Borderlands

Name: Borderlands | The Huntington
Start: Sat, Nov 20 2021 - Thu, Nov 20 2036
Location: The Huntington

Exhibitions

See artwork from the 19th century to today in dialogue with installations by contemporary artists that offer fresh perspectives on American art.

Themed Galleries | Featured Projects | Events & Resources

Borders—whether geographic, political, social, linguistic, or personal—shape lives and landscapes, often in complex and transformative ways. Through paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects, these galleries explore American art through the lens of “borderlands,” examining how artists and objects reflect the impact of shifting and contested boundaries across the United States and the broader Americas. Focusing on the relationship between art and land, they consider materials, movement, and representations of landscape as powerful expressions of how we relate to place—and to one another.

Spanning the 19th century to today, works from The Huntington’s collections are thematically organized to spark conversations across time and place. Rotating installations and special projects by contemporary artists, particularly those from underrepresented communities with strong connections to California and The Huntington, bring fresh perspectives and create meaningful dialogue between the past and the present.

A painting that depicts a surreal tangle of hands, legs, arms, trays, vases, French brie, and baguettes.

A painting of purple blooming irises with long, upright green leaves, against a desert setting and gradient sky that transitions from yellow to teal.

A realistic painting of a landscape in golden light, grassy fields with puddles and streams, and large hay bales dotted throughout.

An oversized book on display in a library gallery opened to a large image of a pair of birds next to a marsh.

An impressionist style painting of a mother holding her seated child in a bed with white linens.

An abstract painting with earth-tone colors in distinct shapes.

Dominique Fung, Sans Les Mains, 2022. Oil on canvas. Purchased with funds from Dominic and Ellen Ng. © Dominique Fung, 2022, courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch Gallery and Nicodim Gallery. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Helen Lundeberg, Irises, (The Sentinels), 1936. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors’ Council. © The Feitelson / Lundeberg Art Foundation. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Martin Johnson Heade, Haystacks, ca. 1876–82. Oil on canvas, 28 x 54 in. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

John James Audubon, The Birds of America, 1827–38. Photo by Ibarionex Perello. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Mary Cassatt, Breakfast in Bed, 1897. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Arthur Garfield Dove, Lattice and Awning, 1941. Oil on canvas, 22 x 36 in. © Arthur Garfield Dove Estate. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.