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Events
Documenting History, Documenting Progress: Nineteenth Century Photographs of Architecture (October 3-4, 2010). Scheduled during the exhibition of the Snite Collection photographs of 19th century architecture at the Snite Museum of Art (University of Notre Dame, September 5 – October 31, 2010), this symposium brings together scholars of 19th century photography of architecture. It is a collaboration between the Snite Museum, the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, and Indiana University South Bend. Heavily represented in collections of 19th century photographs, architectural photography provides inroads into major period themes: industry & technology, exploration & exoticism, documentation & preservation, and history & nationalism. Most histories of photography use the development of the medium as the organizing structure in presentating the material. Genuine understanding of early architectural photography must acknowedge the relevant technical parameters but also demands study of each photographic image as a primary visual document and aesthetic object. Such multi-faceted enquiry is invited in this symposium. This project is partially supported by Indiana University’s New Frontiers in the Arts & Humanities Program, funded by the Office of the President & administered by the interim Vice President for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research & by the Snite Museum of the University of Notre Dame.
Lecture by Evelyn Welch, Scented Gloves and Perfumed Buttons: Smelling Things in Renaissance Italy, September 20, 2010, Notre Dame University. Welch is Professor of Renaissance Studies and Academic Dean for Arts at Queen Mary, University of London. Her lecture is presented as part of the Provost’s Distinguished Women’s Lecture Series. Welch is the author of Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan (1995) and Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy, 1350-1600 (2005). Her talk examines the practices of perfuming accessories such as hats, gloves (pictured, from Victoria & Albert Museum, London), shoes, and jewelry in 16th and 17th century Italy, and related beliefs about properties of perfume held during the Renaissance. Although perfumes were thought to shield orifices from disease-inducing vapors, there was also fear that they dulled the senses, invited lascivious behavior, or even poisoned the wearer. Perfumed items such as filigree buttons and goods embedded with musk, civet, and ambergris proved very popular, yet their use provoked anxiety. Welch’s lecture begins at 7:30 pm in the Annenberg Auditorium of the Snite Museum of Art. A graduate seminar, Learning from Things: Material Culture and the Italian Renaissance is scheduled for September 22 and open by reservation only. For further information contact Prof. Charles Rosenberg Rosenberg.1@nd.edu.
Reception and Lecture for the exhibition, Pursuit of Faith: Etchings by Rembrandt in the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art, September 24, 4:30 – 8:00 pm, Alfred Berkowitz Gallery, University of Michigan–Dearborn. This exhibition, featuring fine, original prints and a copper plate, was curated by Shelley Perlove, Professor of Art History. Students in Dr. Perlove’s advanced art history seminar in museum studies helped with nearly all aspects of the show. Thomas Rassieur, John E. Andrus III Curator of Prints and Drawings, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, will lecture at 6:00 on “Rembrandt’s Learning Curve: Technique and Spirituality,” exploring the extraordinary changes in the making and meaning of Rembrandt’s art. Dr. Rassieur will demonstrate how Rembrandt propelled printmaking in new directions as he developed increasing empathy for people of the Bible in their confrontations with spiritual power. This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs appreciated (please email Cristina McKeown at cmmckeown26@live.com). Exhibition runs from September 27 through October 15, Mondays through Fridays, 10:00 am–6:30 pm and weekends by appointment only (call Marion O'Neil, 734-756-8643, 10 days in advance). Exhibition catalogue will be available for purchase. The Alfred Berkowitz Gallery is located on the 3rd floor of the Mardigian Library.
News About Museums
After a five-year hiatus, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collections from the ancient Near East, Greece, Rome, and Egypt, as well as works from late antiquity, the Byzantine Empire, the European Middle Ages, and Africa, returned to public view on June 26. The new galleries, located in the first level of the 1916 building, follow the evolution of visual and cultural traditions at the roots of Western civilization. Visitors can discover the ritual, social, and historical contexts within which these works of art were produced and, at the same time, explore connections to art from other periods on view throughout the museum. Approximately 900 works of art returned to display when the new galleries opened. In addition, dedicated prints and drawings galleries were inaugurated with Midwest Modern: The Color Woodcuts of Mabel Hewit, which features the work of a relatively unknown Cleveland artist.
