The Art History Club of UD has been busy during the first couple of weeks of the 2012 spring semester. In the first month of the new semester we have attended two gallery talks and one lecture.
Our kickoff event of the semester was a gallery talk in Mechanical Hall entitled “Magical Visions” on February 15th. This exhibit, which can still be seen in Mechanical Hall, features 10 different African-American artists all brought together by curator Keith Morrison. I particularly found this exhibit to be fascinating because of the variety of different types of art presented. For example, there are sculptures, paintings, photography, a film and even a quilt by artist Faith Ringgold. My favorite piece or shall I say pieces in the exhibit was a set of sculptures by Melvin Edwards. Mr. Edwards created these sculptures from steel tools all welded together. After a brief reception, we heard an impromptu talk by the curator, who spoke about each artist and why he chose to include them in the exhibit.
Our second event, which was held on the 16th of February, was a lecture entitled “Beyond the Iraq Museum: Protecting our Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis” and was presented by Corine Wagner. Ms. Wagner is the Associate Curator of Decorative Arts, Textiles and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This lecture explored Ms. Wagner’s experience in the U.S. Army and her job of dealing with the looting at the Iraq museum that happened at the onset of the Iraqi War.
On the first of March we attended a gallery talk in the Old College Gallery. The current exhibition is entitled “New Art at UD” and the gallery talk included talks by two artists who had pieces in the exhibition. One of the artists, Peter Williams, spoke about his piece entitled “Absolutely Hilarious”. This piece explores racial stereotypes surrounding the “Mammy” archetype. The other artist who spoke was Donald McLaughlin. Mr. McLaughlin, an alumnus of UD, spoke briefly about the four pieces of his in the exhibition. Following an inquiry from a member of the audience Mr. McLaughlin discussed the use of color in his pieces. He stated that he plans to return to the predominate use of blacks and browns, which are prevalent in his earlier works, in future compositions.
Our kickoff event of the semester was a gallery talk in Mechanical Hall entitled “Magical Visions” on February 15th. This exhibit, which can still be seen in Mechanical Hall, features 10 different African-American artists all brought together by curator Keith Morrison. I particularly found this exhibit to be fascinating because of the variety of different types of art presented. For example, there are sculptures, paintings, photography, a film and even a quilt by artist Faith Ringgold. My favorite piece or shall I say pieces in the exhibit was a set of sculptures by Melvin Edwards. Mr. Edwards created these sculptures from steel tools all welded together. After a brief reception, we heard an impromptu talk by the curator, who spoke about each artist and why he chose to include them in the exhibit.
Our second event, which was held on the 16th of February, was a lecture entitled “Beyond the Iraq Museum: Protecting our Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis” and was presented by Corine Wagner. Ms. Wagner is the Associate Curator of Decorative Arts, Textiles and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This lecture explored Ms. Wagner’s experience in the U.S. Army and her job of dealing with the looting at the Iraq museum that happened at the onset of the Iraqi War.
On the first of March we attended a gallery talk in the Old College Gallery. The current exhibition is entitled “New Art at UD” and the gallery talk included talks by two artists who had pieces in the exhibition. One of the artists, Peter Williams, spoke about his piece entitled “Absolutely Hilarious”. This piece explores racial stereotypes surrounding the “Mammy” archetype. The other artist who spoke was Donald McLaughlin. Mr. McLaughlin, an alumnus of UD, spoke briefly about the four pieces of his in the exhibition. Following an inquiry from a member of the audience Mr. McLaughlin discussed the use of color in his pieces. He stated that he plans to return to the predominate use of blacks and browns, which are prevalent in his earlier works, in future compositions.