Current Exhibitions

The Water’s Edge: Innovation and Exploration in Watercolor
April 30 – July 27, 2008

Opening reception: “Spring into Art” celebration
Wednesday, April 30th, 7:00-9:30 p.m.

Watercolor has been used by professional painters for centuries, and has played a transformative role in the history of art. Practiced since ancient times, watercolor painting first rose to prominence in the middle ages, when manuscript illuminators employed it to embellish sacred texts. In the modern era, watercolor came into its own as an independent artistic medium. Portable, vibrant, variable in scale, capable of precision and spontaneity: watercolor has been used to create works of art that are anything but uniform or predictable.

The fourteen paintings in this exhibition, selected from the Mead’s collections by the students in director Elizabeth Barker’s “Making an Exhibition” Interterm seminar, provide a glimpse into watercolor’s rich history. These works reveal explorations and innovations that push the boundaries of the medium, and which link it to broader artistic movements. Surely, these surprising watercolors prompt a fresh look at a medium sometimes dismissed as a genteel hobbyist’s art.

The exhibition has been curated by the students in Making an Exhibition:

Nicole Campbell, Class of 2009	Emily Mackey, Class of 2010
Alice Cutler, Class of 2010	Josette Pratt, Class of 2009
Caroline Edmundson, Class of 2010	Sara Sligar, Class of 2010
Stephanie Leung, Class of 2009	Colombina Valera, Class of 2010
Yin He, Class of 2010

Education and technology assistant Teddy O’Connor has provided special assistance.

The Water’s Edge: Innovation and Exploration in Watercolor is made possible through generous support from the Offices of the Dean of the Students and the Dean of the Faculty, the Amherst Arts Series Fund, and the Hall and Kate Peterson Fund.


John Marin United States;Maine;Deer Isle Maine Series Watercolor on white paper Museum Purchase AC 1954.12	Maurice Prendergast American (1859-1924) Band Concert Watercolor, pencil on paper Museum Purchase AC 1951.336	Edward Lear British (1812-1888) Olive Trees in the Garden of Gethsemane Watercolor on paper Museum Purchase AC 1961.138

Alexander Helwig Wyant American (1836-1892) Landscape Watercolor Gift of William Macbeth, Inc. AC 1952.20	Louis Joseph Kaep American (1903-1991) Antique Dealer's Porch Watercolor on paper Gift of the Childe Hassam Fund through American Academy of Arts and Sciences AC 1948.38	Andrew Newell Wyeth American, born 1917 Study for "Wind from the Sea" Watercolor on paper Gift of the artist AC 2001.310

Hubert Robert French (1733-1808) Temple of Divo Traiano Watercolor Bequest of Shirley Orr Stillson AC 1976.49	Adam Straus American, born 1956 Toxic Run-Off: Tranquil Bay Oil on paper Museum Purchase AC 2002.128	Artist Unknown Persian (16th century) Zah-hak Receiving the Nobility Watercolor and gold leaf on parchment Gift of the Amherst Dilettanti AC P.1940.4


Albert Christ-Janer American (1910-1973) Untitled Watercolor Gift of Alden T. Vaughn (Class of 1950) AC 1993.16	Reginald Marsh American (1898-1954) Modern 1939 Venus Watercolor Gift of Mr. Robert G. McIntyre, William Macbeth, Inc. AC 1956.66

The Third Space: Cultural Identity Today
February 28 – June 8, 2008

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Study #2 for Voyeurs & Beholders of …, 2007, Purchase with Wise Fund for Fine Arts, AC 2007.10.a-e

This exhibition considers cultural identity in a global society. It explores the effects of displacement, alienation, exile, diaspora, transnationalism, hybridity, and cosmopolitanism. The title The Third Space is taken from the work of the influential cultural and post-colonial theorist Homi Bhabha; it refers to the interstices between colliding cultures, a liminal space “which gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representation.” In this “in-between” space, new cultural identities are formed, reformed, and constantly in a state of becoming. Artists at work in “the third space” speak of a creative edge that derives from the condition of being in a place that simultaneously is and is not one’s home. Organized by Carol Solomon Kiefer, Curator of European Art at the Mead, the exhibition consists of fifteen works by nine artists. Included are pieces from the permanent collection and loans in a range of artistic media – video, photography, painting, and installation.

The Third Space: Cultural Identity Today is part of a year-long interdisciplinary initiative at Amherst College on the theme of “Art and Identity in the Global Community.” Two of the artists in the show, Indonesian Entang Wiharso and Ghanaian-German Daniel Kojo, are resident Amherst College Copeland Fellows for the 2007-2008 academic year. French-Algerian Zoulikha Bouabdellah is resident Amherst College visiting artist for the spring semester. The other artists in the exhibition are Moroccan Lalla Essaydi, Palestinian Mona Hatoum, Vietnamese-American Dinh Q. Lê, Iranian-American Shirin Neshat, Nigerian-Cuban-American Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Native American Jaune Quick-To-See Smith.The exhibition is generously supported by the Hall and Kate Peterson Fund, the Templeton Photography Fund, and the Amherst Arts Series Fund.

