News from the Princeton University Art Museum

 

Artist Talk Duane Michals Thursday, January 7, 5:30 p.m. (EST)

 

Widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and the essential use of text in his images, Duane Michals is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, and his work appears in the virtual exhibition The Eclectic Eye: A Tribute to Duane Wilder. In this live event, rescheduled from an earlier fall date, Michals will lead a candid discussion touching on topics such as metaphysics, personal identity, the nature of memory, photography, and filmmaking in conversation with Museum Director James Steward. Details and free registration here.

Life Magazine and the Power of Photography Publication Named Alfred H Barr Jr. Award Finalist

We are delighted that Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, published in conjunction with the Art Museum’s 2020 exhibition of the same name, is a finalist for the prestigious Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award, presented by the College Art Association of America. Edited by Katherine A. Bussard, the Museum’s Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography, and Kristen Gresh, the Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the publication is the first comprehensive consideration of Life’s groundbreaking and influential contribution to the history of photography. Featuring texts by twenty-five scholars, the book draws on unprecedented access to the magazine’s archives and presents previously unpublished materials that shed new light on the editorial processes behind many now-iconic images and photo-essays. The book is available for purchase here, and we invite you to explore the exhibition online here. Members Event Art Museum Trivia Night Wednesday, January 13, 7 p.m. (EST)   Join fellow Museum members near and far to play live online trivia! You can play as an individual, with your household, or as a team with friends online anywhere. Three trivia rounds will test players’ knowledge of Princeton lore, the Art Museum’s collections, and pop culture. Registration is open exclusively to members. If you are not currently a member, set up your free membership. Details and free registration here. Save the Date Writing Workshop | A Long Look at Love: Venus and Amor by Lucas Cranach the Elder Thursday, January 21, 5:30 p.m. (EST)   An art object asks us to reply to it: It returns our gaze, and it compels action and reaction from us. In this interactive writing workshop, we will discover that a slower, closer look at Cranach's complex mythographic portrait of Venus and Amor exposes an extraordinary range of subjects. We will examine and engage these subjects through a guided program of prompts, writing our responses to Cranach's work. Presented by Sarah M. Anderson, lecturer in English, the Medieval Studies Program, and the Freshman Seminar Program, Princeton University. Details and free registration here. Online Exhibition The Eclectic Eye: A Tribute to Duane Wilder   When does someone who enjoys living with art become a collector? Duane Wilder, Class of 1951, assembled compellingly diverse collections, which he donated and lent to the Princeton University Art Museum during his lifetime and at his death. Our online exhibition The Eclectic Eye gathers works from a lifetime of collecting and pays tribute to a man who gave generously of his time as well, having served on the Museum’s Advisory Council for nearly forty years. Read Museum Director James Steward’s tribute to Duane Wilder here. Museum Store Soft Knit Scarves   The Museum Store offers exhibition-inspired keepsakes, art publications, jewelry, gifts for children, and distinctive works by artisans. Treat yourself to one of our soft knit jacquard scarves, available in polka dot, houndstooth, and tiger stripes. Each purchase supports the Museum’s core mission of bringing art into everyday life. Shop at 56 Nassau Street in downtown Princeton or online at PrincetonMuseumStore.org. Image credits Duane Michals, Upside Down Self Portrait, ca. 1980s. © Duane Michals; courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York Life Magazine and the Power of Photography (2020). Published by the Princeton University Art Museum; distributed by Yale University Press. Catalogue design by Kimberly Varella, Content Object Design Studio Lucas Cranach the Elder, Venus and Amor, ca. 1518–20. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, gift of George L. Craig, Jr., Class of 1921, and Mrs. Craig Robert Natkin, Untitled from the Apollo series, ca. 1975. Princeton University Art Museum, Bequest of Duane E. Wilder, Class of 1951. © Estate of Robert Natkin

 News from the Princeton University Art Museum

We hope that you are well during this challenging time. Today, we write to share the Museum’s plans for the coming months, guided by our continued commitment to the health of our students, faculty, staff, community neighbors, and visitors.

