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 | America: A Work in Progress
April 24 - July 12, 2009
Organized by Cunningham Curatorial Intern Francesca Albrezzi ’09, America: A Work in Progress features around twenty photographs from the permanent collection that chart key moments in this country's history and wrestle with some of its big questions: How is it that we see ourselves as Americans? How do we seek to define ourselves in a growing, global world? The exhibition will focus on several American artists, whose work addresses important strands of American culture, history, and points of view and conveys strong messages about the United States’ accomplishments and failures through compelling images. Featured artists include Lionel Delevigne, Elliot Erwitt, Chester Michalik, and Ralph Steiner. America: A Work in Progress was supported by the Charlotte Frank Rabb, class of 1935, Fund. The On-Campus Internship Program at Smith College funded Francesca Albrezzi’s year-long internship at SCMA.
Image: Lionel Delevigne. American born France, 1951-. Attorney Margaret Carey, Greenville, Mississippi, 1990. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Lionel Delevigne in memory of Charles Chetham. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe
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| William Kentridge: What Will Come
May 1 - December 31, 2009
The debut of an important addition to the SCMA permanent collection, What Will Come (2006) is a major film by the South African contemporary artist, William Kentridge. One of the most innovative aspects of Kentridge’s work is his hand-drawn films. What Will Come takes its title from a Ghanaian proverb: “What will come has already come,” a sentiment reflected in the imagery of the film, which speaks to the range of conflicts that have marked modern human history. This work also displays Kentridge’s keen interest in optics. The film is projected from the ceiling onto a round metal table, which bears a polished circular column in its center. The images are reflected on the surface of the column, which corrects the perspective of the drawing for the viewer. The images circumnavigate this column, changing form as they move to a haunting musical track. This film is on view through December 31, 2009.
Image: William Kentridge. South African, 1955-. What Will Come, 2006. Anamorphic video projection (8 minutes 40 seconds) on cold-rolled steel table. Purchased with the Janet Wright Ketcham, class of 1953, Acquisition Fund
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website
| I Heard a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill
May 15 - September 13, 2009
This exhibition of close to 35 works by Lesley Dill (American, 1950-) will focus on her recent large-scale theatrical sculptural installations. For the last twenty years, Lesley Dill has consistently explored the human form, sensory experience, language, and their interactions. Her work can be both ephemeral and spiritual, as she uses bronze, photography, poetry, thread, wire, and paper to sculpt figures and build tapestries. Her pieces give visual form to poetic texts by Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, and Franz Kafka. For Dill, words are her “spiritual armor” and she freely stitches and weaves them across the surfaces of her multi-layered works. This exhibition is organized by the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee in conjunction with George Adams Gallery, New York. Presentation at SCMA is supported by the Tryon Associates and the Judith Plesser Targan, class of 1953, Art Museum Fund.
Image: Lesley Dill. American, 1950-. Rise (detail), 2006-07. Laminated fabric, hand-dyed cotton, paper, metal, silk, organza with cotton. Courtesy of the artist and George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
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| Framework V: Restoring the Boundaries
May 15 - November 1, 2009
Framework V 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 fifth 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 Pre-Raphaelite style for Meditation (1873), a portrait by John Everett Millais and a recent gift to the collection. Additional paintings with newly created or conserved frames will also be on view, including Frederic Edwin Church’s Morning in the Tropics (1883) and Samuel S. Carr’s Beach Scene (c. 1879). 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: John Everett Millais. English, 1829-1896. Meditation, 1873. Oil on canvas. Gift of Johanna Drew Taylor, in memory of her parents, John and Frances Drew. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe
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| Touch Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics by Women Artists
October 9 - February 28, 2010
Touch Fire is composed of over 90 vibrant and dynamic ceramic sculptures by leading contemporary Japanese women artists working within and transforming a medium traditionally associated with men. Although women have played a central role in ceramic production in Japan for centuries, they have worked as studio ceramic artists only since the 1950s. Rather than training in the traditionally male-dominated apprentice system, most attended art school, where they were exposed to and influenced by a wide range of contemporary artistic movements in both Japan and the West. Works in the exhibition are lent by an alumna of Smith College who is one of the pioneer collectors of contemporary Japanese ceramics in the West. The accompanying catalogue, with an essay by ceramics specialist Todate Kazuko, Chief Curator at the Tsukuba Art Museum (Ibaraki, Japan) and artists’ biographies by Wahei Aoyama, provides the first in-depth study of the phenomenal rise of women ceramic artists in Japan. The exhibition is generously supported by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, the Freeman Foundation, and the Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston. Additional support is provided, in part, by the Tryon Associates and the Maxine Weil Kunstadter, class of 1924, Fund.
Image: Katsumata Chieko. Japanese, 1950-. Untitled (Blue Vase with Yellow Flowers), 2006. Stoneware, dyes. Private collection. Photograph by Keitaro Yoshioka, Boston
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