AMHERST COLLEGE EVENTS

Thursday, March 27, 4:30 p.m.
Gallery Talk - Exhibition Curator Carol Solomon Kiefer, Amherst College Department of Art and Art History Resident Artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah, and Amherst College Copeland Fellows Daniel Kojo, and Entang Wiharso
Reception to follow
Free and open to the public

Thursday, April 3, 4:30 p.m.
Artist Lecture - Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Artist in Residence, Department of Art and Art History, Amherst College
Pruyne Lecture Hall, Fayerweather Hall
Reception to follow
Free and open to the publicMonday, April 7, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, April 7, 7:30 p.m.
Artist Conversation - Copeland Fellow (Amherst College resident artist) Daniel Kojo, Mead Art Museum
Reception to follow
Free and open to the public

Amherst College has five resident Copeland Fellows for 2007-2008. The Copeland program is intended “to bring together people of diverse backgrounds and different perspectives to engage with faculty and students at Amherst College in a way designed to promote the cross-fertilization of ideas.” Fellows are nominated by members of the faculty and selected from many different disciplines, vocations, and professions. For the first time in 2007-2008, the Copeland Colloquium has a thematic focus: “Art and Identity in the Global Community.”

RELATED EVENTS

Film - Persepolis, 2007
Amherst Cinema Arts Center
info@amherstcinema.orgAnimated film by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud based on the award winning graphic novel Persepolis by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi.

April 1-April 25, 2008
Exhibition - Zoulikha Bouabdella, Artist in Residence, Department of Art and Art History, Amherst College
Eli Marsh Gallery, Fayerweather Hall, Amherst College

Thursday, April 3, 7:00 p.m.
Reading and Reflection - Marjane Satrapi
John M. Greene Hall, Smith CollegeThis event is sponsored by the Smith College Office of the Dean of the College, Smith College Office of Student Affairs, Smith College Office of the Dean of the First Year Class, Smith College Lecture Fund, Hampshire College Center for Academic Support and Advising, Mount Holyoke College Office of the Dean of the College, Five Colleges, Inc., and the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College.

Friday, April 4, 5:30 p.m.
Lecture - Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Fifth Annual Dulcy B. Miller Lecture in Art and Art History
Weinstein Auditorium, Smith College
Campos-Pons is featured in The Third Space: Art and Cultural Identity

Friday, Saturday, April 4-5
Symposium - GLOBAL EYES: New Ways of Seeing Art
Smith College Museum of Art
413-585-2760, www.smith.edu/artmuseum
A Smith College symposium to explore how global influences are reshaping our understanding of the meaning of art.

Suggested Reading

Alcoff, Linda Martin and Eduardo Mendieta, eds. Identities: Race, Class, Gender, and

Nationality, Malden , MA and London : Blackwell, 2003.

Amor, Monica, et al., “Liminalities: Discussions on the Global and the Local,” Art

Journal, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter 1998) 28-49.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, New York :

W.W. Norton & Co., 2006.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture, London and New York : Routledge, 2006

(1994).

Bhabha, Homi. “Another Country,” in Fereshteh Daftari, Without Boundary: Seventeen

Ways of Looking, exh. cat., New York : Museum of Modern Art, 2006, 30-35.

Braziel, Jana Evans and Anita Mannur, eds. Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader, Malden ,

MA and Oxford : Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

Daftari, Fereshteh. Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking, exh. cat., New York :

Museum of Modern Art, 2006.

Fisher, Jean and Gerardo Mosquera. “Introduction” in Gerardo Mosquera and Jean

Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, Cambridge ,

MA and London : The MIT Press, 2004, 2-9.

Hall , Stuart . “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” in Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman,

eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, New York :

Columbia University Press, 1994, 392-403.

Helly, Denise. “Diaspora: History of an Idea,” in Haideh Moghissi, ed. Muslim

Diaspora: Gender, Culture and Identity, London and New York : Routledge,

2006, 3-22.

Mosquera, Gerardo and Jean Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and

Culture, Cambridge , MA and London : The MIT Press, 2004.

Papastergiadis, Nikos. “The Limits of Cultural Translation,” in Gerardo Mosquera and

Jean Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, Cambridge ,

MA and London: The MIT Press, 2004, 330-347.

Said, Edward. “Reflections on Exile,” in Edward Said, Reflections on Exile and Other

Essays, Cambridge , MA : Harvard Univ. Press, 2000, 173-186.

Rutherford, Jonathan. “The Third Space. Interview with Homi Bhabha,” in Jonathan

Rutherford, ed., Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, London: Lawrence &

Wishart, 1990, 207-221.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis , New York : Pantheon Books, 2003.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2, New York : Pantheon Books, 2004.