Exhibition Highlights Faculty Advisory Board Meeting December 2001
Exhibition Highlights Faculty Advisory Board Meeting December 2001
Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum • • December 20, 2001 - February 17, 2002 Organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum/ Barbara Matilsky, Coordinator 54 paintings and sculptures, including landscapes, portraits, still lifes and genre paintings Budget: $54, 000.
Exhibition Concept • A survey of American art from the early 18 th century to mid 19 th century, showing the growth and maturity of American art as well as its dependency on European models for its evolution • The identification of art with concepts of nationalism/ capitalism; the artists’ reconciliation of these ideas with a pantheistic view nature.
Visitor Experience The public will be moved by the scale and beauty of the American landscape tradition and the range of portraiture that mirrored the sociological changes in society This exhibition will stimulate thoughts about American history and its relationship to/insight into contemporary life.
Goals of the Exhibition • To provide the visitor with an opportunity to see an area of art not well represented in the Ackland. • To serve as a forum for interdisciplinary studies on campus through symposia and lectures.
Reason and Fantasy in an Age of Enlightenment • January 20 - April 21, 2002 • Curated by Prof. Mary Sheriff and Timothy Riggs with a graduate seminar taught by Mary Sheriff • Approximately 75 prints, drawings, examples of sculpture and decorative arts, and illustrated books • Budget: $7, 900.
Exhibition Concept • A survey of eighteenthcentury art, not normally on view, from the Ackland Art Museum and the Rare Book Collection. • Exploration of themes of rationality and fantasy in narrative, architecture, landscape, and portrayal of the human face and figure.
Visitor Experience • Viewers will see a range of art that stretches from the rational to the fantastic and from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Exhibition Goals • To enable graduate students to study objects in detail and create an exhibition. • To show university and community the range of art produced during the eighteenth century. • To make other scholars aware of the Museum’s resources. (In March the University hosts the 2002 conference of the Southeastern American Society for 18 th-Century Studies. )
Collecting Contemporary Art • March 10 – April 7, 2002 • Curated by Barbara Matilsky • Approximately 10 works in all media – painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, video, digital art, photography • Budget: $21, 000.
Exhibition Concept • To exhibit artworks that are potential acquisitions within the context of our permanent collection. • To provide a meaningful forum for discussion on how to build a collection of contemporary art.
Viewer Experience • Students and the community will be stimulated by the wide range of work in all media that relate to the culture of our times and find themselves in the unusual position of advising the Museum on expanding the collection.
Exhibition Goals • Promote understanding of the philosophical and practical aspects of collecting contemporary art. • Invite viewer participation in the collecting process. • Increase museum membership. • Expand the Ackland’s collection of contemporary art.
In Our View: Middle School Responses to the Ackland Collection • May 12 – August 25, 2002 • Curated by Barbara Matilsky, Beth Shaw Mc. Guire and Leslie Balkany • Will include works of art and writing by 112 middle school students from area schools, in response to works of art in the Ackland’s collection • Offered in conjunction with the Museum’s Multiple-Visit Program • Budget: $4, 000.
Exhibition Concept • To exhibit the responses of local visual arts and language arts students to works in the Ackland’s collection • To provide a thoughtful framework for visitors to understand middle school students and their perspectives on the Museum’s collection
Viewer Experience • A wide range of student work-- in a variety of media--will offer visitors intriguing new ways of seeing the collection. • Visitors will be introduced to the Museum’s programs for middle-school students.
Exhibition Goals • To showcase and validate the work of area middle school students • To celebrate the Museum’s permanent collection, and its continued relevance to middle -school students and all visitors
Islamic Art • August 2002 – Spring 2003 • Curated by Carolyn Wood, Barbara Matilsky, Timothy Riggs • 10 objects - originally used in worship and drawn from the permanent collection; supplemented by loans of artworks made by contemporary Muslim artists. • Budget: $5, 000.
Exhibition Concept • To provide a more prominent display and reinterpretation of the Ackland’s collection of Islamic art within the context of the recent current events and interest in this area. • To draw attention to the Ackland’s collection of Islamic art as a resource for teaching about the faith. • To provide a context for engagement with area Muslim communities.
Viewer Experience • The visitor will be given an opportunity and visual context in which to learn more about the Islamic faith, which is often misrepresented and misunderstood. • They will be able to appreciate the beauty of these objects on their own merit, but also understand the religious context in which they originate. • The exhibition will raise questions and promote discussion about Islam as it is practiced in Asia and North Carolina.
Exhibition Goals • To provide a forum for open discussion about Islam using the artworks to facilitate understanding and strengthen communication between cultures • To show historical artworks with more contemporary ones to help define Islam’s connection to our own times while showing continuities and change within the tradition itself.