As you may have read, Princeton University announced last Friday that the undergraduate program will be fully remote for the fall semester. The Museum will therefore also continue serving our audiences virtually, and our galleries will remain closed to visitors until at least January 1, 2021. The galleries at Art@Bainbridge will also remain closed until further notice.

The Museum will, however, take requests for in-person appointments from Princeton University faculty and students who are authorized to be on campus this fall and need access to the collections for research and teaching. These requests will be subject to Museum approval, will be limited in number, and will regrettably not be available to scholars or others from outside the University.

We know this news will come as a disappointment to many. We share that disappointment. There is no substitute for experiencing great works of art in the original nor for the solace, escape, and joy that such experiences can afford. Even so, we remain steadfastly committed to serving all of our audiences with robust and burgeoning digital programs; indeed, in the face of this evolving situation, we are doubling down on our commitment to expanding the range and diversity of our offerings, including presenting new digital exhibitions, new program formats, and new guest voices.

Although we are unable to welcome you back into our galleries this fall, we hope you will enjoy our expanding portfolio of digital experiences, including live online lectures and conversations; video exhibition tours; Art for Families; art-making classes from home; and other participatory forums, such as the first-ever all-digital Nassau Street Sampler on September 3.

As we all know, the situation remains quite fluid, and we encourage you to visit the Museum’s website and social media channels regularly for updates. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and continued support. 

Late Thursdays

Landscape, Campus, and Community

Thursday, August 13, 5:30 p.m. (EDT) 

James Corner, the landscape architect for the current generation of projects at Princeton University, will join Ron McCoy, Princeton’s University Architect, in a conversation about the role of landscape in the design of cities and the campus. Moderated by Museum Director James Steward. Details and free registration here. 

Members Event

End of an Era: Life Magazine's Final Decade

Tuesday, August 18, 5:30 p.m. (EDT)

Join us for an exclusive members-only online event with the curators of Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, who will discuss the role photography played in the weekly magazine during the years leading up to its final issue in 1972. Focusing on Life’s last decade, this talk will look specifically at how the magazine portrayed some of the tumultuous events of the 1960s, including the civil rights movement, the assassination of President Kennedy, the war in Vietnam, and the 1969 moon landing.

 

Registration is required to attend this virtual event, open exclusively to members. If you are already a member, click here to register now. If you are not currently a member, click here for your free membership. 

Late Thursdays

A Giant Glittering Dome of Stars: Ansel Adams and the Value of Wilderness

Thursday, August 20, 5:30 p.m. (EDT)

Ansel Adams arrived in Yosemite as a fourteen-year-old tourist in a wilderness wonderland; over the next ten years of exploration he cemented a meaningful and lifelong connection to the natural world that informed both his environmentalism and his photography. Rebecca Senf, author of the recent Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams, will talk about the photographer's experiences and how they can be seen in his artwork. Moderated by Katherine A. Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography. Details and free registration here. 

Save the Date

Curatorial Conversation with Artist Rose B. Simpson

Tuesday, August 25, 5:30 p.m. (EDT)

Rose B. Simpson—whose work encompasses ceramic sculpture, metalwork, fashion, performance, music, custom cars, and writing—will join us from her home studio in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, for a conversation with Mitra Abbaspour, Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. They will discuss Simpson’s practice and her philosophy on the role of her art in the world. Martha Friedman, Director of Visual Arts at the Lewis Center, will moderate the session, part of the series “Contemporary Conversations: Artistic Practice in Response to the Present.” The series is offered through a partnership between the Art Museum and the Lewis Center for the Arts. Details and free registration here.  

Save the Date

Nassau Street Sampler: A Virtual Festival

Thursday, September 3, 4–11 p.m. (EDT) 

Celebrate the beginning of the fall semester and an exciting new year of programs at the Art Museum. This year’s Nassau Street Sampler, held virtually, will feature live and prerecorded offerings, including Lotería, trivia, art making, student performances, an art re-creation contest, and a virtual dance party. Members of the Princeton community and beyond will come together for this signature Museum event! Details and free registration here.

