Media Field: Niagara
October 17, 2009–January 24, 2010
Press Release
This Media Field presentation complements the William Morris Hunt collection exhibition. Films by Thomas Edison and the Lumiére Brothers, as well as clips featuring Marilyn Monroe and The Three Stooges, provide examples of Niagara Falls as a pop and cultural icon.
A Strong Impression: William Morris Hunt’s Niagara
October 17, 2009–January 31, 2010
Press Release
This exhibition explores in detail Hunt’s monumental painting Niagara Falls (1878) in the museum’s collection. Originally conceived for the State Capitol in Albany, Hunt’s Niagara Falls is presented along with studies in oil, pastel, and charcoal that show the falls from different perspectives. The exhibition examines both the artistic and cultural context in which the picture was produced through paintings, drawings, photographs, films, rare books, and souvenirs.
Alec Soth: NIAGARA
October 10, 2009–January 10, 2010
Press Release
Alec Soth: NIAGARA presents a selection of photographs from his series that depicts sobering contemporary views of life on both the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls. Using a large-format camera, Soth creates lushly detailed photographs that often belie the bittersweet subject matter of romance associated with the Falls—the “aftermath of passion,” as Soth describes it.
TEACHING WITH ART: Writing about Bodies and Pictures That Rocked the Nation
September 5–December 13, 2009
This exhibition is organized by Carol Ockman, Dennis Meenan ’54 Third Century Professor of Art, as course support for “Writing about Bodies” and “Pictures That Rocked the Nation.”
Ralph Lieberman: Photographs
June 27–November 28, 2009
Lieberman’s elegantly constructed compositions are inspired by architecture that he has encountered from Europe to the Williams College campus. His photographs focus attention on the highly individual character of these unexpected spaces, as well as a range of architectural forms and styles. Ralph Lieberman lives and works in Williamstown, Mass.
Edward Steichen: Episodes from a Life in Photography
June 6–November 8, 2009
Press Release
Featuring 90 photographs created throughout Steichen’s prolific career, Episodes includes unique hand-crafted prints, still lifes, “natural” abstractions, designs for textiles, and a rare presentation of twenty-five photographs for Thoreau’s Walden.
Prendergast in Italy
July 18–September 20, 2009
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Prendergast in Italy is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to the Italian watercolors, monotypes, and oil paintings of Maurice Prendergast.
Featuring over 60 views of Venice, Rome, Siena, and Capri, Prendergast in Italy also includes the artist’s personal sketchbooks, letters, photographs, and guidebooks from the turn of the last century.
Along with artwork from the Williams College Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Prendergast in Italy includes loans from over fifty museums and private collectors in the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
A catalogue, printed in both English and Italian, accompanies the exhibition.
After opening at the Williams College Museum of Art on July 18, 2009, Prendergast in Italy travels to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice (October 9, 2009—January 3, 2010), and to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February 14—May 9, 2010).
Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1927
May 30—September 13, 2009
Press Release
Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years, 1923–1937 presents over 180 photographs that Steichen made while working as Chief Photographer for two of Condé Nast’s best known magazines: Vogue and Vanity Fair. Steichen photographed models wearing fashion from some of the most famous designers of the period including Worth, Poiret, Chanel, and Schiaparelli. He also created portraits of the most prominent figures in literature, journalism, dance, sport, politics, theatre, and film for Vanity Fair, including Greta Garbo, Winston Churchill, Marlene Dietrich, George Gershwin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Amelia Earhart, and Walt Disney. Between the two World Wars, Steichen revolutionized fashion photography while becoming known as “the most famous portrait photographer in the world.”
Organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis, the Musée de E’lysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, and the International Center of Photography, New York in collaboration with Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Mass.
Labeltalk 2009: Vik Muniz
January 17–May 17, 2009 (extended to August 30, 2009)
Press Release
Labeltalk is an innovative exhibition series that highlights the rich teaching potential of art. Each exhibition presents artwork from the museum’s collection along with a brochure that includes written responses by Williams faculty from different disciplines, illustrating multiple perspectives on art.
