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 | Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing #139 (Grid and arcs from the midpoints of four sides)
February 1 - January 4, 2009
Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) was one of America’s leading conceptual artists. Believing that the idea of art is more important than its physical presence, LeWitt created works that had their genesis in a set of simple instructions that can be executed by anyone. These directions create logical and repetitive systems of lines, arcs, and grids, which de-emphasize the subjective decisions of the person fabricating the work of art. LeWitt’s wall drawings are the best known examples of his works created according to this conceptual system.
In 2000, a member of the class of 1947 gave the anonymous gift of Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #139 (Grid and arcs from the midpoints of four sides) (1972). This important early wall drawing, which is executed in black pencil, will be installed at SCMA for the first time in January 2008. A trained assistant from LeWitt’s New York studio will supervise three Smith students in the execution of the drawing on the wall of the Ketcham Gallery on the Museum’s third floor. To provide a context for LeWitt’s overall body of work, the installation will also contain a rotating selection of works in other media by the artist, including sculpture, drawings, and prints.
Image: Sol LeWitt. American, 1928-2007. Brushstrokes in All Directions, 1994. Silkscreen on Folio white paper. Gift of Karen Cooper, class of 1970, and Film Forum, New York City. ©Estate of Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe
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| Gary Niswonger: About Place
April 11 - September 7, 2008
The work in this exhibition is selected from oil and watercolor paintings created by Professor Gary Niswonger during his sabbatical leave from the art department of Smith College, where he has taught painting, printmaking, design, and drawing since 1972. The locations depicted in these works, beyond the artist’s New England garden, vary from Barcelona to Ukiah, California. As Niswonger says: “As a painter of landscape I find myself confronting the seasons of the year. My interest is painting the landscape wherever I am. The weight of the air, the quality of the light are features that appeal to me most…..Painting is choosing—all sorts of choices. My paintings are not afraid to be clumsy. They come from being in the making.”
Image: Gary Niswonger. American, 1941-. Snow Laden, 2007. Oil on paper mounted on board. Collection of the artist. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe.
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| Sandy Skoglund: Radioactive Cats
April 18 - September 7, 2008
In conjunction with the artist’s 40th reunion at Smith College, the Museum will display Sandy Skoglund’s Radioactive Cats installation (1980) for the first time since purchasing this sculptural environment in 2004. Radioactive Cats, which features bright green cats prowling a grey apartment, is the artist’s best known work. The Smith College Museum of Art is a major repository of Skoglund’s work, including the Revenge of the Goldfish installation (a blue bedroom environment teeming with giant goldfish), installation photographs, prints, a painting, and a bronze sculpture.
Image: Sandra Louise Skoglund. American, 1946–. Radioactive Cats, 1980. Cibachrome. Purchased. ©Sandy Skoglund. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe
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| Framework IV: Restoring the Boundaries
May 16 - November 2, 2008
Framework IV showcases the results of the ongoing work by museum staff and students to conserve frames for SCMA’s painting collection. In this apprenticeship program, now in its fourth year, Smith College and other Five-College students are trained by Chief Preparator William Myers and Associate Director David Dempsey in the techniques of frame conservation. The featured frame in this installation was created in the appropriate period style for Martin Johnson Heade’s New Jersey Meadows (c. 1871-1875). Additional paintings with newly conserved frames will also be on view, including William Hogarth’s Portrait of James Caulfield, 1st Earl of Charlemont (c. 1759-1764) and Jean-Francois Millet’s Portrait of William Morris Hunt (c. 1853-1855). There are twelve students, eleven from Smith and one from the University of Massachussets, Amherst, participating in the frame project during this academic year. This project is an outgrowth of the museum’s long-term effort to study and conserve the frames in its collection, supported, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Friends of the Museum who contributed to a special Annual Appeal, “The Frame Project: Conservation and Restoration of Museum Masterpieces.” Special thanks also go to the J. H. Miller Picture Frame Company, Springfield, and Sepp Leaf Products, New York, for their generous support.
Image: William Hogarth. British, 1697-1764. Portrait of James Caulfield, 1st Earl of Charlemont, c. 1759-1764. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. R. Keith Kane (Amanda Stewart Bryan, class of 1927). Photograph Petegorsky/Gipe
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website
| Jerome Liebling: Seeing Real Things
June 13 - August 24, 2008
Jerome Liebling (American, 1924-) has been influential as a photographer, filmmaker, and teacher. Following his discharge from the army in 1946, Liebling studied design under the Bauhaus-inspired faculty at Brooklyn College. His early love of still photography was honed under the tutelage of Walter Rosenblum, former president of the famed New York social-documentary group the Photo League, and his eye for composition was nourished by faculty members such as Milton Brown, Burgoyne Diller, Ad Reinhardt, and Robert J. Wolf. These influences would drive Liebling’s practice—series of pristinely formal and socially-conscious images that speak directly and forcefully about change and continuity in America during the late 20th century. Above all, Liebling continually reaffirms his interest in “real things” and the power of photography to “see:” to capture both visible and intangible aspects of our world. Jerome Liebling: Seeing Real Things will allow viewers to rediscover the work of this important American photographer through a selection of 40+ black-and-white and color photographs that span Liebling’s long and illustrious career.
Image: Jerome Liebling. American, 1924-. Man in Restaurant Booth, Weirton, West Virginia, 1982 (printed 2007). C-print. Purchased with the fund in honor of Charles Chetham. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe
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| Sheila Pepe: Red Hook at Bedford Terrace
July 11 - October 5, 2008
Artist Sheila Pepe will come to the Museum in July 2008 to create an installation that was commissioned by the Museum’s Visiting Committee in honor of Ann Johnson, a former staff member of long-standing who retired in June 2006. Pepe first came to SCMA twenty years ago as a security guard and subsequently worked in virtually all departments of the Museum, including an internship in the Director’s office, where she worked with Mrs. Johnson. Pepe’s artistic practice includes site-specific installations made from a variety of materials, which have been shown at national and international venues. At Smith she will be working with 800 lbs. of ship’s towline, yarns, shoelaces, and crocheted and knitted materials created by Smith students/volunteers, who will be given instructions for their fabrication by the artist. This work, titled Red Hook at Bedford Terrace, will enter the Museum’s permanent collection.
Image: Sheila Pepe. American, 1959-. Gowanus, 2004. Installation at the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph by Jace Kgancarz.
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