Spanning three floors, From the Center: Looking at Lucy Lippard explores the far-reaching impact of art historian, critic, and curator Lucy Lippard’s (b. 1937, New York, NY; lives in Galisteo, NM) writings, exhibitions, and activism on contemporary art over six decades. Her work has shaped major movements including Pop, Conceptual, feminist, and Land art, as well as the institutional representation of women artists and artists of color and consistently centered the intersection of art and politics. Her influence remains foundational for subsequent generations of curators, critics, and artists. Publications such as Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966–1972 (1973), which grew out of her earlier writing on Conceptual Art; From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art (1976); Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory (1983); and Mixed Blessings: New Art in Multicultural America (1990); as well as her exhibitions Eccentric Abstraction (1966), Twenty-Six Contemporary Women Artists (1971), and her “Numbers” series of exhibitions (1969–74) are considered landmark contributions to the field of contemporary art.

Organized primarily with works from the MCA Collection, each floor of the exhibition is inspired by select themes considered in her writings and history of exhibitions—women artists and the aesthetics of Minimalism and Conceptualism; cultural work and activism; and land, borders, and territory—featuring artists she curated, studied, or championed and later artists whose work engages with each theme.