Three Visions of Rural America
dal 13/6/2003 al 1/9/2003
Segnalato da
13/6/2003
Three Visions of Rural America
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown
Recently Acquired Works on Paper. Kara Walker's 2003 Negress Notes (Slavery Reparations Act), a series of watercolors and the museum's newest purchase, is featured along with lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton and photographs by Kristin Capp.
Williams College Museum of Art Presents "Three Visions of Rural America:
Recently Acquired Works on Paper"
June 14-September 1, 2003 at the Williams College Museum of Art
Williamstown, MA‹Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) will present Three
Visions of Rural America: Recently Acquired Works on Paper. Kara Walker's
2003 Negress Notes (Slavery Reparations Act), a series of watercolors and
the museum's newest purchase, is featured along with lithographs by Thomas
Hart Benton and photographs by Kristin Capp. Three Visions of Rural America
is on view June 14 through September 1, 2003.
"In reviewing our recent acquisitions, Claire Rifelj and I recognized
certain affinities between these particular works, in spite of their
distinct aesthetics, and found ourselves drawn to seeing them installed
together," says Director Linda Shearer. Claire Rifelj is a first year
graduate student in the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of
Art and has organized this exhibition with Linda Shearer.
Each year, new works of art are acquired by the museum through donations and
purchases, thanks to the generosity of donors and endowed funds earmarked
for acquisitions. The museum presents new acquisitions on a regular basis
and this exhibition is the current effort. Alumni donors made these
acquisitions possible: David P. Tunick, Class of 1966, and his wife
Elizabeth Tunick gave the Benton lithographs, and Nicholas G. Fluehr, Class
of 1984, and his wife Nicole D. Shearman donated the Capp photographs.
A Surprising Look at Rural America
Joining recent work of Walker (American, b. 1969) and Capp (American, b.
1964) with lithographs from the 1940s by Benton (American, 1889-1975)
creates a surprising look at rural America.
Kara Walker has received much critical attention for her provocative
silhouetted images that depict imagined scenes from the Civil War era. Her
work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions internationally, including
Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress, co-organized by WCMA and the Tang
Teaching Museum at Skidmore College and scheduled to open at Williams on
August 30, 2003. Walker's watercolors in this exhibit serve as a
counterpoint to the large-scale, black and white shadows that populate so
many of her well-known works.
Thomas Hart Benton, an American regionalist artist, created lithographs
whose imagery is surprisingly similar to several of Kara Walker's
watercolors. Whereas the rolling hills and plowed fields in Benton's work
convey a nostalgia for things in America's past, Walker's work evokes the
thinly veiled horrors that accompany history. Capp's photographs, on the
other hand, portray the contemporary Hutterite community in Washington
State, which rejects industrialized society in favor of former ways of life.
The three artists offer interpretations of the landscapes and peoples of
rural America using different approaches that together offer viewers
unexpected relationships.
Publicity Image Available
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.
Williams College Museum of Art
15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Suite 2
Williamstown MA 01267
413.597.3178