Williams College Museum of Art Presents
Free Public Summer Tours *
June 27–August 19, 2006
Tuesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.

Williamstown, MA—Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) will offer free public tours of its permanent collection and changing exhibitions this summer beginning June 27 and ending on August 19, 2006.  WCMA’s Museum Associates, a group of Williams College students and community members, along with museum curators and staff, will guide visitors on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons at 2 p.m. Tours will begin in the atrium of the museum and will last approximately 45 minutes. Admission is free and advance reservations are not required. 

A Variety of Art to Discover: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
This summer at WCMA a variety of art awaits the museum visitor. Exhibitions range from turn-of-the-century watercolors to installations that use ordinary objects to evoke an extraordinary miniature city. “Visitors should expect the unexpected this summer at WCMA,” says director Lisa Corrin. “We have not only the surprising installation by Chinese artist Zhan Wang, which is a miniature rendition of Beijing made entirely of common kitchen utensils, but also three distinct approaches to painting:  Jackson Pollock’s pioneering “friezes,” Jacqueline Humphries’s explorations of light, and Perry Hall’s innovative meditations on the overlap between paint and the invisible structure that comprise daily life.”

One of the highlights will be Jackson Pollock at Williams College: A Tribute to Kirk Varnedoe ’67. This exhibition celebrates three magnificent paintings created at the height of Pollock’s career and explores the role that art conservation plays in illuminating an artist’s materials, working methods, and stylistic evolution. This is a rare opportunity to see Pollock’s extremely fragile paintings in the Berkshires, as they seldom are allowed to travel. It also the first time that one of Pollock’s paintings has been displayed in a free-standing base with the back of the painting visible. This allows visitors to walk “behind” the painting and see the exposed underside of Pollock’s canvas.

Jacqueline Humphries: Seven Sisters features seven large-scale paintings created specifically for the 1935 gallery where a large central skylight filters natural light into the space, accentuating the paintings’ in shimmering color. In creating these paintings, Humphries first poured silver paint on the canvas and then applied gestural brushstrokes and specific treatments of paint to add color and eometrical elements to the work. Her dynamic working process follows in the tradition of Pollack and 1950s Abstract Expressionism while also moving beyond it.

Zhan Wang: Urban Landscape–Beijing is an extravagantly detailed installation that fills the gallery with stainless steel pots, pans, and eating utensils to form a miniature city. Flanked by Zhan’s famous rock sculptures, which replicated Chinese scholars rocks, and illuminated from above, the miniature city in the mountains takes on a mesmerizing glow. Zhan seeks to conjure the memories of what has already disappeared in today’s China and what its cities still stand to lose. His work evokes the mnipresent clashes that characterize Chinese society today as the nation moves to modernize at an unprecedented rate often at the cost of tradition.

Turn-of-the-century artist Rhoda Holmes Nicholls created watercolors of New England landscapes as well as vistas culled from her travels throughout the world. 25 of her works are featured in this exhibition, including still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes. A celebrated painter and teacher, Nicholls taught watercolor classes at Williams Merritt Chase’s Shinnecock School on Long Island, as well as at the Art Students League in New York.Our Media Field Program presents Perry Hall: Material Intelligence, the artist’s first solo museum exhibition. Hall’s varied approach to artistic practice encompasses painting, video, interactive multimedia, and his own sound compositions. This exhibition includes three distinct types of Hall’s artwork: Livepainting videos, 1,465 Sound Drawings, and “decalcomania” paintings, exploring themes of material processes, time, and the senses.

Also on view are several exhibitions highlighting WCMA’s permanent collection. American Dreams takes into account a unique vision of experiences and ideas of America. Masterpieces Ancient to Modern displays some of the finest and most diverse art in the museum’s permanent collection, including works by Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, and Mary Cassatt, as well as Mayan terracotta and ancient Greek art. Finally, Specimens of a Higher Art displays the museum’s pair of nearly 3,000-year-old relief sculptures from ancient Assyria.

A full schedule of gallery tour topics can be found on WCMA’s website at www.wcma.org.  Below is a list of scheduled tours with museum staff.

Special group tours for adults or children are also available and can be scheduled by calling the museum’s Education Department at 413.597.2038.

Staff Tours

Gallery Talk on Zhan Wang: Urban Landscape
Tuesday, June 27 at 2:00 pm
Director Lisa Corrin

Gallery Talk on Jacqueline Humphries: New Work
Tuesday, July 11 at 2:00 pm
Curator Deborah Rothschild on Humphries and the legacy of Jackson Pollock

Guest Lecture: Jacqueline Humphries, artist
Saturday, July 15
4:00 pm lecture
5:00 pm Season Premiere Party

Gallery Talk on Rhoda Holmes Nicholls
Tuesday, July 18 at 2:00 pm
Curator Nancy Mowll Mathews on Nicholls, women artists, and watercolors

Gallery Talk on Rhoda Holmes Nicholls
Tuesday, August 1 at 2:00 pm
Assistant curator Kathryn Price

Gallery Talk: Highlights
Tuesday, August 15 at 2:00 pm
Associate director John Stomberg on current exhibitions

*TOURS WILL NOT BE HELD JULY 1, JULY 4, AND JULY 15.

The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible. Contact: Suzanne Augugliaro, Public Relations and External Affairs Director, 413.597.3178.