Archive for the ‘Collection’ Category

November 29th, 2012 | Collection, Curator, Exhibitions, Learning

spacer

The Art of Observation

 
spacer

WAM Curator of Education, Ann Grimaldi, leading "Art of Observation" gallery discussion in the exhibition "On the Path to Abstraction: Highlights of the Permanent Collection".

Curator of Education Ann Grimaldi and volunteer docent Kate Barrett lead a discussion with UNCG Teacher Education majors in Kinesiology on the “Art of Observation.” Dr. Barrett, retired UNCG professor emerita in Kinesiology (formerly Exercise and Sport Science), and Grimaldi created the program three years ago to aid students in academic areas where observation is crucial such as in gymnasiums and playing fields.

Using works of art on view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, students practice an awareness of their observation habits through processes like scanning, detail recognition, organization and analysis of visual data. Knowing “how to look” and “what to look for” is an essential step in understanding what we see and for physical education teacher education students, it can be critical in assessing students’ motor skill development. Over 160 UNCG students have participated in the program to date, which has been expanded to psychiatric nursing and dietetic nutrition areas.

(Photo above shot in the permanent collection exhibition On the Path to Abstraction: Highlights of the Permanent Collection)

Tags: American Art, Ann Grimaldi, art education, contemporary art, docents, education, exhibitions, gallery tours, Kate Barrett, learning, modern art, observation, On the Path to Abstraction, Permanent Collection, physical education, UNCG, UNCG Kinesiology Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, volunteering, Weatherspoon |

 

November 21st, 2012 | Behind the Scenes, Collection, Curator, Learning

spacer

Dan Graham Gets a Temporary Design Face Lift

 
spacer

Christopher Thomas with Design I students, installing their project on the covered Dan Graham sculpture "Triangular Solid with Circular Inserts". Photo: Myra Scott

If you visited the Weatherspoon this Fall, you probably witnessed the tell-tale signs of roof repairs, scaffolding and noise. As excited as we were for our twenty-three year old building to get a new roof, we knew we would need to be extra vigilant about protecting works of art in the Sculpture Garden, especially Dan Graham’s Triangular Solid with Circular Inserts. Graham’s glass and mirror sculpture was purchased by the museum for its permanent collection in 2006 and is a favorite with school groups.

spacer

Dan Graham, "Triangular Solid with Circular Inserts", 1989, two-way mirror, clear glass and aluminum, 72 x 72 x 72 in. Museum purchase with funds from the Jefferson-Pilot Endowment, the Burlington Industries Endowment, the Weatherspoon Art Museum Acquisition Endowment, the Frances Stern Loewenstein Acquisition Endowment, the Louise D. and Herbert S. Falk Acquisition Endowment, the Lynn Richardson Prickett Acquisition Endowment, the Jane and Richard Levy Sculpture Fund, the Judy Proctor Acquisition Endowment, the Melanie H. and Robert C. Ketner Family Acquisition Endowment and the Weatherspoon Guild Acquisition Endowment, 2006.

Protecting the sculpture required the construction of a special on-site crate consisting of particle board and strengthened by 2x4s that were bolted directly into the courtyard surface. With roof repairs taking longer to complete than planned, WAM staff thought it would be a good opportunity to work with UNCG design students to dress up the temporary wooden cube and give visitors something to experience (rather than weathered particle board) when entering the Sculpture Garden. We approached UNCG faculty Christopher Thomas and Lee Walton about a design competition with participants from their Design 1 and Art 140 classes.

Christopher Thomas adds:

“Responding to a call for proposals from the Weatherspoon to ‘make use’ of the plywood box currently in place over the Dan Graham sculpture protecting it from construction debris, Design I students from my class and Lee Walton’s wrote in. (Cambrin Culp, Lydia Flores, Tiffany Hutchens, Shannon Keller, Lily Musai and CJ Toomer are from my class).

spacer

Design proposed by students Cambrin Culp, Courtney-Nachè Toomer, Lydia Flores.

WAM Curator of Collections, Elaine Gustafson, provided us with information on the artist and his work so that students could better understand what his sculptures were about…the idea was to make images in response to the themes in Dan Graham’s work while exploring some basic Design I value and shape problems.  So, issues of fragmentation, social disconnect, reflection and environment were some of the departure points for the students’ designs.

Final installation was done using ink jet prints and wheat paste on a gorgeous Fall Friday followed by ham and bean soup in the museum courtyard!”

Students participants from Lee Walton’s Art 140 class:  Jenny Bennett, Miguel Cervera, Janelle DeRobertis, Chandler Field, Dray Fountain, and Logan Ritchey.

Visit the museum’s Event Photo page for more images.

