As the first week of classes flies by, students are once again drawn into the monotony of their rigorous routines. But rather than fear settling into the drone of course packets and research papers, the University's academics should take in this breath of fresh air -- the University of Virginia Art Museum, with four new exhibits, has joined together with three professors anxious to give their students a chance for face-to-face interaction with the subject matter.
"These are special exhibitions planned in conjunction with academics," museum director Jill Hartz said. "We're using visual arts to strengthen academics in innovative ways."
Religious Studies Prof. Ben Ray has helped to create an expansive exhibit as a supplement to his spring course. "Images of Women in African Traditional Art: A Celebration of the Presence and Power of Women in Traditional African Culture" showcased an extensive variety of objects celebrating women.
"It shows the values of traditional culture," Ray said. "A bedrock set of religious, moral and social values expressed in an artistic, ritualistic form."
Through various intricate masks, the sacred "tip of the iceburg" in traditional festivities, the exhibition focuses on several commonalities in multiple African communities. The portrayal of feminine beauty through aesthetics such as elaborate hairstyles, narrow noses and wide foreheads helped emphasis the importance of women as the cultivators of continued life in society.
"Images of Women in African Traditional Art" runs through Apr. 15.
Art Assoc. Prof. Matthew Affron is similarly the curator of another new exhibit in conjunction with his graduate seminar on cubism. "Fernand Leger: Contrasts of Forms" is a 13-piece exhibition highlighting a vital era in the early 1900s when a revolutionary new style was appearing in Paris. This collection focuses solely on Leger's work as a significant player in the rise of cubism and the creation of abstract art. "Contrast of Forms" has not been exhibited as a complete series in more than 40 years.
"This is a highly important slice of a much longer career," Affron said. "The intrinsic laws of light and color, form and shape are the foundations of abstract art and cubism -- which is why this is such a fundamentally historical series."
Experimenting with techniques and subject matter, Leger attempted to "liberate his paintings from the job of storytelling," using color and shadow to amplify expression and effect.
"This series was made at the same time Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque together were inventing the art of collage," Affron said. "This was a moment of conjunction" in Paris.
"Contrasts of Forms" runs until Mar. 18, at which point it will move to the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.
A third new exhibition, "Intensity of Observation and Infinite Significance in Indian Paintings," is run by Prof. Dan Ehnbom. Featuring 30 significant Indian paintings from the 15th through the 19th century, this intricate exhibit is a final supplement to the rigors of the classroom. Each painting, chosen for its quality, historical and thematic importance, focuses on representing musical melodies. Emphasizing the succession of the family, these watercolors are representations of musical modes, a core of South Asian art. "Intensity of Observation" runs through Mar. 18.
"Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne" is the final premier exhibition at the Art Museum. Sterne, an abstract impressionist known to exhibit with Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, has generally been overlooked in post-World War II American exhibits. "Uninterrupted Flux" attempts to right this wrong, bringing together nearly 100 pieces of Sterne's work.
Unique in that she never resigned herself to one trademark style, Sterne has experimented with various forms of creation -- surrealism, Spray Roads paintings, portraits and her own concept of anthropographs (machines with human qualities) are just tidbits of Sterne's nearly 65 years of capturing the "flux" of motion and life around her. "Uninterrupted Flux" runs through Mar. 11.
Through donations from alumni, loans from fellow museums and the tireless effort of professors' scholarship and research, the University of Virginia Art Museum has been revamped for the spring semester, collaborating with the University to provide an additional academic resource of which students should take advantage.
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