Chinese Ceramics from the Shatzman Collection (working title) • October 13, 2002 – January 5, 2003 • A curatorial team from Cornell University’s Herbert M. Johnson Museum and the Ackland Art Museum: Ellen Avrill, Timothy Riggs and Barbara Matilsky • 70 black and brown wares from the Song and Tang dynasties (7 th – 13 th centuries CE) • Budget: $50, 000.
Exhibition Concept • To gather a large and rich collection of an extraordinary type of ceramic for study in depth. • To serve as a counterpoint to our permanent collection of Chinese ceramics.
Viewer Experience • The public will be amazed by the variety of interpretations within one genre of ceramics. • They will be moved by the beauty as well as the “contemporary” sensibility of many works, helping them to make cultural connections with early Chinese art.
Exhibition Goals • To showcase an important private collection (with a scholarly catalogue) that is promised to the Museum. • To provide an opportunity to view a large and significant exhibition of Asian ceramics, the first ever held at the Ackland.
Sesshu, Master Painter/Japanese Screens and Scolls • September 7, 2003 – January 4, 2004 • Sherman Lee, consultant/ Coordinated by Barbara Matilsky • 20 screens and scrolls, including a rare work attributed to Sesshu that has never before been exhibited • Budget: $13, 000.
Exhibition Concept • To highlight the Ackland’s collection of Japanese art that has not been exhibited since 1997. • To provide a context for examining a rare painting recently acquired and currently in conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Viewer Experience • Visitors will be surrounded by the beauty and refinement of Japanese art. • They will be learn about two ancient forms of art and philosophies that resonate within contemporary culture.
Exhibition Goals • To introduce our collection of Japanese art -- which is not normally accessible due to space limitations -- to students and the public. This will be the first time in 7 years that the entire collection will be on display. • To celebrate the acquisition of a significant new work as well as recent gifts from Sherman and Ruth Lee within its cultural framework.
Sebastiao Salgado: Migrations: Humanity in Transition • February 1 – March 28, 2003 • Organized by Aperture, Inc/ Coordinated by Barbara Matilsky and Courtney Reid-Eaton at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies • Over 400 black and white photographs from 40 countries • Budget: $45, 000.
Exhibition Concept • Over a seven-year period, Salgado documented the mass displacement of people due to famine, war, environmental devastation and the promise of a better life elsewhere.
Viewer Experience • Because of the disturbing images, the viewer will probably experience discomfort and sadness. • The artist’s ability to convey both beauty and sympathy will enable people to appreciate the artistic value of documentary photography as well as its message.
Exhibition Goals • To provide an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of important global issues through Freshman seminars, symposia, lectures. • To stimulate discussion on the nature and role of documentary photography in society and as art.
Seeking the Light: Spirituality and Contemporary Art (working title) • Fall 2004 • Curated by Barbara Matilsky and Carolyn Wood • A group of installations by contemporary artists who reflect upon and interpret the faith traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism. • Budget: $100, 000.
Exhibition Concept • To identify artists whose work emanates from a faith tradition or who can interpret an aspect of the tradition and commission them to do installations for the Ackland (that may respond to works in the collection) • The installations will be created to touch the viewer in a positive way: i. e. provide inspiration, sustenance, transcendence, space for meditation. • The exhibition’s installations will be designed to travel to other venues nationally.
Viewer Experience • The multi sensory nature of the installations will provide a variety of environments and opportunities for understanding and appreciating the spiritual qualities of all faith traditions.
Exhibition Goals • Ideally, to show the connections among the faith traditions and their universal qualities that potentially unite rather than isolate people from each other. • To reflect on the continuities and changes within each faith tradition. • To further the goals of the Five Faiths Project by providing a visual counterpart to the ongoing discussion of the art and language colloquies funded by a Henry Luce Foundation Grant. • To create an exhibition that will have national impact through travel and a catalogue.
Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Alison and Lezley Saar (Under development) • Spring 2005 • Traveling to four venues around the country • Curated by Jessica Dallow, a recent Ph. D. student from the Art History Department • Approximately 20 mixed media sculptures • Budget: $100, 000.
Exhibition Concept • The contemporary mixedmedia art of a mother and two daughters are explored within the context of autobiography, family heritage and critiques of racial and gender stereotypes. • Allusions to metaphysical themes and world cultures provocatively question the limitations of contemporary identity politics as singular and unchanging.
Viewer Experience • The visitor will be confronted with thoughtprovoking artworks in unusual media that attempt to break through old but still pervasive cliches. • They may feel compelled to examine their own prejudices and beliefs.
Exhibition Goals • To present a timely exhibition that will foster discussion and be used by classes across disciplines on campus. • To create an exhibition with a scholarly catalogue that will travel to other museums and have a national impact.
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