Newsletter - Spring 2003
Current Exhibitions

African Forms
30 January - 14 March 2003

Spoon Luba/Hemba

Africa is the second largest continent, with four times the land mass of Europe and a population greater than either of the Americas, but we in the United States know precious little about its material cultures. In conjunction with Black History Month, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum is hosting an important learning opportunity through African Forms, a major exhibition developed by New York's innovative Museum for African Art.

A breathtaking display of more than 400 handcrafted objects from the entire continent, African Forms is the first-ever exhibition to examine such a broad stylistic and geographic range. It celebrates the diverse artistic practices of numerous African peoples who work in gold and other metals, wood, ivory, bone, ceramics, glass, leather, and textiles. In a setting that allows exploration of ways in which utilitarian objects help define different African cultures and traditions, visitors will see skillfully crafted furniture, jewelry, receptacles such as bowls, snuff bottles and pipes, musical instruments from trumpets to zithers, devotional objects, intricately designed textiles, ornately decorated symbols of power and rank, and more.

Curator Frank Herreman, who organized the exhibition at the Museum for African Art in New York, worked closely with collector Marc Ginzberg, one of the founders of this groundbreaking institution. Together they chose objects that expand viewers' appreciation of African art beyond the figurative sculptures and masks that are usually the focus of exhibitions in the West. Expert craftsmanship and design principles will not only delight but, in many cases, astonish viewers with their imaginative and technical brilliance. In the lavishly illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Ginzberg notes that these objects offer an opportunity to gain "a sharper perception or an enhanced insight" of African material cultures.

Besides having an aesthetic impact, the objects in the exhibition serve a true function that significantly contributes to their inherent beauty. In a New York Times review of African Forms, critic Roberta Smith writes, "Few African peoples neglected the expressive opportunities implicit in the creation of handmade objects, no matter how basic. Many objects for daily use were produced by the same artists who were making masks and figures; they were usually commissioned and were owned and used by a single individual. Their forms adhered to local styles, like the low stools with three disc-like legs of the Kamba people of Kenya. They communicated both cultural tradition and personal status. Two huge bright red berets, one made of human hair, the other of cotton, were specifically the accessories of married Zulu women. This is a beautiful show, with much of that beauty emanating not only from the recurring elegance of the forms, but also from the patina of human use."

Drawn primarily from the vast holdings acquired over forty years by Marc and Denyse Ginzberg, the exhibition also includes objects collected by Gilbert and Roda Graham. Following an exhibition of the Grahams' African textiles at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in 1997, they presented a selection of those works to the museums at Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst Colleges. Several are featured in African Forms and, even more importantly, will remain in their permanent collections.

A Visual Feast: Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts
10 April - 20 July 2003

Young Lady with a Spaniel Nathaniel Dance-Holland

Many surprises await at the museum this spring. Last year's expansion of gallery space allows us to display much more of the permanent collection. In celebration of this opportunity, a special exhibition in the Weissman Gallery will feature objects selected from the 1,125 gifts and purchases made in the last decade. Also making an appearance in the show are some stellar promised gifts.

Primary among the latter are several superlative paintings and works on paper from the a Northampton private collection. Three remarkable Milton Avery paintings, a stunning Emil Nolde, and three Hans Hofmann canvases top the list of the promised gifts that will be seen this spring. They represent a major advancement in our 20th-century holdings.

Two Goldsmiths Emil Nolde

A formerly underrepresented area—British 18th-century art—has been enriched by gifts of silver described on page 3. In addition, thanks to Dr. and Mrs. John K. Knorr III (Elizabeth Walker '37), the museum can now boast a fine collection of English portrait and landscape paintings, including works by George Romney, Nathaniel Dance-Holland, Francis Wheatley, Henry Walton, and William Marlow. Seeing these contemporaneous objects in each other's company is particularly enlightening.

Other additions of decorative arts that harmonize perfectly with the museum's paintings and sculpture are an outstanding group of European apothecary jars and mortars dating from the Renaissance to the 18th century. Joseph J. Hammer, a pharmacist, lawyer, and father of the donor Roy A. Hammer, assembled this important collection. Both aesthetic and utilitarian, these pharmaceutical objects make fascinating links to art and science in the Renaissance and Enlightenment and offer exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary study. Impressed by the museum's creative use of ancient coins in its 1999 focus exhibition on the 2nd-century portrait of Faustina the Elder, Mark Salton donated 263 ancient gold, silver, and bronze Roman coins. All depict notable women or female allegorical and mythological figures. This new trove of antiquities not only strengthens the museum's numismatic holdings, but also provides excellent material for broader research into the ancient world. Student intern Kate Hartwyk '03, who is studying the collection, has helped select the coins for display. Space here does not permit an overview of all the recent acquisitions and promised gifts in the exhibition, but visitors will be struck by the spectacular quality and diversity of our newest additions. Come see for yourself!

Senior Art Majors' Exhibition
4 - 23 May 2003

One of the many ways students on campus engage in museum activities is through the Senior Art Majors' Exhibition. The culmination of their independent study course, this event, organized by studio art majors under the auspices of the museum's professional staff, underscores their final semester of making art and gives them a firsthand view into the world of exhibitions. This valuable experience encourages students to think not only about the development of their objects, which they do in consultation with studio art faculty and fellow students, but also about the exhibition process and issues inherent to group shows, such as installation, lighting, and interactions among artists. Says curator Wendy Watson, "I like to think of the museum as a 'cultural laboratory.' It truly plays a pivotal role in Mount Holyoke's curricular and co-curricular life."

Senior Lisa Nonken explains, "The museum staff instructs art majors on how to organize an exhibition and display artwork. I think that showing our creations in such a professional, beautiful setting motivates us to set higher standards for our work. The museum draws a diverse audience—students, family, friends, faculty, and staff from Mount Holyoke and the other colleges as well as people in the surrounding communities—and it will be invaluable to hear feedback about our work from them."

This year a record-breaking 17 seniors are studio art majors. (There are more art history majors too.) With such a large number of artists, expect to see a broad and varied range of objects, not only in the Weissman Gallery, but also in the Hinchcliff Reception Hall.