The Davison Art Collection at Wesleyan University presents "Grotesque: Art Beyond Restraint," an exhibition running from September 23 to December 12, 2026, at the Pruzan Art Center's Goldrach Gallery in Middletown, Connecticut. The show examines the evolving concept of the grotesque in art, featuring works by Lucas van Leyden, Nicoletto da Modena, Otto Dix, Odilon Redon, Jacques Callot, Kara Walker, and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, among others. It is curated by Miya Tokumitsu, Donald T. Fallati, and Ruth E. Pachman.
The exhibition matters because it traces the grotesque's historical transformation from a source of caprice and ornament in Renaissance art to its modern associations with horror and abjection, highlighting how artists across movements—from Baroque to Surrealist—have used it to unsettle viewers and provoke conflicted reactions. By bringing together diverse works from the 16th to 21st centuries, the show offers a nuanced lens on a persistent, disruptive aesthetic force in visual culture.