Legendary photographer Yousuf Karsh made a career photographing the world's most famous actors, artists, and statesmen. During his career he held 15,312 sittings, produced more than 150,000 negatives including the most famous men and women of the twentieth century. This great portraitist's work features iconic images of Albert Einstein, Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Mother Teresa, just to name a few. The Most Famous People in the World: Karsh 100 was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Fifty Years of Contemporary Glass: Art, Craft, or Otherwise? features highlights from one of the nation's most comprehensive collections of contemporary glass, the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection, as well pieces from other Louisville collections. Created around 1960, the international studio glass movement will, in 2010, move past the halfcentury mark. Fifty Years of Contemporary Glass: Art, Craft, or Otherwise? looks at the movement's development from both an historical and a critical perspective. This exhibition will be held in conjunction with the 2010 Louisville Visual Art Festival, GLASS30: 4 Weeks of Fire.

From the 1960s on, Andy Warhol exhibited an unerring sense for the powerful motifs of his time – contemporary images that capture the modern imagination as completely as the gods and goddesses of ancient mythology once did. In Myths, Warhol's 1981 portfolio of 10 screenprints, he was referring not to remote civilizations, but to the beginnings of the cinema and the imaginary characters loved and recognized by millions all over the world. Most images in Warhol's Myths series are taken from old Hollywood films or 1950s television and portray the universal view of America's once enchanted and powerful past. Included in the series are characters loved by children such as Mickey Mouse, Howdy Doody, and Santa Claus, as well as fictional figures like Dracula, The Wicked Witch of the West, and Uncle Sam.

This installation celebrates the sheer quality of great works of art and examines the role of museums in presenting the very best art to the public. Pursuing the Masterpiece contains only five recently acquired works of art so that viewers will be able to devote more time interacting with each piece, as opposed to the few seconds that the average visitor spends looking at the art in large exhibitions. The hope is that visitors will be delighted by close inspection of these wonderful objects, as well as gain a better understanding of why staff and trustees committed the precious resources of time, energy, and money toward the pieces' acquisition and care.

Individually, each of these works enhances the Museum's collection in many ways, but it is their exceptional quality that unites them all. On view are Carl Borromäus Andreas Ruthart's greatest painting in America, Adam Naming the Animals, Paul Cézanne's rare and wonderful The Large Bathers; a beautiful sugar desk from central Kentucky; the royal beaded tunic and cap that belonged to the king of the Nigerian town Okuku; and Sam Gilliam's pivotal painting Restore.

Over the past few years, the Speed's collection of twentiethcentury design—furniture, ceramics, silver, and other materials—has grown rapidly through both gifts and purchases. These objects, many on view for the first time, will be featured in a new installation, Modern in the Making: Design 1900-2000. From French Art Deco to the Bauhaus to midcentury Modern to Post-Modern, the installation will explore the diverse definitions of "modern" that marked the twentieth-century. Did "modern" mean French opulence or German austerity? How did new materials like plastics define "modern"? Come and see modern living in the making!

Generally, the term "abstract" denotes a withdrawal, separation, or movement from any reference to a real-world object. Figurative, though often used to describe pieces of art that represent the human body, is defined in art history as an image that retains strong references to the real world. Although art historical terms such as abstraction and figuration may or may not be a concern of the artist, they can pose a challenge for the viewer. By closely studying and comparing works in Opposites Attract that use in varying degrees what we consider abstraction and figuration, the viewer will have a fascinating look into the artistic process.