Witnessing
the Nuremberg Trials: Photographs by Raymond D'Addario
3
February–28 March 2004
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Raymond D'Addario
The Defendants
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On the first day of
the Nuremberg Trials in November 1945, twenty-one major Nazi
officials took their seats in the rear of the draped and dark-paneled
room of the Palace of Justice to face their indictments. The
moment marked the first time that an International Military
Tribunal (IMT) would call for an individual accounting of and
punishment for conspiratorial and criminal actions committed
against the Jews and others before and during a war. There to
record the scene—and so many others during the subsequent
months—was twenty-six-year-old Army photographer Raymond
D'Addario of Holyoke, Massachusetts. A selection of his images
are presented. D'Addario, who still lives in Holyoke where he
continued to work as a photographer, and guest curator Liz Sommer,
assistant curator of art at the Springfield Library and Museum
Association, will be at the museum for a gallery talk on February
19 at 4:00 p.m. A reception will follow.
| 
Raymond D'Addario Devastation
of Nuremberg after the Allied bombings
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It was D'Addario's
job, as chief of a handful of Army photographers receiving the
assignment to Nuremberg, to prepare news coverage for the war
crimes trials. He observed on a daily basis—from November
1945 until October 1946—the two rows of defendants, including
Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, making
them forever part of the historic record. His stirring images,
which have been distributed worldwide in magazines, books and
newspapers, also capture the judges and prosecutors from the
four victorious nations, the defense, and a variety of witnesses
as well as the almost total devastation of Nuremberg itself
by the Allied Forces before the end of the war. Despite the
IMT's restrictions against the use of flash bulbs in the courtroom,
D'Addario's imagery, mostly in black and white, is outstanding.
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Raymond D'Addario
Joachim von Ribbentrop during his testimony
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"They
are amazing, moving, fascinating photographs of a trial that
continues to generate discussion more than fifty years later,"
says museum director Marianne Doezema. "The detailed evidence
presented at Nuremberg without doubt forever recorded the ghastly
atrocities committed against humanity in Europe. Certainly,
the Nazi leaders were punished. But the trials did not end wars
of heinous aggression, and sadly have not put an end to genocide,
as evidenced most recently with atrocities perpetrated by leaders
in the Balkans and Iraq. Mr. D'Addario's images offer a sober
reminder of lessons our world must never forget."
The
Intimate Baroque: Small Paintings from the John B. Ritter
Collection
2
March–1 August 2004
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Pietro da Cortona Vision of the Virgin and Child with
St. Phillip Neri
|
The very thought of
Italian Baroque art conjures images of works that are grandiose
in size and aspiration. Theatrical altarpieces, illusionistic
ceiling frescoes, spectacular fountains and flamboyant church
facades are typically what we find in textbooks and tourist
itineraries dedicated to the visual arts of seventeenth-century
Italy. The vast majority of these works were made for institutional
patrons and public display.
In Rome the needs of
the Catholic Church sparked Caravaggio and Bernini to produce
their greatest masterpieces while princely patrons account for
most of the other important commissions. Yet at the same time,
the period witnessed a proliferation of smaller, more intimate
works of art destined for a burgeoning market of private collectors.
It was for just such individuals that these pictures from the
Ritter collection were intended.
A remarkable increase
in the production of smaller, more portable works of art actually
occurred in the late Renaissance, over a century before the
triumph of the Baroque. In part, this sprang from Counter-Reformation
devotional practices that relied upon spiritually uplifting
images to achieve their purpose. In 1582 the Bishop of Bologna,
Gabriele Paleotti, wrote a long treatise on painting that called
for an increased number of images, both public and private,
to promote the faith. In sermons Paleotti went on to advise
parents that "every bedroom should have a sacred image
in order to assist its occupants in saying their prayers."
Nuns entering at least one Bolognese convent were obliged to
bring four such paintings with them, two of them large and two
small.
If nuns and other devout
Catholics acquired these images for their didactic value, it
was the delectation of painting that induced others to collect.
Indeed, a guiding principle of seventeenth-century aesthetics
was the compromise between docere-delectare, that is,
the reconciliation between the contrary impulses to use art
as a teaching tool or an instrument of pleasure. The enjoyment
of art for art's sake was as widespread in the Baroque age as
it is today. Numerous pictures in the Ritter collection exemplify
the period's propensity for paintings that are both narratively
engaging and seductive in their visual appeal. Several works
in the exhibition also fall into the category of preparatory
studies, or bozzetti—spontaneous and freely-painted
images intended to test compositional ideas or tempt prospective
patrons.
|
Unknown artist
St. Sebastian |
Seventeenth-century
Italy was uncommonly conscious of style in all its manifestations.