Roof construction is finally winding down as work completes after Thanksgiving break. The final detail to complete is the re-installation of the speakers for the Bill Fontana sound work “Spiraling Sound Axis“—which is also a part of the museum’s Sculpture Garden experience.  Fontana’s work had to be de-installed during construction.  As soon as the Fontana speakers are re-installed our preparators will be able to remove the plywood protection from the Graham sculpture.  Visitors will once again be able to enjoy both the Graham sculpture and listen to the Fontana sound installation.

spacer

Kids playing inside the Dan Graham Sculpture at the Weatherspoon

Thank you to the Design 1  and Art 140 students for all their work on this project.

Tags: American Art, art education, Bill Fontana, contemporary art, Dan Graham, Elaine Gustafson, modern art, Permanent Collection, sculptures, UNCG, UNCG Art Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Weatherspoon |

 

November 13th, 2012 | Collection, Exhibitions, Uncategorized

spacer

Chinese Arts Delegation Visits the Weatherspoon

 
spacer

Chinese delegation visits the Weatherspoon Art Museum. Photo: David Wilson, UNCG University Relations.

The Weatherspoon had a special visit (hosted at UNCG) on November 2 as a delegation of 26 Chinese provincial and municipal leaders came to the museum for a presentation.  The group – which is also visiting New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. – included mayors and top leaders from seven Chinese provinces who wanted to learn more about the cultural and performing arts and the entertainment industries in the U.S.

Link to more photos from the visit here.

This cultural delegation was organized by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), a national organization engaged in people-to-people diplomacy between the People’s Republic of China and other countries. It aims to further international cooperation and, among its many activities, it is entrusted by the government with promoting cultural exchange and cooperation.

The visit of these Chinese leaders was the result of an initiative undertaken by a delegation of UNCG administrators and faculty who visited the CPAFFC headquarters in Beijing in April 2012.

The UNCG symposium (“Entrepreneurship and the Arts in the U.S.”) included lectures and discussions by top artists, teachers and performers; including a presentation at the Weatherspoon Art Museum with our director Nancy Doll.

spacer

Museum Director Nancy Doll with member of the Chinese delegation. photo: David Wilson, UNCG University Relations.

While visiting the Weatherspoon, the delegation toured several exhibitions, including On the Path to Abstraction, Art on Paper 2012: The 42nd Exhibition, and The Cone Sisters Collect.

Two special concert performances were also presented at UNCG in honor of the guests. UNCG faculty musicians presented a concert at the Recital Hall of the School of Music Theater and Dance. Performers included the Faculty Jazz Quartet, the East Wind Quintette d’Anches, the McIver String Quartet, pianist Andrew Willis on fortepiano, and singers Clara O’Brien, Nancy Walker and Donald Hartmann. Students of choreographer and dance professor Duane Cyrus also performed in the UNCG Dance Theater in the HHP building.

Tags: American Art, Billy Lee, Chinese Delegation, Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, contemporary art, CPAFFC, installation, Nancy Doll, People's Republic of China, Permanent Collection, Photography, Pop Art, UNCG, UNCG Art Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Weatherspoon |

 

November 1st, 2012 | Collection, Curator, General 'Spoon, Learning

spacer

Self & Others: Literacy Through The Visual Image

 
spacer

Diana Greene with Newcomers students.

Working with photographer/writer Diana Greene, students at the Doris Henderson Newcomers School in Greensboro, NC are discovering aspects of themselves and others through photography, writing experiences, and visual art from the Weatherspoon’s collection.

The Arts-in-Education collaboration between the Weatherspoon Art Museum (WAM) and the Newcomers school is supported by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council with additional support from the Toler and Schandler-Lopp Foundations.

Self and Others: Literacy Through the Visual Image began in September with an introduction to photography for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. On October 24th, students worked with Diana Greene and Weatherspoon staff and volunteers to photograph each other in selected settings, with props, in each student’s planned pose. These photographs will become the catalyst for the students’ stories about themselves.

spacer

Photography lesson with Diana Greene.

During the second part of the residency students will write from pre-selected reproductions of WAM art works—like Elizabeth Catlett’s Sharecropper and Nina Berman’s Randall Clunen, from the Purple Hearts series. Through their emotional and narrative content, works of art like these can transcend the language barrier, inviting students to investigate the lives of others. In the Spring, the students will also visit the museum to view The Penetrating Gaze exhibition and participate in a writing activity with Diana Greene at the museum.

Tags: American Art, Diana Greene, Doris Henderson Newcomers School, Elizabeth Catlett, literacy, modern art, Nina Berman, Penatrating Gaze, Permanent Collection, Photography, Sharecropper, student stories, Terri Dowell-Dennis, UNCG, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Visiting Artists, volunteering, workshops |

 

July 18th, 2012 | Behind the Scenes, Collection, General 'Spoon, Uncategorized

spacer

Mystery Art Found at the Local Goodwill

 
spacer

Painting found at local Goodwill.

The brief e-mail came to the attention of one of the Weatherspoon’s education curators: someone’s friend had purchased two paintings from the Oak Ridge, NC Goodwill and discovered a Weatherspoon label on the back of one of them. A little research by the lucky purchaser showed that works by one of the artists, Ilya Bolotowsky, command upwards of $25,000. Did the Weatherspoon know anything about how this painting had ended up at Goodwill?

