Basquiat’s ‘Blue Ribbon’ paintings are coming to the High Museum

The High Museum of Art announced its 2026-27 exhibition schedule for its 100th anniversary year August 13. It includes a major presentation of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work, a comprehensive Martin Puryear survey and more than 75 photographs by Civil Rights documentarian Doris Derby.

The marquee exhibition may be Basquiat, the Blue Ribbon Paintings, and the Art of Reproduction, opening February 19, 2027, and running through May 16, 2027. The exhibition will bring together more than 50 works, including 11 paintings Basquiat made in 1984 that are collectively known as the Blue Ribbon Paintings. The name comes from the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer logo that appears among the paintings’ crowded mix of anatomical diagrams, film logos, crowned figures, words and other borrowed imagery.

The exhibition takes those paintings as a starting point to argue for a broader view of the artist than the familiar image of the young New York graffiti star, emphasizing his interest in art history, identity, authorship and the circulation of images. The show also places his work in conversation with artists including Robert Rauschenberg and pioneering Black printmaker Bob Blackburn.

The Basquiat exhibition is just one part of a centennial schedule that ranges from contemporary sculpture and photography to children’s books and the behind-the-scenes work of art conservation.

The centennial begins this fall with I SPY! Walter Wick’s Hidden Wonders (August 28 through January 3, 2027), the largest survey to date of the photographer and creator of the “I SPY!” children’s books. The exhibition will explore Wick’s fascination with miniature worlds, optical illusions, puzzles and science through photographs, models and rarely seen works.

The touring exhibition Martin Puryear: Nexus (September 25-January 17, 2027) makes its only Southeastern stop at the High with more than 70 works by the acclaimed sculptor. The show spans Puryear’s career, from drawings made during his Peace Corps service in Sierra Leone to sculpture associated with his 2019 U.S. Pavilion exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

In October, Photography as a Way of Life: Minor White, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan (October 9-February 7, 2027) brings together work by the three influential photographers who helped redefine the medium in the 1950s and ’60s. Callahan spent the last 16 years of his life in Atlanta, where he became a vital figure in the city’s cultural landscape and captured its evolving character, most notably through his celebrated Peachtree Street series. The High Museum holds numerous photographs from his Atlanta years and presented his work in major exhibitions in 1997 and 1999.

The spring schedule also includes Doris Derby: A Civil Rights Journey (March 19, 2027-August 1,2027), organized by the High. Derby, who died in 2022, moved to Mississippi in 1963 and spent nearly a decade working within the Civil Rights Movement as a photographer, activist and organizer. Unlike the dramatic images of marches and police confrontations that came to define the era’s visual record, Derby photographed the quieter, grassroots work of the movement, including literacy programs, health initiatives, cooperatives and craft and quilting groups. The exhibition will include more than 75 photographs.

Future Work: Preserving the Legacy of Art (February 12, 2027-June 6, 2027) will offer a look at another side of museum work, examining how conservators and collections staff study and care for artworks. Among the works featured will be a Mary Cassatt pastel and a work by Italian Baroque painter Guercino.

The centennial marks a century since the Atlanta Art Association, founded in 1905, received its first permanent home, a Peachtree Street mansion donated by Harriet “Hattie” High in 1926. A purpose-built museum followed in 1955, and the High became part of the Woodruff Arts Center when it opened in 1968. The High moved into its Richard Meier-designed building in 1983, with a Renzo Piano-designed expansion completed in 2005. Its collection now numbers more than 20,000 works.

Several exhibitions currently on view will extend into the centennial year, including Amy Sherald: American Sublime (through September 27); Paper Trees (through February 21, 2027); and Los Porfiados (The Stubborns) (through November 29). New Acquisitions: Photography, featuring recent additions to the High’s collection, remains on view through September 6.

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Andrew Alexander is an Atlanta-based writer, editor and arts journalist. A longtime contributor and former senior editor at ArtsATL, his work appears regularly in local, regional and national publications, covering theater, visual art, music, film, dance, literature and the artists and institutions shaping Atlanta’s cultural landscape.