Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
Fall 2009
Big Shot Shuffle: Photographs by Andy Warhol
August 18, 2009–January 24, 2010
Mother Goose, 1981, Polacolor 2 photograph, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches, by Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987). Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Collection of the Palmer Museum of Art.
This exhibition highlights a selection of Polaroids and gelatin silver prints by Pop artist Andy Warhol recently given to the Palmer by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The photographs provide an intimate glimpse of the artist's creative process as well as the friends and colleagues who populated his world in the last decade of his life.
During the early 1970s, the Polaroid Corporation briefly manufactured the Big Shot, a camera specifically intended for close-up portraits. The Big Shot's fixed focal length forced users to "shuffle" back and forth until the desired focus was achieved. Although the camera failed to gain widespread popularity, Warhol was an early enthusiast of the somewhat unwieldy apparatus, in part because of its ability to produce images with nearly standardized compositions and lighting, which made them useful as sources for larger silkscreened portraits.
Big Shot Shuffle includes examples of Warhol's "Big Shots" ranging from international celebrities–Princess Caroline of Monaco, Chris Evert, Wayne Gretzky– to fellow artists, friends, and wealthy patrons, many of whom apparently never received their fifteen minutes of fame. Together the photographs provide insight into the artist's creative method and offer candid views of his environment as he shuffled between social events, studio sessions, and leisure activities.
Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite
September 15–November 29, 2009
4 11 2007, 2007, oil, alkyd, and graphite on canvas, 66 x 60 x 2 inches, by Mark Sheinkman (American, b. 1963). Courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery, New York.
Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite features more than forty contemporary works of art by sixteen international artists who utilize the physical nature and characteristics of graphite and pencils as content in their two- and three-dimensional work. The pencil is one of the essential tools in foundation drawing classes and is perhaps the most familiar of all tools to students taking their first steps at making art. For many, the pencil and the graphite it holds symbolize the essence of the creative act of drawing.
The work in the exhibition can be viewed within the following overlapping themes: Graphite as Content, Graphite as Transformative Agent, and Graphite as Sculpture. The first grouping of objects presents work in which the subject matter is seamlessly merged with the graphite medium, as in the primordial "landscapes" made of graphite, oil, and resin on aluminum sheets by Christopher Cook; Mark Sheinkman's drawings of smoky tendrils created with graphite and eraser; and Shimon Okshteyn's laboriously detailed drawings of brushstrokes.
In Graphite as Transformative Agent, two- and three-dimensional pieces are made of materials that are altered or disguised by using graphite. James Busby manipulates the medium's metallic quality with thick applications that turn canvas and paper into monolithic objects. Stefana McClure and Stephen Sollins focus on the communicative role of graphite through the obliteration of text and imagery in their works on paper.
Within the Graphite as Sculpture section, graphite and pencils become sculptural material within a conceptual framework. The Art Guys use pencils as literal building blocks in their monumental sculpture of a skyscraper, whereas Marco Maggi works with graphite's materiality in his small-scale sculptures utilizing graphite powder, pencil leads, and Plexiglas.
Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite was developed by the University of Richmond Museums, Virginia, and organized for tour by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.
IA&A's website: www.artandartists.org
Old Master Drawings
September 22, 2009–January 31, 2010
Studies for Presentation in the Temple, c. 1710–1719, red and black chalk on paper, 10 1/4 x 15 5/8 inches, by Antonio Domenico Gabbiani (Italian, 1652–1726). Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art.
In this exhibition the Palmer Museum of Art proudly displays highlights from its growing collection of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century drawings. Several of the selections have been with the museum since its earliest years, such as Jan Asselyn's subtle northern Italian landscape, a delicate still life by Anne Vallayer-Coster, and Giulio Romano's preparatory sketch for a lunette in the Palazzo Te. Thanks to recent conservation efforts, some of the drawings, including Jean Baptiste Le Prince's Large Trees with Gypsies, an important portrait by Hendrick Hondius, and an intriguing rendition of the ascension of Christ attributed to Agostino Carracci, will be on display for the first time in many years. The exhibition will also feature a substantial number of the museum's newer acquisitions, among them a study by Antoine Coypel for his painting Susanna Accused by the Elders, now in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid; a Crescenzio Onofri landscape from near San Vito Romano; a patinterly rendition of Christ clearing the Temple by Jacob Jordaens; and two marvelous sheets by Antonio Domenico Gabbiani. The exhibition will also feature three seventeenth-century drawings bequeathed to the Palmer Museum by Mary Jane Harris.
Spring 2010
I Heard a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill
January 24–April 25, 2010
Detail: Rise, 2006-07, laminated fabric, hand-dyed cotton, paper, metal, and silk organza with cotton, 20 x 50 x 6 feet, by Lesley Dill (American, b. 1950). Courtesy of the artist and George Adams Gallery, New York.
For the last twenty years, contemporary artist Lesley Dill has consistently explored the human form, sensory experience, language, and their interactions. Dill uses bronze, photography, poetry, thread, wire, and paper to sculpt her figures and build her tapestries, producing work that might be characterized as both ephemeral and spiritual. Organized by the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee, in conjunction with George Adams Gallery, New York.
John Bull and His Dog Faithful, 1796, hand-colored engraving on paper, 10 1/4 x 14 1/2 inches, by James Gillray (British, 1756-1815). Gift of Frank '42 and Eleanor '41 Gifford. Courtesy of the Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University.
"Licenc'd to Bark": James Gillray and the Art of Satire
February 2–May 16, 2010
This exhibition will feature the socially biting, often hysterical, hand-colored engravings of James Gillray, who is often credited with single-handedly inventing the genre of the British satirical print. Drawn from the collection of the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University and presented in partnership with the Institute for the Arts and Humanities as part of the third annual Moments of Change multidisciplinary initiative, "Dare to Know!" The Late 18th Century, 1776–1801.
Veduta del Sepolcro di Cajo Cestio (View of the Pyramid of Caius Cestius), 1755, etching, first state of six; plate: 15 1/8 x 20 3/16 inches; sheet 20 7/8 x 26 13/16 inches, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778). Collection of the Palmer Museum of Art.
Italian Old Master Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection
February 16–May 23, 2010
The Palmer Museum of Art looks to its permanent collection for this exhibition of etchings and engravings made by Italian artists or by others working in Italy during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The majority of prints on view will be drawn from the large group of etchings and engravings collected by former Penn State art history professor Francis E. Hyslop.
Summer 2010
Recent Acquisitions
May 25–October 17, 2010
Prints by Sculptors from the Collection of James and Betty Myford
June 8–September 12, 2010
A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections
July 6–September 26, 2010
The exhibition and accompanying catalogue were organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., in conjunction with the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Fall 2010
Taxing Visions: Financial Episodes in American Painting, 1860–1900
September 28–December 19, 2010
At the Heart of Progress: Coal, Iron, and Steam since 1750
Industrial Imagery from The John P. Eckblad Collection
October 19, 2010–January 23, 2011
Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, the exhibition was organized and is being circulated by the Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with funding provided by the William Hayes Ackland Trust.
Atelier 17 in America: 1940–1955
October 26, 2010–February 20, 2011
Spring 2011
John Rogers: American Stories
February 22–May 15, 2011
Summer 2011
Associated American Artists: Art By Subscription
May 29–August 7, 2011
Associated American Artists: Art By Subscription is organized by the Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio, and circulated by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, Kansas City, Missouri.