In art, as in costume and cuisine, the appearance of things
was of paramount importance. As never before, a multitude of
artistic styles existed side by side, each with an equal claim
to originality. By the first quarter of the century, there were
four well-defined styles to choose from: an artful mannerism
that lingered on from the sixteenth century, the earthy naturalism
of Caravaggio and his followers, the refined classicism of Annibale
Carracci, Domenichino and Poussin, and the mystical illusionism
of Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona. Each of these styles is
represented in the exhibition, exemplifying the four basic trends.
One passionate collector, Vincenzo Giustiniani, wrote a letter
to a friend around 1620 in which he made a list of no fewer
than twelve
manners of painting
that he recognized in his day. Some were more a matter of technique
than style, but clearly he was conscious of the wide array of
choices available to artists at the time.
Competition among painters
was great, especially in Rome. Some artistic rivalries ended
up in court and the Roman archives preserve many anaccount of
the trading of insults and bloodshed over matters of appropriation
or aesthetic choice. Collectors occasionally conceived artistic
competitions of their own. The most famous of these occurred
in 1604 when Monsignor Massimi arranged a competition between
Caravaggio, Ludovico Ciardi (known as Cigoli) and Domenico Passignano.
At the same time, art dealers and temporary exhibitions became
a part of Italian cultural life. Art fairs were held in Venice,
and by the 1630s a special tax was enacted in Rome for dealers
in old and new paintings. Most telling of all, perhaps, was
the coining of the word conoscitore to describe art connoisseurs
of the time.
John B. Ritter acquired
the pictures in this exhibition over a period of many years
spent mostly in Europe. From the moment he first set foot on
Italian soil in the spring of 1952, his interests were drawn
to the artistic culture of Baroque Rome. His mentors have been
the leading lights of art history: Federico Zeri, Giuliano Briganti,
Ferdinando Bologna, Gianfrancesco Sestieri and Mina Gregori.
These scholars, together with Rome's vibrant community of dealers,
restorers, framers and modern conoscitori came to constitute
his natural ambience, or what a friend has called his "karmic
center." His collecting habits, in the words of the same
friend, are: "instinctively poised, broadly informed, conservatively
impulsive, and passionately inquisitive."
The seventeen paintings
on display represent only a fraction of the Old Master pictures
in the Ritter collection. Focusing on the smaller, more intimate
compositions, this enchanting exhibition offers a rare glimpse
into the private world of pre-modern cabinet painting. The selective
eye of the collector reigns supreme in the juxtaposition of
sacred themes, scenes of peasants and sheep, portraits and bacchanaliae.
Many of the pictures are enhanced by elaborate period frames
while the installation in the Gump Gallery itself evokes the
atmosphere of a private collection. Viewers are encouraged to
experience the exhibition with the same spirit of docere-delectare
that attended these small masterpieces at the time of their
creation.
—John
Varriano
Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art History
Mount Holyoke College
Light
in the Landscape:
Photographs by Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin
6
April–1 August 2004
| 
Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin
Utah 98-8
|
Photographer Ann Ginsburgh
Hofkin's passion for long, leisurely outings combines perfectly
with her extraordinary ability to document views that stir her
imagination. On view from April 6 through August 1, 2004 in
the White Print Room this exhibition offers a series of dream-like
images from her travels in the United States and Israel. Included
are three-dimensional photographs, created with multiple lenses
and a lenticular printing process, as well as black-and-white
infrared silver prints in which conventional expectations for
shades of gray are dramatically altered.
"Photographs are
distillations of perception and experience which frequently
make use of metaphor," says Hofkin who graduated from Mount
Holyoke in 1965. "Imagination and reality operate together,
and it is this union which directs my work as an artist."
For several years, Hofkin has been producing three-dimensional
photographs. Their hypnotic quality, she suggests, augments
their sensuous and organic elements and expands the possibilities
of the medium. The added depth draws in the viewer, thereby
triggering a more intimate relationship with the work. In working
with these 3-D images, the artist is particularly struck by
"the sense of reality each possesses and yet the pieces
seem to emphasize the unknown or hidden layers present in our
surroundings."
| 
Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin
Charleston-97-10
|
In her other work,
Hofkin uses primarily black-and-white infrared film because"it
enables me to articulate the contrast between illumination and
darkness, or soft and sharp, and to enhance a meditation upon
the fleeting nature of the moment." This film is sensitive
to the visible spectrum and infrared light, which is not perceived
by the human eye. Objects reflecting significant concentrations
of infrared energy register greater density on the film's negative,thereby
causing final images to appear lighter or more ethereal. For
example, green leaves appear white instead of the shades of
grey to which viewers are accustomed. Blue skies are black.
