Johns Hopkins University recently announced the acquisition of Kind of Blue (1959) (2024), a large diptych by the abstract painter Lindsay Adams.
The piece was first exhibited as the centerpiece of Ceremony, a solo show of new work by Adams at the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., that concluded a four-plus-month run in early March. Named after the iconic album by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, it measures 14 feet wide and 6 feet tall.
The painting is destined for installation in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, the university's principal research library located on the Homewood campus; the library is currently undergoing renovation and is scheduled to reopen in early 2027.
The acquisition reinforces the university's commitment to elevate promising contemporary artists from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., regions as part of an ongoing public art initiative. It was made possible by a gift from Dan Weiss, Homewood Professor of the Humanities and senior advisor to the provost for the arts at Johns Hopkins University, and also the CEO and director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
"The acquisition of Lindsay Adams' Kind of Blue (1959) builds on the university's tradition of increasing public access to art that reflects and interprets our society," Weiss said. "I am delighted to contribute to the acquisition of this piece, and to reinforce the importance of the arts in this way."
In addition to her recently commissioned, site-specific installation, Weary Blues, for the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Adams has built an extensive portfolio of exhibited work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., among many others.
"We're excited to add Lindsay Adams' Kind of Blue (1959) to the Eisenhower Library's revitalized program of public art when the building reopens next year," said Elisabeth Long, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums at Johns Hopkins University. "As a hub of learning and discovery on campus, the library brings art into the daily experience of our students, faculty, and visitors, and we're creating new spaces that will support object-centered teaching and research with works that spark deep thinking and creative inquiry like Kind of Blue (1959)."
In the painting, a rich range of blue tones stretches across two canvases, as though offering a meditation on a complex color known to instill calm and symbolize everything from wisdom and loyalty to sadness and despair. The painting captures the moody melodies played by Davis and his bandmates on Kind of Blue, which ushered in what critics describe as a slower-paced, more emotion-evoking form of the music that opened doors to creative expression and improvisation.
