Stan Douglas: Ghostlight / All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group

The Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College presents two new exhibitions opening on Saturday, June 21:

Stan Douglas: Ghostlight will be the artist’s first survey in the US in over 20 years and will chart his global influence and innovation across 40 works from the 1990s to the present. The exhibition will present the world premiere of an immersive, multi-channel video installation that revisits D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation” framed by a selection of works that explore topics ranging from settler colonialism in the Americas, to the legacies of transatlantic slavery, to modern movements for liberation in Africa and Europe. Douglas’s deeply researched and longtime commitment to these histories provide an expansive view of the present, one that sheds light on moments of breakdown and chaos that attend societies in upheaval. 

Since the 1980s, Douglas has created films, installations, photographs, and other multidisciplinary projects that address moments of rupture where “history could go one way or the other.” Across formats, Douglas’s images recall things that haunt: unresolved moments, turbulences, and violent turning points; plots that retain a hold, however imperceptible, on the present. His work operates within the genres of cinema, photography, and theater to present a point of view that is, always, staged.

All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group is the first exhibition to contextualize and historicize an essential chapter in Arab modern and contemporary art. This in-depth presentation of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, which was founded in 1951 and remained a creative force through the early 1970s, presents a spirited picture of multiple generations of artists working together to forge a new and distinct aesthetic that captured the dynamism and hope of postcolonial life in Iraq. The exhibition invites audiences to learn about modernism from the vantage point of Iraq—a vibrant site of exchange and influence across West Asia, North Africa, and Europe, reflecting on the group’s formation, progression, and impact on subsequent generations of artists. 

All Manner of Experiments will combine significant examples of painting, sculpture, and drawing from the Group with archival material, including newsreel footage, the Group’s manifesto, exhibition posters, and artist-designed brochures. 

Visitor information
Exhibition hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11–5pm. All Hessel Museum  exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. Guided tours of the exhibitions are available, please email CCSvisits@bard.edu for more information or see the website here for updated info.

For a seat on the free roundtrip-chartered bus from New York City available for the opening reception on June 21 please call Mary Rozell T +1 845 758 7598 or email mrozell@bard.edu. Reservations are required for the bus.

Exhibition credits
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Birth of a Nation (2025) is commissioned by the Hartwig Art Foundation with the Brick, Los Angeles.

Stan Douglas: Ghostlight would not have been possible without the generous support of David Zwirner, New York. Special thanks to Victoria Miro, London, for their additional support to the project.

Major support for Ghostlight is provided by the Kettering Family Foundation.

Lead support for All Manner of Experiments is provided by the Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates), The Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF) (Beirut, Lebanon), the Farjam Foundation (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), the Ibrahimi Collection (Amman, Jordan and Baghdad, Iraq), and Qatar Museums / Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha, Qatar). Additional lenders are the Dia al-Azzawi Collection and the Hikmat Family Collection.

Major support for All Manner of Experiments is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Exhibitions at CCS Bard and the Hessel Museum of Art are made possible with generous support from Lonti Ebers, the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the Board of Governors of the Center for Curatorial Studies, and the Center’s Patrons, Supporters, and Friends.