Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

Events
Wednesdays@BGC
Fall 2025
MA/PhD
Open Houses for Prospective Students 2025
October 19, November 9 (Virtual), November 16





Exhibitions

Tickets

Get tickets for Sèvres Extraordinaire, September 10–November 16, 2025

More

Gallery Hours

Wednesdays, 11 am till 8 pm; Thursdays–Sundays, 11 am till 5 pm.

More
Installation View, SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa. Photo: Da Ping Luo


The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.


Richard Tuttle: What Is the Object? is the contemporary American artist’s exploration of the meaning of objects through a presentation of items that he collected over the past five decades. Although the titular question relates to the artist, it also extends to the visitor: What, how and why do objects hold and convey meaning? In this online exhibition, Tuttle’s objects and his writings in response to them are presented to the visitor in a framework that invites exploration of these central questions. Furniture and sculptures created for the exhibition space by Tuttle, excerpts from the exhibition catalogue, and multimedia responses to select objects are also made available.


This project is an online companion to the Richard Tuttle: What Is the Object? exhibition held at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery March 25–July 10, 2022.
Online Exhibition


Credits
Richard Tuttle: What Is the Object? is on view at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery from March 25–July 10, 2022.

Support for Richard Tuttle: What Is the Object? has been generously provided by Agnes Gund with additional support from David Kordansky Gallery, Scully Peretsman Foundation, and Peter Freeman and Lluïsa Sàrries Zgonc, as well as donors to Bard Graduate Center.

The online exhibition was created with the help of Jesse Merandy, Project Manager and Web Developer, Jocelyn Lau, Website Designer, Bruce M. White and Christina Clare Ewald, Photographers, Katherine Atkins, Copy Editor, Barb Elam, Card Digitizer and Transcriber, Madeline Porsella, What Is the Object? Video Editor, and Talia Perr, Website Production Assistant.