In Arkansas, Annie Leibovitz’s Latest Retrospective Is Celebrated at Crystal Bridges

These new portraits are interspersed with earlier works and shown across three ceiling-height screens facing inward toward each other, where a dialog between them comes to light. There’s Salman Rushdie before and after his 2022 attack, which resulted in the loss of his right eye. Former Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams is shown alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, who is shown alongside former female presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton. "I thought about this a while ago, that I ve done this for my career, for my life, and there s not too many people doing this and I m just going to go out doing this,” Leibovitz mused, gesturing widely to the unmistakable works surrounding us in the gallery. “It s a little corny, but I feel responsible to that.”

On Thursday evening, during a celebration marking the show s opening, Leibovitz could be found engulfed by admirers. Hailing from all corners of the world to the American heartland were Hank Willis Thomas with his parents in tow, Camilla Belle, Jeremy O. Harris, and gala co-chair Awol Erizku. A healthy contingent of Walton family members was on hand too. The museum is, after all, built on land that was once the family’s playground. "This is the extended backyard of where Alice and her big brother Jim grew up,” Olivia Walton, the board chair of Crystal Bridges, told guests as they took their seats for dinner. “This is where they went searching for crawdads for years and years growing up.”

The festive decor was produced by Arkansas native Bronson van Wyck, whose signature opulent touches could be felt in the Chinoiserie charger plates, taxidermied peacocks, and an installation of two dozen photographer’s strobe umbrellas and accompanying flashbulbs arranged as a studio vignette, all set to a soundtrack of camera clicks recorded from Leibovitz’s sets over the last year. “People love Arkansas hospitality because it’s such an incredible experience to receive it,” van Wyck told us. “Who wouldn’t have wanted to have dinner with Alice Walton?” Later, as an auction unfolded under the glow of the museum s glistening heart centerpiece by Jeff Koons, van Wyck could be found adjusting centerpieces while simultaneously placing his bids. The lots on offer did indeed feature a dinner with Alice Walton, as well as a Meyers Manx dune buggy hand painted by Sage Vaughn, a coveted visit to Michael Heizer’s monumental “City” land sculpture in the Nevada desert, and a sitting with Leibovitz, all of which bolstered the total $2 million raised.

Following the fête, the museum welcomed an inaugural group of 1,000 lucky students on three exhibition tours led by Leibovitz herself on Saturday afternoon. “I’m very aware of what this museum is here for, and who its target audience is, which is really these young students,” Leibovitz said. "So the show was really built like a classroom, with the idea of being able to show it to a young person who is either interested in photography or might want to be a photographer. The first two rooms have early work that are these ah-ha moments, literally talking points for me to walk through and explain what happened along my way.”

Next, the museum is set to focus on American craftworks in a continued effort to highlight mediums outside of traditional oils on canvas. “We re continuing to try to be anti-elitist about what art is,” Olivia Walton explained. “Craft has a really rich history in this part of the country, so looking at the history of American craft, and looking at contemporary practices too, is going to open up a whole new audience and lots of new conversations about how art is made and who decides what art is.” These American craftworks, currently being acquired from across the country, will be housed in an expansion that will double the size of the museum’s footprint. It’s yet another sign of the city’s growth driven by America’s largest retailer and a reason to keep returning to Bentonville.