  

Enter Our Contest

Art Re-Creation Challenge

Celebrate art and creativity by entering the Art Museum’s Art Re-Creation Challenge. Re-create your favorite artwork using household items, people, pets, food, and more. The more imaginative, the better! Submissions are due Sunday, August 30, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT). Entries will be judged live via a Zoom webinar on Thursday, September 3, at 7 p.m. (EDT), during the virtual Nassau Street Sampler. Details here.

Art for Families—Anytime, Anywhere

Georgia O'Keeffe

Kids home? Missing the Museum? Today on our website, families can explore artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her paintings and then make their own O’Keeffe-inspired craft at home.

Image credits 

Neil Armstrong, Cover of Life, special edition, August 11, 1969. LIFE Picture Collection. © 1969 The Picture Collection Inc. All rights reserved

Ansel Adams, Leaves, Owen's Valley, 1940. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of David H. McAlpin, Class of 1920

Paul Cezanne, L'Estaque, 1879–83. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The William S. Paley Collection

Left: art re-creation submitted by Cara Bramson; right: School of Guercino, Bust of a bearded man wearing a plumed helmet. Princeton University Art Museum. Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895

Georgia O’Keeffe, Narcissa’s Last Orchid, 1940. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of David H. McAlpin, Class of 1920

NEWS FROM THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM

Screening Room Summer Film Series: Moonlight (2016) Wednesday, July 22, 7:30 p.m. This summer, the Art Museum and the Princeton Garden Theatre are partnering to offer a series of films that reflect on hope and the human condition. Watch through Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon Prime Video beginning promptly at 7:30 p.m. (EDT) and chat with us live on Discord while you watch. Tonight join us for Moonlight (2016), in which the main character grapples with his identity. The live Discord conversation will be led by James Steward, director of the Art Museum, and Brendan Joyce, programming assistant at Renew Theaters. Exhibitions Spotlight The pages of Life magazine unfold across academic disciplines A new article on the Princeton University homepage explores how recent courses, ranging from anthropology and politics to engineering and English, integrated teaching from the special exhibition Life Magazine and the Power of Photography. Through gallery displays that shed new light on the collaborative process behind the magazine’s photo-essays, students were transported to iconic and everyday moments in twentieth-century American history. Read the full story here and take a virtual tour of the exhibition here. n the News Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings In this new article, a curator at the Royal Academy examines Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings, considering how Paul Cézanne’s Provençal landscapes broke new ground with their blend of art and geology. She writes, “As an artist for whom the structure of his compositions was fundamental, it is not surprising that he should engage profoundly with the geological structure of landscape itself. These works bring together many of his most enduring philosophical and pictorial concerns: a sense of timelessness, the transience of nature as well as its permanence, the rendering of space, and the equivocal relationship between surface and depth that would so influence the development of modern art in the early twentieth century.” Read the full article here. Art Making Drawing and Watercolor Classes Thursday, July 23, 8 p.m., Sunday, July 26, 3 p.m. The Art Museum is partnering with the Arts Council of Princeton to provide free weekly classes taught live over Zoom so participants can join from their home computers. Lessons feature artworks from the Museum’s collections. Thursday at 8 p.m. (EDT) This week’s drawing class explores anatomy, in particular, faces. Details and free registration here. Sunday at 3 p.m. (EDT) Join our watercolor classes, also taught over Zoom. This week’s session will explore using a paint called gouache to get lighter tones as well as how to use a resist. Details, free registration, and a materials list here. Save the Date A Garden for Solace Thursday, July 30, 5:30 p.m. Gardens, nurtured and formed by the human hand, have found appeal as places of solitary or group refuge, renewal, and enjoyment by societies across the globe and throughout history. This panel examines gardens and garden culture from a cross-cultural perspective, illuminating the high esteem bestowed on these constructed forms of nature. Associate Curator of Asian Art Zoe Kwok will discuss how the history of gardens and garden art in China illustrates a culture that has long embraced nature as an extension of self. Art Museum Director James Steward will discuss Gertrude Jekyll and the Arts and Crafts garden. Betsy G. Fryberger, McMurtry Curator of Prints and Drawings Emerita at the Cantor Center at Stanford University, will explore Italian gardens of the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth century, including several Medici gardens and Villa d’Este at Tivoli. Elizabeth Allan, deputy director and curator at the Morven Museum and Garden, will present on the Morven's gardens, from their pre-Revolutionary origins to their reimagining as a twentieth-century colonial revival garden. Moderated by Caroline Harris, associate director for education. Details and free registration here. Art for Families—Anytime, Anywhere Jacob Lawrence: The Shape of Things Kids home? Missing the Museum? Today on our website, families can explore geometric and organic shapes in Jacob Lawrence’s art and then make their own Lawrence-inspired collages at home. Image credits Exhibition images, right: Burt Glinn, “Mock-up of Nikita Khrushchev in front of the Lincoln Memorial,” 1959. LIFE Picture Collection. © Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos; left: Katherine Bussard (with glasses, gesturing), Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography, and Kat Reischl (brown sweater), assistant professor Slavic languages and literatures, explore the photo-essay layout process with their students during one of several visits their class made to the exhibition. Photo by Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications Paul Cezanne, L'Estaque, 1879–83. The Museum of Modern Art. The William S. Paley Collection Walter Fryer Stocks, Mrs. Fanny Eaton (detail), ca. 1859. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Surdna Fund Francis Orville Libby, Northern Lights (detail). Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Carl Otto von Kienbusch, Class of 1906, for the Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr. Memorial Collection. © Estate of Francis Orville Libby Chinese, Ming dynasty, 1368–1644, Elegant Gathering in the Western Garden (detail), undated. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of DuBois Schanck Morris, Class of 1893 Jacob Lawrence, The 1920’s . . . The Migrants Arrive and Cast Their Ballots, 1974, printed 1975. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Lorillard, a Division of Loews Theatres, Inc. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

