MOBILE, Ala. – On October 26, 2024, Mobile Museum of Art (MMofA) will celebrate the 60^th anniversary of its founding with a 1960s-themed Birthday Bash and the opening of the special exhibition,1960s Hard Edge and Op Art: Tribute to the Responsive Eye.

“To commemorate MMofA’s milestone birthday, our team has been working hard to ensure that the galleries are filled with breathtaking art,” MMofA Executive Director Jon Carfagno says. “We look forward to inviting the community as well as visitors to our region to celebrate with us.”

1960s Hard Edge and Op Art is a blockbuster exhibition that recreates the Museum of Modern Art’s (NYC) pioneering show The Responsive Eye, which coincided with the founding of MMofA in 1964. This exhibition features works from optical art (abbreviated as op art) and hard-edge movements and artists such as Josef Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Gene Davis, Julian Stanczak, and Frank Stella. For this exhibition, MMofA has secured loans from across the country including the Art Bridges Foundation (Bentonville, AR), Bechtler Museum of Modern Art (Charlotte, NC), Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL), The Thoma Foundation (Dallas, TX), and Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan, AL).

In addition to the historic art featured in 1960s Hard Edge and Op Art, MMofA will also have several exhibitions with notable pieces on view during this time. (Un)Settled: The Landscape in American Art will open on October 12, 2024, and includes works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Benny Andrews, Jeffrey Gibson, Ed Ruscha, and Andrew Wyeth. Supported by the Art Bridges Cohort Program, (Un)Settled is a collaborative exhibition presented by the American South Consortium.

MMofA will also have an installation of Surrealist masterworks by leading figures in the movement — including Peter Blume, Max Ernst, Kay Sage, and Yves Tanguy — which have been generously lent by The Museum of Modern Art, New York as part of Art Bridges’ Collection Loan Partnership program.

1960s Hard Edge and Op Art officially opens on October 26, 2024, for Mobile Museum of Art’s Birthday Bash: Celebrating 60 Years of Creativity, a ticketed party to celebrate the anniversary. BeatleBeat, a Beatles tribute band out of Orlando, FL frequently used by Walt Disney World, will be performing as a nod to another big event that happened in 1964 — the start of the British Invasion. Party attendees are encouraged to come in their finest 60s-themed attire and have a groovy time. The Birthday Bash is generously sponsored by Hargrove Foundation and Carlock Automotive.

On May 17, 2024, pre-sale tickets for the Birthday Bash will open for MMofA members, donors, and sponsors at $175 for one and $350 for two, and general admission tickets will open on June 17, 2024, at the same price. Tickets are available for purchase on MMofA’s website.

MMofA will follow up the ticketed event with a community birthday party for the Museum on November 9, 2024. The event will be free to the public and fun for all ages with more details to follow in the coming months.

1960s Hard Edge and Op Art: Tribute to the Responsive Eye is generously funded by The Crampton Trust and the A.S. Mitchell Foundation. All Museum exhibitions and programs are supported by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Mobile. 1960s Hard Edge and Op Art: Tribute to the Responsive Eye will be on view at Mobile Museum of Art from October 26, 2024, through April 12, 2025. For more information about this exhibition and the Birthday Bash, visit https://link.edgepilot.com/s/bd0c5034/ivkQssDmX0SfZj3zJstXZw?u=http://www.mobilemuseumofart.com/60.