HA! Cartoons, Caricatures, and Satire from the Williams College Museum of Art
November 9, 2002-December 21, 2003
press release
HA! Cartoons, Caricatures, and Satire will include approximately forty works from the permanent collection, mostly works on paper, but also some paintings and sculpture. The exhibition will address definitions of cartoons, caricatures, and satire by showing specific examples of each genre. It will highlight WCMA's extraordinary collections of Rube Goldberg, Thomas Nast, and World War I posters and incorporate examples from the eighteenth century to the present.

Representing Slavery
press release
September 13-December 21, 2003
Representing Slavery presents artistic reconstructions of slavery that establish and alter the broader contours of race, sexuality, gender, subjectivity, national identity, and political power in the United States. This exhibition consists of work from WCMA's permanent collection along with the research and writing of students in the American Studies senior seminar "Representing Slavery." Sketches and illustrations, drawings, and paintings by Thomas Nast, Winslow Homer, Glenn Ligon, Tim Rollins and Kids of Survival, and Kara Walker will be included in the exhibition. These works will examine the power of nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century visuals to incorporate and reshape antebellum source material.

Narratives of a Negress: Kara Walker
August 30-December 7, 2003
press release
Known for her black paper cut silhouettes, Kara Walker is an artist who has quickly become one of the most important voices of her generation. Her images depict civil war era scenes filled with visual stereotypes, sex, violence, and disquieting power relationships. Constructing anti-racist parodies, Walker figures within a group of African-American artists whose work addresses racial identity in a confrontational way. In collaboration with the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College

Three Visions of Rural America: Recently Acquired Works on Paper
June 14-August 31, 2003
press release
This exhibition of recent acquisitions in the museum’s permanent collection will bring together prints, drawings, and photographs. The highlight of the show will be the museum’s newest purchase, Kara Walker’s 2003 Negress Notes (Slavery Reparations Act), a series of thirteen watercolors. Also featured will be work by Kristin Capp and Thomas Hart Benton. Walker's exhibition, Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress, will open at WCMA on August 30, 2003.

You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé
June 28-August 31, 2003
press release
Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, two commercial photographers from Mali, took mesmerizing portraits during the period before and after the country achieved independence from France in 1960. These portraits flatter the sitters, presenting them in the best possible light. Although these photographers did not see themselves as artists when they produced these images, their work has recently been lauded in the West. Organized by the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University

Tibet: Mountains and Valleys, Castles and Tents from the Newark Museum Collection
March 1-August 3, 2003
press release
The Newark Museum’s acclaimed collection of Tibetan art includes rare examples of official regalia, noble jewelry, castle furnishings, horse gear, and weapons that reflect the legacy of the country’s proud warrior elite. These objects are shown in conjunction with rare photographs taken by some of the earliest foreign visitors to Tibet, documenting the rugged terrain and the traditional lifestyles of Tibet and its people in the first decades of the twentieth century.

"Shocking and Awful," Art by Williams College's Class of 2003
May 17-June 8, 2003
Shocking and Awful will feature work by 19 students, most of whom major in studio art at Williams. Seventeen of the featured artists have participated in a senior tutorial course in their final semester at Williams. The course allows students to critically pursue their visual interests through various media and methods. On display in Shocking and Awful will be the synthesis of four years of experimentation, observation, and commitment by the artists. More information can be found on the exhibition homepage. A gallery of images from the opening reception is also available by clicking here.

Sacred Art of Tibet: Making a Mandala
April 15-May 3, 2003
press release
Painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite of the artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism. In Tibet this art is called dul-tson-kyil-khor, which means "mandala of colored powders." Millions of grains of sand will be painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform by two monks over a period of three weeks in WCMA’s rotunda. Formed from traditional icons that include geometric shapes and a multitude of ancient spiritual symbols, the sand-painted mandala is used as a tool for re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants. The Monks of Namgyal Monastery have become especially well known for the creation of exquisite mandalas throughout the world.