Suffice it to say, the e-mail sent museum staff into its own research mode. Was this really a Bolotowsky, and how did it end up with a Weatherspoon label on it?

My initial thoughts were that the work must have been part of a Weatherspoon fundraising event, from which artworks (not owned by the museum, but created or donated for the event) are purchased by ticket-holders. Or, perhaps it was in an exhibition at the Weatherspoon back in the day. But I definitely did not think it was some mistake, whereby an artwork of ours had escaped the building. Occasionally one hears horror stories of museums accidentally disposing of artworks, but I refused to believe that’s what had happened. I wanted to give our predecessors more credit than that.

Details came to us piecemeal:  an image of the front of the canvas, a title (Vertical Diamond), its dimensions, and a label on the back indicating the purchase price was $5500 in 1979. Based on this information, I began to look through our records for events or exhibitions at that time. I discovered that Ilya Bolotowsky (American, b. Russia, 1907-1981) had been in six of the Weatherspoon’s Art on Paper exhibitions, including 1979. All works in Art on Paper are available for purchase, but only works on paper are included in those exhibitions and Vertical Diamond is a painting on canvas.

I looked at the listing of other exhibitions at the Weatherspoon in 1979. Greensboro Collectors was described as a show of “privately owned art works from collectors in and around the city” at the museum from March 25 to April 15, 1979 and included “paintings by Renoir, Corot, Pearlstein, and Bolotowsky.” I thought that had potential, so I went to the storage area where we keep our archived files, to dig around for information on this particular exhibition. Bingo! The painting, Vertical Diamond, was loaned by Burlington Industries to the Weatherspoon for the 1979 Greensboro Collectors show. I found the original loan form in the file, and all of the details matched – title, date of work, dimensions. (This is precisely why we registrars like to keep EVERY sheet of paperwork, ever!)

spacer

Original 1979 Greensboro Collectors exhibition loan form for "Vertical Diamond"

It was hard to contain my excitement: it seemed that some lucky person had the real deal! But still, how did a painting that was in the collection of Burlington Industries make it to a local thrift shop? Perhaps we’ll never know the painting’s exact itinerary; what is known is that when Burlington Industries filed for bankruptcy and then moved out of its headquarters building on Friendly Avenue in 2004, its collection of artwork was widely disseminated.

So, you’re curious: who made the Goodwill discovery, and what thoughts were running through his or her head at that time?

spacer

Beth and Steve Feeback pictured with the painting.

Well, according to lucky Beth Feeback, she was only at the thrift store to quickly find an extra layer of clothing or a blanket, to help her make it through an unseasonably chilly day of sitting outside, selling her own artwork at the annual spring art show hosted by Leanne Pizio in Oak Ridge. Halfway through the day, Beth jetted over to the Goodwill she had spotted earlier. She found a few items to keep her warm. And then…: “I spied these two HUGE square canvases in frames. I am always on the prowl for something to paint on or paint over. It helps the environment, and better yet, my pocketbook. I am forever buying prints or paintings at thrift stores and either adding to them – by, say, painting a cat head over Pinky’s and Blue Boy’s faces, or by putting a coat of primer on the picture and starting from scratch. I checked the price on these canvases and knew I had to have them at $9.99 each. You couldn’t buy a new canvas a fourth or fifth the size of these for that amount.

The lady at the counter helped me carry them to my beat-up minivan, and we had a hard time getting the larger one in. It was even worse at the end of the art show, packing our gear and pictures in around the two paintings. Before we packed up, I showed the paintings to some of the artists, and Leanne Pizio noticed that one had a label on the back of it indicating it was from the Weatherspoon Art Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She told me to be sure and do my research before painting over the pieces: ‘The Weatherspoon gets some big-name artists.’”

Beth says it took her a while to get around to researching the artist. When she looked up Ilya Bolotowsky online and saw auction records for his works, she became giddy. “In a perfect world,” she says, “I’d keep it, save it and retire off of it, but I think that will be for someone else of higher means than me.”

Beth has been in touch with Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York, who represents the deceased artist, and with Sotheby’s auction house. The painting is set to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in September, and in fact, has already made one more leg of its exciting journey, from North Carolina to New York, to await its auction date.

Although Vertical Diamond has left town, a similar painting can be found in the Weatherspoon Art Museum’s collection: Small Diamond.

Or, stop by your local Goodwill. Maybe you’ll get lucky, just like Beth…

Let us know if you do!

—Heather Moore, Registrar, Weatherspoon Art Museum

Tags: American Art, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, Beth Feeback, contemporary art, Goodwill, Ilya Bolotowsky, modern art, painting, Permanent Collection, Small Diamond, Sotheby's, UNCG, UNCG Art Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Vertical Diamond, Weatherspoon |

 
Next Page »
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.