Where Brooklyn Meets the Caribbean on August 1! ☀️

The August edition of First Saturdays is part of Drawing America: US@250, a season of art installations, programs, and partnerships honoring those who have imagined a more equitable future and fought for the promise of our democracy.

We’ll be joined by:

Brooklyn Pop-Up Market (Brooklyn Pop-Up)
Brooklyn Museum Teens (Brooklyn Museum Teens)
Burnett Coburn (Burnett Coburn)
Cheryl Boyce Taylor (Cheryl Boyce-Taylor)
Defans Karayib (Defans Karayib • Caribbean Defense)
DJ NotNice (DJ NotNice🌊)
DJ Teddy Gramz (DJ Teddy Gramz 🇭🇹)
DJ Ultraviolet (Ultra Violet💜)
First Panamanian Marching Band of Brooklyn (First Panamanian Marching Band of Brooklyn, N.Y.)
HeadCount (HeadCount | Register To Vote)
Janna Levin (Janna Levin)
Keisha Scarville (Keisha Scarville)
Metro Steel Orchestra (metrosteelorchestra)
Robenson Mathurin (Robenson Mathurin)
Salsa Rockers (Salsa Rockers NYC)
Stephon Alexander (Stephon Alexander)
Yaissa Jiménez (Yaissa)

🎟️ First Saturdays are always free, we just ask that you RSVP! Walk-ins are welcome; first come, first served.

Aptly titled, “Wish You Were Here.” 🎡

This image merges an archival photograph of Ayumi Tanaka as a baby in her mother’s arms in Japan with a picture she made in Coney Island after moving to New York as a young adult.

“Having traveled over the mountains of my hometown—crossing an entire ocean and leaving my childhood home in a distant wake—I recall the days of my youth with great frequency, thirsting for the lingering images of what came before.”

See Tanaka’s work—and more art and design created in the borough from the 17th century to today—on view now in Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200.

📷 Ayumi Tanaka (Japanese, born 1978). Wish You Were Here, 2013. Photography. Purchase gift of Peggy and Keith Anderson, 2024.52. © 2013 Ayumi Tanaka. All rights reserved.

Zoom in for a special message. 🧐

Made in collaboration with Venetian glassmakers, “Iago’s Mirror” by Fred Wilson embodies the hyperdecorative aesthetic of Rococo-style mirrors.

See this artwork in Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art on the fifth floor.

📷 Fred Wilson. Iago’s Mirror, 2009. Murano glass. Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by John and Barbara Vogelstein, purchase gift of Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia, Arline and Norman Feinberg, Beverly and Steven A. Newborn, Sheila and Richard J. Schwartz, Leslie L. and Alan Beller, Barbara and Richard W. Moore, and Carla Shen , 2011.11. © 2010 Fred Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery.

Happy birthday to Frida Kahlo, the iconic artist ! 💐

The Mexican painter, known for her arresting imagery exploring identity, the human body, and nature, shared her musings on creativity, resilience, and life in her personal diary.

This portrait was taken during Kahlo’s 1946 trip to New York by Nickolas Muray, on the rooftop of his apartment building at 18 East 48th Street.

📷 Nickolas Muray. Frida in New York, 1946; printed 2006. Carbon pigment print. Brooklyn Museum, Emily Winthrop Miles Fund, 2010.80. © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives

“I find beauty in the continual shaping of chaos, the embodiment of nature’s primordial power.” —Iris van Herpen ()

Spend your Sunday discovering the beauty of Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses—a suitable solo date or social outing.

Experience the visionary designer’s works in-person and plan your visit through the link in our bio.

