|
Glamour,
genres and history part of new exhibit
By
Julie Rausch
What’s
new at the Ulrich Museum of Art is also what’s old.
"Connecting
the Past to the Present: Modern and Contemporary Art from the WSU
Foundation Collection" involves the installation of more than 150
works. The show opened Jan. 19.
Elizabeth
Dunbar, Ulrich Museum curator, selected the works from more than
7,000 pieces of art owned by WSU Foundation.
Comprising
paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and new media
works, the exhibition will be on display for at least a year in
the museum’s first-floor Grafly Gallery and in the second-floor
Beren Gallery.
Because
works on paper are light sensitive, prints, photographs and drawings
will rotate every few months — a practice that also ensures
the exhibition stays fresh and exciting, Dunbar says.
Also,
as new works are acquired, they will be added to the installation.
Some of the works in the exhibition have never before been on display
at the Ulrich Museum.
American
art works dominate the collection, says Dunbar.
"The
exhibition is a narrative history of the development of modern and
contemporary art from the late 19th century to the present," says
Dunbar, who began as curator in May. She has spent the past six
months combing through the WSU art collection preparing for this
show.
"The
collection includes many hidden gems I didn’t know about. I
think many people will be surprised by what we have," says Dunbar.
The
show is arranged chronologically and thematically beginning with
such styles as neoclassicism, including works by Charles Grafly,
to urban realism with a key piece, "Gregorita with the Santa Clara
Bowl," by Robert Henri. The show continues through impressionism,
symbolism and modernism.
The
1930s takes the viewer into the Depression with works by Reginald
Marsh, Grant Wood and John Stewart Curry. Following that are abstract
works by Stuart Davis and Alexander Calder.
Surrealist
works by Joan Miró and abstract expressionist pieces by Robert
Motherwell and Jackson Pollock’s wife Lee Krasner round out
the nearly 100 works shown in the Grafly Gallery.
The
Beren Gallery showcases art from the late 1950s to the new millennium.
Patrons will see examples of pop art by Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg,
minimalism by Sol LeWitt and figurative works by Lucian Freud (grandson
of Sigmund) and David Salle, who’s originally from Wichita.
In
addition, many recent acquisitions are making their premiere at
the museum, including Alan Rath’s "Neo Watcher II," a piece
from 2001 that uses electronics and computer technology, as well
as Kara Walker’s "I’ll Be A Monkey’s Uncle" from
1996, which explores cultural identity and racial stereotypes.
The
Ulrich Museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and noon-5 p.m. weekends.
Admission is free.
|