This project is the seventh in a series originally created in 1995 with the support of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Stimulus Packaage: Senior Studio Art Show 2009
May 15–June 7, 2009
Featuring the artwork of Williams seniors:
Beverly Dominique Acha,
Elena Gil-Chang,
Sarah Hill,
Rachel (Pei-Ru) Ko,
Maya Lama,
Elizabeth Rachel Links,
Omar I. Mendez,
Silvia Juliana Mantilla Ortiz,
Juyeon Park,
Quinlan Sievers,
Kevin Snyder,
Sofia Torres,
and Fiona Rose Worcester.
Visualizing Patriotism
April 4–June 7, 2009
This intervention in the exhibition Manifestos: American Dreams and Their Founding Documents is curated by students Eve Streicker, Class of 2009, and Emily Arensman, Graduate Student in the History of Art, Class of 2010. Juxtaposed with the American Founding Documents are three paintings by A.C. Goodwin, Hayley Lever, and Guy Carleton Wiggins, on loan from a private collection, and propaganda posters from the museum’s collection. Together, these works provide an opportunity to compare the visual expression of American patriotism after World War I to the original declarations made by the Founding Fathers over a hundred years earlier.
Lincoln to the Nth Degree
March 28–June 28, 2009
Press Release
Lincoln to the Nth Degre, an exhibition in honor of the two-hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Featuring 45 works of various media, this exhibition examines the extent to which Lincoln encouraged the construction and dissemination of his image throughout his political career. Drawn from the museum’s collection, as well as the Williams College Archives and the Chapin Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts, the anthology of images and texts recounts the Lincoln myth as it was during his lifetime and after his death.
Williams College Studio Art Faculty Exhibition–2009
February 28–May 24, 2009
Press Release
The Williams College Museum of Art celebrates its renowned studio art faculty with this exhibition featuring work by Laylah Ali, Sarah Amos, Ben Benedict, Ed Epping, Michael Glier, Ethan Jackson, Frank Jackson, Liza Johnson, Mary Jones, Päivi Jukola, Aida Laleian, Penny Lane, Steven Levin, Ann McCallum, Amy Podmore, Barbara Takenaga, and Nick Zammuto. These artists exhibit nationally and internationally while maintaining their demanding careers at Williams. The exhibition includes drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, video, sculpture, and mixed media installations, offering a broad sampling of contemporary art practice today.
Beyond the Familiar: Photography and the Construction of Community
September 20, 2008–March 8, 2009
Press Release
This exhibition draws together the work of 10 artists from throughout the history of photography who have endeavored to reveal the character of an entire population through images of representative individuals. Included is work from the 19th century by Felice Beato and Peter Henry Emerson; from the 20th century by Edward Curtis, Robert Frank, David Goldblatt, Barbara Norfleet, August Sander, and Aaron Siskind; and recent work by Tina Barney and Zwelethu Mthethwa.
Liu Zheng: The Chinese
November 15, 2008–April 26, 2009
Press Release
The Chinese features 120 photographs taken over a seven-year period of people from all walks of life. In a style that combines the ambition of August Sander with the vision of Diane Arbus, Liu’s work captures a country and people at a time of momentous change. Recently acquired by the museum, The Chinese includes images of homeless children, coal miners, monks, transvestite performers, and the emerging middle class, among many others.
Independent Film and Ethnography
September 20, 2008 through February 11, 2009
Press Release
Independent Film and Ethnography surveys a variety of independent film projects. Films include Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922), Luis Bunuel’s Las Hurdes: Land Without Bread (1932), Dennis O’Rourke’s Cannibal Tours (1987), Jean Rouch’s Jaguar (1957), Robert Gardner’s Dead Birds (1965), Timothy Asch’s The Ax Fight (1975), and Ruben Ortiz-Torres’s Frontierland/Fronterilandia (1995). These films range from pure ethnography to critiques of the ethnographic impulse.
Fiona Tan: Countenance
September 20, 2008 through February
11, 2009
Press Release
Fiona Tan's Countenance is both an homage to and critical
response to August Sander’s life’s work—for it she reconceived
the role of portraiture in reflecting the character of a culture. “Countenance,” a
three channel video work, constantly changes as it presents different
combinations of individuals in short vignettes. Each new grouping presents
new relationships and suggests the complexity that we all actually encounter
in our daily lives.
