The Kimbell Brings Distant Adventures Home In 2026

The Kimbell Art Museum has two special exhibitions planned for 2026. The Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum, Jerusalem, will take center stage in the spring. Then, next fall, Photography’s First Century: Masterworks from the Bibliothèque nationale de France will arrive in Fort Worth. Here’s more about both groundbreaking explorations at The Kimbell.

“The Kimbell’s 2026 exhibitions continue the museum’s tradition of giving its visitors once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to experience great works of art from around the globe,” says Eric M. Lee, the museum’s director.

“The Holy Sepulcher will feature dazzling treasures from one of the holiest sites in Christendom, while Photography’s First Century will draw from what is arguably the world’s most important collection of photography,” Lee says.

Both major exhibits will be groundbreaking in the American art world. The masterpieces of The Holy Sepulcher have never before traveled to America, making this a rare opportunity to experience them without a passport. Likewise, Photography’s First Century will be the Kimbell’s inaugural exhibition, celebrating the art of photography.

From Jerusalem With Love 

“For nearly two thousand years, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been a site of Christian devotion and pilgrimage built on what is traditionally believed to be the site of Jesus of Nazareth’s death, burial, and resurrection, and its treasures have been used in religious ceremonies for centuries,” they say.

That tradition began when Emperor Constantine sent his mother, Helena, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She returned after confirming many holy sites (including the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) and bringing back many Christian relics to Rome. Pilgrimages to visit these sites have continued throughout the centuries, and devoted followers commissioned artworks as precious gifts.

The exhibition showcases “more than sixty objects in silver, gold, enamel, and precious jewels, given by the Catholic rulers of Europe — the Holy Roman Emperors in Vienna and the monarchs of Portugal, Spain, France, and Naples — to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.”

On view will be elaborately detailed “reliquaries, crosses, candlesticks, chalices, and vestments representing the height of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century craftsmanship.”

The Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum, Jerusalem will be on view from March 15 through June 28.

Advent and Exploration of Photography

While other local museums have regularly focused on photography, like The Amon Carter’s exhibit of Richard Avendon’s In the American West last summer, this will be a remarkable first for The Kimbell. Photography’s First Century: Masterworks from the Bibliothèque nationale de France marks the museum’s first-ever exhibition celebrating the art of photography.

The exhibit “will trace the history of the medium’s first century of exploration and discovery, from the rise of the Daguerreotype and the calotype in the 1840s to the age of modernism between the World Wars,” they say.

“The Bibliothèque nationale de France — the country’s great national library — holds one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of photographs in the world.” This is a survey of more than 150 images that includes work by Henri Le Secq, Gustave le Gray, Félix Tournachon (Nadar), Édouard Baldus, Louis-Émile Durandelle, Eugène Atget, Sonia Delaunay, André Kertesz, Rogi André, Man Ray, and Brassaï.

Photography’s First Century: Masterworks from the Bibliothèque nationale de France will be on view from October 4, 2026, through January 17, 2027.

We can’t wait to see both rare exhibits unveiled next year at The Kimbell.