News from the Princeton University Art Museum

Save the Date In Conversation with Mario Moore and James Steward Tuesday, July 7, 7–8:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, July 7, hear artist Mario Moore in conversation with Museum Director James Steward, part of the Arts Council of Princeton’s “In Conversation” series of discussions designed to celebrate and connect those who make art and those who love art. As a 2018–19 Hodder Fellow in Visual Arts at Princeton, Moore painted portraits of members of the University’s workforce, particularly African Americans. The Art Museum acquired a number of Moore’s works, including Center of Creation (Michael) and Stay Woke. Breaking down the barriers between artist and art appreciator, “In Conversation” delves into inspiration, studio practice, and artistic aspirations. Details and free registration here. "We Roar" Podcast With Museum Director James Steward On a recent episode of Princeton’s “We Roar” podcast, Museum Director James Steward considers how Covid-19 has presented museums with an existential crisis, and how the pivot to digital experiences provides an opportunity to rethink many assumptions—including new ways to diversify content while improving access and inclusion. Listen here. Art Making Thursday Drawing Class & Launch of Sunday Watercolor Classes The Art Museum is partnering with the Arts Council of Princeton to provide free weekly art classes taught live over Zoom, so participants can join from their home computers, using pen or pencil on paper. Lessons feature artworks from the Museum’s collections. In this week’s drawing class, Thursday night at 8 p.m. EDT, we will look at the underlying grids that artists use as guides and then practice making compositions that take a drawing from good to great. Details and free registration here. And starting this Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT, join our new series of watercolor classes, also taught over Zoom. In this first session, we will explore the properties of the paint and ways to create spontaneous moments. Find details and a materials list here. Screening Room Virtual Tour of Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings While our galleries remain temporarily closed, a new twenty-minute video, hosted by curator John Elderfield, explores Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings, the first major exhibition to examine the revolutionary French painter’s profound interest in rock and geological formations. Click here to watch the virtual tour. Art for Families–Anytime, Anywhere Wassily Kandinsky Kids home? Missing the Museum? Today on our website, children are invited to look closely at a 1903 painting by Wassily Kandinsky, who was especially interested in the way color could be used to convey emotions and feelings. Use our Family Activity to consider the painting and to make a Kandinsky-inspired cone-shaped hat at home. Collections Spotlight Multitudes Multitudes, an installation of works from the Art Museum’s collections of Modern and Contemporary Art, explores the expressive power of accretion, amalgamation, repetition, and collaborative practice across varied media. Image credits Mario Moore in his studio. Courtesy of the artist Attributed to Claude Lorrain, Coast View. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr. Ellen Robbins, Marsh Marigolds (detail), 1891. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Stuart P. Feld, Class of 1957, and Mrs. Feld Wassily Kandinsky, Promenade (Sketch), 1903. Princeton University Art Museum. Bequest of Sophie Goldberg Bargmann and Valentine Bargmann Vik Muniz, Narcissus, 2005. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, David L. Meginnity, Class of 1958, Fund Art © Vik Muniz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