Teaching with Art: Foto Art–Germany
October 4, 2008–January 4, 2009
This course-support exhibition, organized by Professor Charles W. Haxthausen, gives visitors and students access to German photography that is not normally available at the museum.
The Long Night
and the New Day: Lithographs by Benton Spruance
July 12—October 5, 2008
Press release
The Long Night and the New Day features lithographs
that span the career of Benton Spruance, from his naturalistic renderings of
the Depression era to his later, evocative and abstracted work of the 1960s.
Spruance often used biblical stories and classical myths to allude to human suffering
and enduring moral dilemmas. This exhibition celebrates the gift of these works
from Sigmund R. Balka, Williams Class of 1956, to the museum.
Emily Driscoll: Works
May 31–October 5, 2008
Press release
Presenting the work
of Emily Driscoll, Williams Graduate Class of 2005, this exhibition
features a broad range of works on paper, the principal medium
in which the artist worked. Driscoll's works are meticulously
rendered in wax, pen, ink, and marker. Many depict figures in
a dream-like world, where the inhabitants have curious attachments,
additions of apparatus or extra limbs, and are in the act of
either putting on or removing the items as if they were accessories
and clothing. The figures, in their curious garb, seem to be
simultaneously connected to and bound to others in a collective
drama that comments on the human condition.
Nick Zammuto:
Laser Show
Six Perspectives on a Chaotic Resonator
July 12—September 14, 2008
Press Release
Nick Zammuto's work focuses
on the relationship between visual, aural, and physical
vibration and its ability to carry information. In Laser
Show, sub-sonic sounds vibrate a flexible mirror
that reflects six laser-points of light. The sound
waves determine the evolving shapes that appear on
the gallery screen. Nick Zammuto, Williams Class of 1999, is this year's
recipient of the Arthur Levitt, Jr. '52 Artist-in-Residence
in Art Fellowship at Williams.
William Kentridge
Prints
February 9 – April 27, 2008
and June 21 – August 24, 2008
and History of the Main Complaint, 1996
February 2–August 24, 2008
Press release
William Kentridge Prints represents over a third of the out put in the
medium of printmaking for Kentridge, who works in the tradition of socially and
politically engaged artists such as William Hogarth, Francisco Goya, Honore Daumier,
and Kathe Kollwitz. Kentridge's work reflects on the human condition, specifically
the history of apartheid in his own country and the ways in which our personal
and collective histories are intertwined.
Model American
Men
March 1—August 24, 2008
Press Release
Model American Men explores representations
of male role models and conceptions of masculinity
in American culture from 1850 to 1950. Examining
the environment that shaped manhood and masculinity
from the Civil War to the end of World War II, Model
American Men depicts the everyday man to the
national hero.
Julie Mehretu:
City Sitings
April 19–July 27, 2008
Press release
Julie Mehretu: City Sitings brings together 11 of the
artist’s monumental paintings. Mehretu’s compelling canvases re-envision
urban experience and rewrite narratives of exclusion, reconciling divergent histories
through her expansive, dynamic compositions. Inspired by community, history and
the built environment, Mehretu's paintings engage viewers in her vision of metropolitan
landscape.
This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts in collaboration
with Julie Mehretu. Support has been provided through generous grants from
the Joyce Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Unchained Legacies
January 26–June 22, 2008
Press Release
This exhibition highlights two new contemporary art acquisitions
by the museum: Stowage (1997) by Willie Cole and Absolut
Power (2003) by Hank Willis Thomas. Both works visually
quote the diagram of the Brooks Slave ship (1808)—evidence
of the organization of human cargo during transport from
Africa, or what has become known as the “Middle
Passage.” The exhibition, a collaboration with
Chapin Rare Book Library (Williams College), provides
a historical context for the contemporary use of this
infamous image.
...The Horse You Rode in On.
Senior Show 2008
May 9–June 1, 2008
Press Release
Featuring
the work of this year's senior studio majors, ...The Horse Your Rode in On celebrates
the culmination of each artist's work: Evan Barrett, Hannah Buchsbaum, Kim Dacres,
Karina Godoy, Sean Hayes, Rory Jensen, Elizabeth Kohout, Ben Kolesar, Eugene
Korsunskiy, Brandon Lucien, Elspeth Macmillan, Tony Maruca, Sophie Scully, and
Amanda Zaitchik.
