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.

Teaching with Art: Perspectives on Winslow Homer
January 2–July 6, 2008

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.

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.