News from the Princeton University Art Museum

Late Thursdays For the Birds: Representing Nature from Saint Francis to Pope Francis Thursday, June 18, 5:30 p.m.

Using Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’s recent encyclical on the environment, as a point of departure, this talk explores the changing representation of the pope’s namesake, Saint Francis, from the thirteenth to the twenty-first century, examining how evolving ideas about the human-nature relationship are expressed in images of the patron saint of ecology. Presented by Karl Kusserow, John Wilmerding Curator of American Art. Details and free registration here. Art for Families–Anytime, Anywhere El Anatsui Kids home? Missing the Museum? Today on our website, learn about El Anatsui. An artist from Ghana who lives and works in Nigeria, El Anatsui is known for creating art out of found materials such as wood, clay, paper, and bottle tops. Download our online activity guide to learn about his works and make your own El Anatsui–inspired collage at home. Save the Date Xochipala: Salvaging a Looted Culture and Its Art Thursday, June 25, 5:30 p.m. Leveraging new scientific analyses, available (but limited) archaeological data, and unique historical records held at Princeton, this lecture provides a fresh consideration of the art style known as Xochipala. This material was looted from the region around a modern village of the same name in Guerrero, Mexico, beginning in the nineteenth century but with heightened intensity in the 1960s and later. The looting irreparably destroyed the objects’ original contexts, resulting in decades of speculative and imaginative interpretation. Bryan Just, Peter Jay Sharp Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas, will provide new insights and a frank assessment of what has been lost through clandestine pillaging. Details and free registration here. Art Making Drawing: Mark-Making Variations Thursday, June 18, 8 p.m. The Art Museum is partnering with the Arts Council of Princeton to provide free weekly drawing classes taught live over Zoom, so participants can join from their home computers, using pen or pencil on paper. Lessons feature artworks from the Museum’s collections. This week we will learn how artists use a variety of mark-marking techniques, from smooth to expressive, sometimes altering the style to fit the subject. In addition, many artists use contour lines of varying thicknesses to show an object either projecting or retreating in space. In this session, we will explore these effects and practice using them. Details and free registration here.   Screening Room Maya Lin: The Princeton Line Last fall the Art Museum dedicated two new works of public art by Maya Lin. This new 90-second video takes viewers on an aerial tour of The Princeton Line, an undulating sculpted line of molded earth that travels a steep slope, and Einstein’s Table, a granite “water table.” Members Event Inside the Pages: The Making of the Catalogue Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings Tuesday, June 23, 5:30 p.m. Members are invited to join us for an exclusive event discussing how the Art Museum created the catalogue for the exhibition Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings. Learn about the process of researching, writing, and creating this scholarly volume. Speakers include Caroline Harris, Diane W. and James E. Burke Associate Director for Education; Janet Rauscher, project editor; and Annemarie Iker, catalogue contributor and PhD candidate in Art History, Princeton University. Not yet a member? Click here to enroll now at no charge.  Collections Spotlight Rauschenberg's Time Capsule In 1970 the avant-garde artist Robert Rauschenberg produced Surface Series from Currents, eighteen large-scale screenprints that he considered “the most serious journalism I had ever attempted.” The resulting series is both a technical feat of modernist printmaking and a chance to peer inside Rauschenberg’s time capsule of world events and witness the cacophony of violence, warfare, and political backlash that defined the currents of the time.