Mead Art Museum The Water's Edge: Innovation and Exploration in Watercolor

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

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.