📷 → → → →

Mark Independence Day the Brooklyn Museum way. 🇺🇸

Explore the people and the movements that have fought for the greater potential of our democracy and defined American culture through a series of self-guided audio tours across our collection on the Bloomberg Connects app: https://bit.ly/4wrir3q

🎨 Wadsworth A. Jarrell. Revolutionary (Angela Davis) (detail), 1971. © Wadsworth Jarrell. → Sasha Gordon. My Friend Will Be Me, 2022. → George Benjamin Luks. Street Scene (Hester Street) (detail), 1905. → John Koch. East River (detail), ca. 1930. © Estate of John Koch. → Robert Peterson. Love is Love (detail), 2022. © Robert Peterson (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Popping the question is enough of an adrenaline rush. 💍

And we mean cool in a literal sense. Brooklyn Museum is an NYC Cooling Center if you're looking for an air-conditioned space to roam, relax, or romance.

📷 , ,

What’s on your summer bucket list? 🍧

Everyone who visits is a VIP, but our Members enjoy some special perks, including…

🎟️ Free, untimed tickets to Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses

🛍️ Discounts on dining, shopping, tours, art classes, additional guests, and ticketed programs

💌 First dibs on tickets to special exhibitions, First Saturdays, previews, programs, and more

😌 Members-only access to the galleries and special programming, like Member Evenings and Member Mornings

📷 Opening Reception: Iris van Herpen, 2026. (Photo: Matthew Carasella Photography)

Donald Moffett: IMPEACH is highbrow, brilliant on the New York Magazine matrix. ✔️

In IMPEACH, artist Donald Moffett turns the floor of the US House of Representatives in December 1998 into an immersive sound installation.

As the chamber debates whether to impeach President Bill Clinton, Representative John Lewis delivers a deeply personal speech about surviving a devastating storm—and about holding a divided nation together.

Removing the speech from its original context, Moffett allows us to focus on the details of the congressman’s story, the echoes of applause and the sound of the gavel as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee attempts to silence him.

Experience this sound installation on the fifth floor of the Museum, on view now.

📷 The Approval Matrix, courtesy of New York Magazine. (Photo: New York Magazine) → The US Senate floor proceedings during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, 1999. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

“How can you be bored with nature? Landscape is infinite, isn’t it?” —David Hockney 🌳

Remembering the visionary artist and his love for nature with “Picture of a Landscape in an Elaborate Gold Frame” from our collection.

In this work, Hockney juxtaposes a serene tree with an ornate, gold frame, exploring the relationship between subject and time with his signature “play within a play” technique, which he employed to create an optical illusion between art and reality.

🎨 David Hockney (British, 1937–2026). Picture of a Landscape in an Elaborate Gold Frame, 1965. Lithograph in six colors on wove paper. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wendy F. Findlay, 76.16.2. © David Hockney (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

We are thinking about all the Fathers and father figures today! ♥️

Meanwhile, what do you think the subjects of this Joshua Johnson portrait are thinking about?

Depicted here are Baltimore-based grocer John Jacob Anderson and his sons, John and Edward. The subjects are in typical fashion for the time, while their poses indicate their familial intimacy.

The crisply delineated and rigid style is typical of portraits by Johnson, considered the first Black American artist to work professionally and received public recognition in the United States.

Born into slavery, Johnson obtained his freedom in 1782 and marketed his services as a portraitist in Baltimore, describing himself as a “self-taught genius.”

See this portrait in Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art on the fifth floor.

🎨 Joshua Johnson. John Jacob Anderson and Sons, John and Edward, ca. 1812–1815. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Mary Smith Dorward Fund, 1993.82. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

The work of Matisse, Renoir, Degas, and more French leading artists is now on view in Pittsburgh. 🖼️

French Moderns: Matisse / Renoir / Degas opens today at The Frick Pittsburgh Museums and Gardens.

Encompassing realism, impressionism, post-impressionism, symbolism, Fauvism, cubism, and surrealism, this exhibition features 56 works from the Brooklyn Museum’s collections that exemplify the avant-garde movements that defined modern art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and that continue to awe art-goers today.

Plan your visit to see these incredible paintings, drawings and sculptures through October 11, 2026: https://bit.ly/4uDfknt

🎨 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919). The Vineyards at Cagnes, 1908. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Colonel and Mrs. Edgar W. Garbisch, 51.219. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)