The Cleveland Museum has also unveiled an innovative new web site at www.ClevelandArt.org. The new site will change the way users interact online with the museum. Included are a members-only section with exclusive information; enhanced access to the collection, with multimedia features and scintillating images on every page; a revamped calendar, allowing users to see clearly the events that just can’t be missed; and opportunities for customizing views.
The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha is hosting Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism, an exhibition of 38 paintings, including many of the finest examples of mid-19th through early 20th century French and American landscapes in the Brooklyn Museum’s collection. The exhibition continues through September 12. Works presented offer a broad survey of landscape painting as practiced by such leading French artists as Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet and their most significant American followers including Frederick Childe Hassam and John Singer Sargent. The exhibition was organized by the Brooklyn Museum. In Omaha, major sponsors are Energy Systems, First National Bank, Mutual of Omaha, Omaha Steaks, Peter Kiewit Sons, and Robert H. Storz Foundation. Contributing sponsors are Lenore Polack, Deloitte., and Lincoln Financial Group. Supporting sponsors are Fran and Rich Juro, SilverStone Group, and Slosburg Company. A companion exhibition presents three masterworks by Gauguin, Monet, and Van Gogh from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University presents the summer exhibition EyePoppers: Big & Bold from the Kresge Art Museum Collection, featuring 31 large scale paintings and sculpture from the museum collection. The exhibition is on view May 1 through July 30, 2010. This exhibition celebrates art of the past half-century: pure abstraction, Op and Geometric art, and Color Field paintings. Acquired through gifts and acquisitions over the fifty-year history of the Kresge Art Museum, they follow the major stylistic trends during this time. Op art by Bridget Riley and others play with the viewer’s perception of space and line while colorful sculpture by Alexander Calder and John Scott are physically kinetic and rhythmic as well. Primary colors and humor are used by many of these artists such as Karl Appel. The show also celebrates the legacy of Charles Pollock, brother of Jackson Pollock, who taught in the Art Department at Michigan State University during this time. He was influential in bringing art critic Clement Greenberg to campus and, in turn, Greenberg and his friends donated major Color Field paintings to the museum collection. Large paintings by Kenneth Noland and Theodoros Stamos, are on display. In the 1970s, formerly marginalized practices, such as decorative art and handiwork in the domestic tradition, emerge in the Pattern and Decoration style, represented by Cynthia Carlson and Alan Shields; while Op art and Kinetic art celebrate the effects of perceived motion and abstraction.
The Milwaukee Art Museum has organized the exhibition Intimate Images of Love and Loss: Portrait Miniatures (July 8 – October 10, 2010). This exhibition marks the first time that the Museum’s extensive collection of portrait miniatures will be on display. “Portrait miniatures are small-scale portraits, most less than three inches tall, usually painted on ivory and set into beautifully made cases of glass and metal,” says Catherine Sawinski, assistant curator of earlier European art. “Their small scale reflected their domestic and private role. Often the portraits would be worn as jewelry, although in the early 19h century, they also were hung on the wall of the home as a type of family album.” The exhibition features selections both from the Museum’s collection and a number of Milwaukee collections. The portrait miniature was developed during the 16th century to mark political alliances between nobles, but the demand for portrait miniatures as mementos skyrocketed with the rise of the middle class and the tendency towards sentimentality in the late 18th and early 19th century. The exhibition also considers the interaction between portrait miniatures and photography in the later 19th century. “The historical significance of the portrait miniature cannot be overstated,” says Sawinski. “Just like larger paintings, these were done to commemorate life and love, and they give us a window to the past.” The exhibition is sponsored by the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Fine Arts Society, with additional support from Nancy and Arthur J. Laskin, Helen Peter Love, and Sharon and William Treul.
The Toledo Museum of Art has launched a redesigned and expanded Web site www.toledomuseum.org. The new, easier-to-use site provides immediate ways to explore TMA’s current and upcoming exhibitions, its programs and events, and detailed information about the Museum and its world-renowned collection. “More and more people are turning to the Internet as a primary source of news and information,” said Kelly Fritz Garrow, director of communications. “It’s essential for the Museum to have an active and vibrant online presence.”
In January the Toledo Museum of Art unveiled a notable new acquisition, Guercino’s Lot and His Daughters (left), ca. 1651-1652. This is the first Italian Baroque acquisition by the Toledo Museum in 26 years, and is a long-sought addition of this major master to the museum's extensive seventeenth-century collection. The painting was purchased with funds from the Edward Drummond Libbey Endowment, a fund that is restricted to the purchase of works of art. The painting had been in the hands of a private Italian collector for many years prior to its acquisition by the museum in 2009.