Frank Jackson: Echo
January 12–April 20 , 2008
Jackson uses the tangible, physical means of paint to excavate an emotional and
psychological terrain in his work. His signature abstract paintings, prints,
and drawings, on view in this exhibition, demonstrate sensitivity to surface
and texture. Through a process of scraping back and re-laying paint, Jackson
reveals surfaces of evolving forms and abstract vistas that evoke a sense of
both chaos and order.
Teaching with Art: Perspectives on Winslow Homer
January 2–July 6, 2008
Felix Gonzalez Torres: "Untitled" (Placebo) 1991
December 1, 2007–March 23, 2008
Press Release
Known for his minimalist installations and sculptures, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Placebo) features
1200pounds of silver-wrapped candy that make a monumental carpet in the museum’s
largest gallery. Visitors are encouraged to participate in the sculpture by taking
pieces of the candy. The disappearance of the sculpture in part symbolizes the
experience of irreplaceable loss. The work is being presented as part of the
museum’s continued commitment to World AIDS Day. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Placebo) is
on loan from the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
New Acquisitions/New Perspectives
September 15, 2007–January 6, 2008
Press Release
This exhibition features 21 works that have recently been added to WCMA's permanent
collection. Featuring contemporary work by Laylah Ali, Patty Chang, Liu Zheng,
Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter and Susan Meiselas, among others, this exhibition
reflects important movements in both art and art history, positioning the museum's
collection at the forefront of contemporary art and in tune with the latest trends
in art scholarship. Also featured is a painting dating from the mid- 19th century
from India that demonstrates the museum’s continued commitment to enhancing
its unusually rich holdings in this area.
Critical Encounters: Collecting Contemporary
Photography
August 4–December
16, 2007
Press Release
Critical Encounters: Collecting Contemporary
Photography features 48 photographs from the
collection of art critic Phyllis Tuchman. Over her long
and prodigious career, which has included stints as a
curator and a professor of art history, Tuchman has written
extensively about modern art, with notable contributions
to the literature on George Segal, Anthony Caro, and
Carl Andre, among many others.
Media Field Gallery
William Kentridge's Felix in Exile
September 18– November 18, 2007
Press Release
This film is the first of three exhibition presented
this year featuring the work of pioneering South African
artist William Kentridge. Working across media and embracing
video, sculpture, printmaking, and performance, Kentridge
works in the tradition of socially and politically engaged
artists, such as William Hogarth, Francisco Goya, Honore
Daumier, and Kathe Kollwitz. His work reflects on the
human condition, specifically the oppression of apartheid
and the ways in which our personal and collective histories
are intertwined.
Making It New:
The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy
July 8–November
11, 2007
Press Release
Learn More
Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald
Murphy is the first to explore the pivotal contribution
of Gerald and Sara Murphy to twentieth century arts and letters.
Gerald Murphy’s seven existing paintings are but one
aspect of a project examining the Murphys in the context of
the circle of artistic and literary moderns that flourished
around them in Paris and the Riviera in the 1920s and 1930s.
Work by the Murphys' circle of friends including Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger,
Juan Gris, Georges Braque, Le Corbusier, Man Ray, Archibald MacLeish, Cole Porter,
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Philip
Barry, is viewed through the nexus of the Murphys’ artistically adventurous
yet gracious milieu. An interdisciplinary enterprise, it presents not only works
of art but set and costume decor, photography, music, letters, film, and a rich
trove of archival material including home movies and audio reminiscences. Through
their famous friendships, the Murphys inspired some of the greatest art and literature
of the twentieth century.
Karin Stack: Idylls
July 14–September 16, 2007
Press Release
Williamstown, MA–The Williams College Museum
of Art (WCMA) presents Karin Stack: Idylls, on view July 14 through September
16, 2007. In Stack's photography beautiful birds rest in trees in full spring
bloom, a man stands on a cliff overlooking the sea in a moment of solitary contemplation,
and a snake coils in rough, red-soil terrain. But look again and then again.
All is not what it appears in the images of Karin Stack, who photographs elaborate
tableaux that combine models, paintings, and both real and photographed landscapes.
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