Cincinnati Art Museum Announces Major Charley Harper Exhibition

Be it an adorable raccoon family under a full moon or an impala in peril, Cincinnati artist Charley Harper’s colorful and geometric paintings capture the natural world that he loved in surprising and beautiful ways.

The Cincinnati Art Museum announced its first full-scale scholarly exhibition of works with “The Art of Charley Harper: Creatures Wild and Tame,” which will be on view from Oct. 16 through March 7, 2027. The exhibition will feature around 150 works and is presented in partnership with the Cincinnati-based Charley Harper Art Studio.

“It’s hard to believe, but this is Charley’s first museum retrospective. Exhibition-goers can look forward to a special, historic treat,” Charley Harper Art Studio director Brett Harper said in a May 6 press release. “They will have the privilege to be able to see the 10 large paintings Charley completed on commission for the Interior Department’s U.S. National Park Service, which were only on public display in Washington, D.C., for a short time in the 1990s.”

Born in rural West Virginia, Harper attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he eventually settled. He gained notoriety for his work for Ford Times in the 1950s, a travel and lifestyle magazine published by the Ford Motor Co. His decades-long career brought him commissions for the National Park Service, conservation groups and museums, and he became known as a renowned artist, designer, illustrator and advocate for nature.

Charley Harper’s “Impala in the Grass (Daytime)” (circa 1961, gouache on illustration board, Cincinnati Art Museum; Museum Purchase: Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Wichgar) © Charley Harper, all rights reserved

Harper’s work stood out from other wildlife artists, because he eschewed realism, once famously saying, “I don’t count the feathers in the wings; I just count the wings.”

Bold colors, geometric forms and clean lines are hallmarks of Harper’s work. They communicate motion and personality, whether the artist is depicting animals a viewer might find in their Midwest backyard or one from another part of the globe.

Harper died in 2007, but his work continues to endure, with his distinctive style as a graphic artist that merged the worlds of graphic design with environmental storytelling setting him apart as an original.  

Although the museum has shown Harper’s work before in 2007 and 2010, these were small shows that focused on work Harper made before 1960, while “The Art of Charley Harper” Creatures Wild and Tame” spans his entire career.

“This exhibition celebrates everything we love about Charley Harper, providing fresh insight into his joyful artistry,” Julie Aronson, curator of American paintings, sculpture and drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum, said in the May 6 press release, “A student of nature whose unique work expresses a deep sense of wonder and discovery, Harper used his art for the protection of wild spaces and creatures threatened by human development.”

For more information, visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

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