San Diego Museum of Art is Celebrating 100 Years With its Most Ambitious Exhibition Yet

One hundred years in, and the San Diego Museum of Art is putting it all on the table. Forging a Legacy: 15 Years of Landmark Acquisitions is the museum’s centennial exhibition, and it’s exactly what it sounds like – a deep dive into some of the most significant works added to the collection over the past decade and a half.

Every curator at SDMA had a hand in shaping what’s on display, which means this covers serious ground across every corner of the collection.

A Range You Won’t Find Anywhere Else

SDMA has always collected differently than most American art museums – broader in geography, more ambitious in scope. Old masters sit alongside contemporary work, photography, East and South Asian art, Latin American art, and pieces from the Islamic world.

Forging a Legacy reflects all of that, and the names alone are worth the trip: Picasso, Monet, Pissarro, Ribera, Hockney, Nick Cave, Hugo Crosthwaite, Alfredo Jaar, and many more.

Several works are light-sensitive pieces that have never been publicly shown before, so there’s genuinely no other time to see them.

San Diego Museum of Art's centennial exhibition

Eglise de Varengeville, effet matinal by Claude Monet

More Than a Look Back

The 2023 merger with the Museum of Photographic Arts gave the collection a serious boost, and photography plays a strong role here alongside a contemporary section anchored by major works from Ala Ebtekar, Richard Deacon, and Nick Cave.

There’s also a forward-looking quality to the show – monumental panels by José María Sert that will eventually live in the museum’s new Foster + Partners west wing expansion are on display now, giving a real sense of where SDMA is headed next.