“High Art” Inspiring a Reinterpretation of a Children’s Story
Today’s blog post comes from Angela Brown, class of 2016 and Art Center Student Docent.
Upon learning that this year’s Founder’s Day theme would be Alice in Wonderland, I
couldn’t help but consider how stories from childhood remain with us throughout our
lives. I wanted to explore the way the significance and meaning of these stories shift
according to...
Post-War Culture of the Defeated
At the conclusion of World War I, Germany suffered terrible financial and social backlash from the rest of Europe. Veterans and civilians alike struggled to pick up the pieces and move on from wartime. War profiteers in Berlin lived sumptuously, in high contrast with the wounded veterans and families who outlived their primary breadwinner. Impoverished...
Uncovering The Four Ages of Man
Today’s post comes from Rhyston Mays, class of 2016 and Multimedia Student Assistant.
Valentin de Boulogne’s The Four Ages of Man (1629) hangs on the Art Center’s walls among other works from the seventeenth century. The first time I came across Valentin’s painting, I was not particularly intrigued. His style was familiar, like that of Michelangelo...
Photography, Environment, and Politics: Sawdust Mountain
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center actively encourages faculty and students from across all departments and programs to view the art collection as a teaching tool and the galleries as a learning site. Perhaps this is nowhere more evident than in this fall’s half-semester course, “Photography, Environment, and Politics: Sawdust Mountain.” The course, which is...
Angelic Gesture
Today’s post comes from Justine Paradis, class of 2013 and Art Center Student Docent.
Barbara Hepworth’s Maquette for Winged Figure (c. 1940–1) was created, as the title suggests, as a preliminary model for a larger sculpture that was eventually installed on the second story exterior of the John Lewis Building on Oxford Street in London. The...
Playing with Space: Gordon Matta-Clark at Vassar and Beyond
Today’s post comes from Lina Kavaliunas, Class of 2013 and Art Center Student Docent.
This spring break I found my way back home to Chicago where I saw the exhibition MCA DNA: Gordon Matta-Clark at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In the 1970s, Gordon Matta-Clark became known for his “anarchitecture” works where he carved out sections...
Seeing Red: Rothko on Stage
Today’s post comes from Emily MacLeod, Class of 2012 and Art Center Student Docent.
“What do you see?”
This is the first line of the play Red by John Logan—and a question that we as docents often ask when starting a dialogue about works in our collection. The plot follows Mark Rothko as he works on his...
Connections: African History
Today’s post comes from Julie MacDonald, Class of 2012 and Art Center Student Docent.
On February 16th, professor Ismail Rashid brought students from his Modern African History (HIST/AFRS 272) class into storage here at the Art Center to view a variety of objects that not only address issues in African history, but also African art and...
Off-Campus: Stettheimer at the Brooklyn Museum
Today’s post comes from Simone Levine, Class of 2013 and Art Center Student Docent.
On October 28th, our very own “Natatorium Undine” by Florine Stettheimer will hang among other works from the Jazz Age in the Brooklyn Museum’s Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties. Displaying art rich in sexual freedom and celebrations of youth,...
Insights from William Breazeale: Curator at the Crocker Art Museum
Today’s post comes from Julie MacDonald, Class of 2012 and Art Center Student Docent.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is proud to present A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum. The exhibition features an exquisite collection of European drawings and will be on display in the Art Center through December 11, 2011....
Connections: Desk-concertingly Engaging
Today’s Post comes from Samantha Moyer, Art Center docent.
It is really interesting to see how artifacts of history overlapped one another. One example of this, currently on view in the Lehman Loeb Art Center, is a portrait of Matthew Vassar (Vassar college’s founder in 1861), where he is sitting in front of gothic style revival...
Connections: Sounds Jazzy
Today’s post comes from Taylor Shoolery, class of 2012 and Art Center student docent.
For the last five Thursdays at Late Night dance theater performers from the Power House Apprentice Company performed a soundpainting called Wuthering, a semi-improvisational reinterpretation of the novel Wuthering Heights. Soundpainting, conceived by Walter Thompson in the 1970s, is a performance in...