The Taft Museum of Art received a Museums for America grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This will provide Cincinnati with support for the 2010-11 Artists Reaching Classrooms (ARC) program. “We are thrilled that this innovative program will flourish with support from IMLS,” says Deborah Emont Scott, director/CEO of the Taft Museum of Art. The grant requires 1:1 dollar matches for support. The Taft’s matching funds will come entirely from docent-led fundraising. Artists Reaching Classrooms (ARC) is designed for high schools, offering students the chance to visit artists’ studios and explore the Taft museum. Students’ projects are exhibited at local libraries. The Taft was one of more than 500 applicants for this IMLS grant. In all, 178 museums were awarded $19.5 million for programs and projects around the country.
Museum Announcements: People
Jack F. Becker, Ph.D. has accepted the position as executive director of Joslyn Art Museum. Dr. Becker, 46, comes to Joslyn from Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has served as president and chief executive officer since 2005. Prior to that, Dr. Becker worked as curator of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, the center of America's best known Impressionist art colony; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. He also held fellowships from the National Gallery of Art, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Becker earned his B.A. in art history at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota; his M.A. in art history and Ph.D. in American art at the University of Delaware in Newark; and his M.B.A. at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has authored exhibition and collection catalogues and catalogue entries, essays, and introductions, including Henry Ward Ranger and the Humanized Landscape (Florence Griswold Museum, 1999); The California Impressionists at Laguna (Florence Griswold Museum, 2000); and “Championing Tonal Painting: The Lotos Club” for the Spanierman Gallery’s 2005 catalogue for the exhibition The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism. Dr. Becker began as Joslyn Art Museum’s eleventh director in April. Joslyn’s previous director, J. Brooks Joyner, resigned in September 2009.
Sarah E. Martin has been appointed curator of education, public programs, at the Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame following the retirement of Jacqueline H. Welsh. Martin received her M.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She managed teacher, school programs, and adult programs at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and brings to the Snite Museum extensive experience with Visual Thinking Strategies methodology. Jacqueline Welsh furthered the service mission of Notre Dame in many ways. She directed a collaboration between artist Bernard Williams and youth from ND's Robinson Community Learning Center resulting in the colorful mural which became the Center’s identifying design. Welsh also implemented JumpstART, a program linked to kindergarten- to 4th grade curricula, and more recently, she created a summer apprentice program allowing talented high school students to work with professional artists and ND faculty. Also retiring is Stephen R. Moriarty, Milly and Fritz Kaeser Curator of Photography. Among Moriarty’s accomplishments during his twenty years at the museum were the creation of the Fritz Kaeser photography archive and a concurrent exhibition and catalog. Kaeser's widow subsequently established an important Museum endowment for photography acquisitions. This was followed by the exhibition and catalog, A Gift of Light: Photographs from the Janos Scholz Collection. Moriarty’s added numerous contemporary and Latin American photographs and works by women photographers to the museum’s collection. His most recent exhibition and catalog was Darkness and Light: Death and Beauty in Photography. He also taught a popular history of photography class and is himself an accomplished documentary photographer. Ten of his photographs are currently in the museum’s permanent collection.
The Toledo Museum of Art announced that Brian P. Kennedy has accepted the position as the Museum's ninth director with a start date of September 1. Kennedy has been director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College since 2005. Previously, he served as director of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. “I am delighted to be coming to northwest Ohio to lead the Toledo Museum of Art,” said Kennedy. “Its staff, collections and facilities are of the highest quality. I look forward to building on its achievement and becoming closely involved with the Toledo community.” Kennedy received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from University College, Dublin, where he earned highest honors for his studies in the history of art and history. He is a prolific writer and editor. Most recently he has authored a 2008 publication on Irish-born artist Sean Scully and a forthcoming book on American artist Frank Stella. Kennedy holds a faculty appointment as an adjunct professor in the art history department at Dartmouth, the first Hood director to be offered such an appointment since 1991.
College & University News
Robert Randolf Coleman received the 2010 Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, University of Notre Dame “in recognition of having a profound influence on undergraduate students through sustained exemplary teaching.”