"The resulting shift in tonality," says Hofkin, "emphasizes
those mysterious qualities I seek in my work."
Hofkin's list of exhibitions,
awards and publications fills many pages. The recipient of a
master's degree from Bryn Mawr College, she also studied with
Ansel Adams, Frank Gohlke and Linda Connor. Her photographs
are part of numerous collections, including the Dana Farber
Cancer Institute and the Savannah College of Art and Design.
The
Sporting Woman:
The Female Athlete in American Culture
13
April-1 August 2004
| 
Winslow Homer
Croquet Players
|
Coinciding with the
2004 U.S. Women's Open Championship, which will be held at Mount
Holyoke's Orchards Golf Course this summer, the museum has organized
this special exhibition on the history of American women in
sports. The installation presents a broad array of visual materials
related to women's participation in exercise and sport from
the mid-19th century to the present. Among the carefully selected
images are Winslow Homer's Croquet Players (1865),a stunning
portrait by Otto Bacher of his wife in tennis attire (1891),
and Annie Leibovitz's powerful photograph of soccer player Julie
Foudy (1996). Each is eloquently revealing about women in sports.
| 
Otto
H. Bacher
Mrs. Otto H. Bacher
|
Croquet, one of the
new games introduced after the Civil War, was among the first
acceptable athletic activities in which women could participate.
By 1900, genteel women participated in a wider variety of sports,
including tennis. In fact, for those seeking exercise as well
as recreation, it was the one of the fairly vigorous athletic
games a woman could enjoy without being subjected to insinuations
of "rompishness."
Mount Holyoke College
played a key role in developing sports programs for American
women. When the school opened in 1837 physical exertion for
women was discouraged, but founder Mary Lyon was adamant that
exercise would be integral to the curriculum.
Annie
Leibovitz
Julie
Foudy, Midfielder, Seminole County Sports Training Center,
Sanford, Florida
|
The history of exercise
for women in the United States is interwoven with women's education.
The Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections holds
a treasure trove of photographs of students participating in
athletics, dating from the 1860s to the present. One, taken
in the late 1880s, for example, shows the Mount Holyoke Nines
outfitted in their baseball uniforms, among the first for women
in the United States. Visitors will be amazed to see the abundance
of wool that was worn by Mount Holyoke students while participating
in gymnastics classes during the first decades of the 20th century.
Valenciennes,
Daubigny and the Origins of French Landscape Painting
7 September-12 December
2004
| 
Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes
Classical
Greek Landscape with Girls Sacrificing Their Hair to Diana
on the
Bank of a River
|
Like a boulder slowly
detaching from a mountainside, landscape painting emerged from
the background of Renaissance narrative representation with
a momentum that by the 19th century had reached avalanche proportions.
This exhibition traces that trajectory, beginning with the origins
of classicism and naturalism that were crucial to the development
of landscape painting, particularly in France. Works in the
initial section of the show include paintings by or in the manner
of Claude Lorrain and Gaspard Dughet, as well as others that
demonstrate choices not taken by later French artists who turned
their attention to landscape.
The second and third
parts of the show focus on two major paintings in the museum's
collection: Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes's Classical Greek
Landscape with Girls Cutting Their Hair in Sacrifice to Diana
(1790) and Charles François Daubigny's Water's Edge,
Optevoz (1856). The former, a stunning example of Neoclassical
landscape, will be illuminated by drawings, studies and paintings
by the artist himself and those he inspired, and Valenciennes's
practical and philosophical treatise, published in 1799/1800,
which has been as influential as his paintings.
The section devoted
to Daubigny examines how this master of "realism"
reacted to traditions he inherited. Like Claude and Valenciennes,
Dau-bigny traveled to Italy to master classical landscape for
himself. Back in France, he seemingly rejected that idealized
vision in favor of a more empirical view of nature. The exhibition
will demonstrate that while Daubigny's art eschews his predecessors'
mythical themes, it never entirely dispenses with the formal,
geometric structure that lies at the heart of French landscape
painting.
More than 90 paintings,
drawings and prints will be on view. An illustrated catalogue
will include essays by the curators: Michael Marlais, professor
of art at Colby College; John Varriano, professor of art at
Mount Holyoke College; and Wendy Watson, curator of the art
museum.
