Exhibitions at the Yale Center for British Art

Thursday, January 8, 2026–Sunday, June 21, 2026
Painters, Ports, and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850
This exhibition tells the story of artists from India, Britain, and China who worked in the era of one of the most powerful corporations in history. The British East India Company began in 1600 as a private trading enterprise but grew into a military and political force during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Rina Banerjee: Take me, take me, take me . . . to the Palace of love
Through September 13, 2026

Inspired by the iconic form of the Taj Mahal, Rina Banerjee’s translucent sculpture re-imagines the monument through contemporary materials and ideas. Instead of marble and permanence, the piece features a steel and copper frame wrapped in pink plastic, a mass-produced material associated with modern consumer culture. Suspended from the ceiling, the tent-like structure contains objects referencing colonial history alongside everyday disposable goods.

Going Modern: British Art, 1900–1960
Through August 9, 2026

Twentieth-century Britain produced many influential modern artists, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Frank Auerbach. During a century shaped by rapid technological change, global conflict, and the rise and fall of empire, British artists explored how to balance tradition with the new ideas of modernism.
Drawn from the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, the exhibition highlights diverse artistic responses—from Walter Sickert’s urban scenes and the Bloomsbury Group’s experimental work to Ben Nicholson’s abstraction and the groundbreaking sculpture of Moore and Hepworth. Together, these works reveal how British artists shaped their own distinct vision of modern art.