Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.—On Thursday, May 9, the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College will begin the presentation of three exhibitions of work that reflects the artistic and scholarly efforts of five students from Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts. These exhibitions, sponsored by the Associates of Fine Arts at Amherst, are free and open to the public.
The first exhibition (May 9 through May 26) features the thesis work of two seniors, Emily Lobsenz and Nathaniel Robinson.
Ms. Lobsenz, of Fairfield, Conn., is majoring in fine arts and English. She has produced a short film that “explores the torments of love which bear its delicate and transcendent beauty.” When discussing the film, she alludes to the closing couplet in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 64:
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
The film will be on view in the Eli Marsh Gallery in Fayerweather, open Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Nathaniel Robinson, a fine arts major from East Greenwich, R. I., has produced a large group of paintings in which he examines his immediate surroundings in both a realistic and surrealistic manner. Rather than being landscapes, these works are frozen moments in time. He describes his intentions, stating: “The world’s unity of disparate ‘parts’ is as bluntly factual as it is mysterious. I am exploring the strangeness of our experience as active and interested, yet essentially helpless participants in a disinterested, yet eminently powerful and complex reality.”
La Ville Lumière: Paris in Photographs (May 9 through July 28), the second exhibition, is curated by senior Brad M. Walters, a fine arts and French major from Zeeland, Michigan. From enduring monuments to fleeting moments, this exhibition explores representations of the modern city and French identity. Drawn from the Mead’s permanent collection, the exhibition includes photographs by luminaries such as Baldus, Nègre, Marville, Atget, Brassaï, Kertész, Boubat and Doisneau.
The third exhibition, The Ties that Bind: The Family in European Prints, 15th - 20th Centuries (May 9 through October 11), is curated by Cecily Brewer, a double major in European Studies and French from West Lafayette, Ind., and Allison Sobke, a Graduate Intern at the Mead, who will receive her M.A. in art history from the University of Massachusetts this spring.
Highlighting more than 60 prints from the Mead’s permanent collection, including works by Dürer, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Blake, Daumier, Kollwitz and other celebrated printmakers, this exhibition explores sacred, secular and historical representations of the family. The show is arranged thematically, encompassing works from six centuries, and exploring the complex bonds that define the family—religious, political, social and emotional. Sacred images range from the Madonna and Child to interpretations of the parable of the prodigal son. In secular prints, genre scenes reveal the intimacy of family relations. Caricature and political satire critique child rearing, the arranged marriage and other social conventions. Historical images of royal families become vehicles for political propaganda.
The Mead Art Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday evenings until 9 p.m., and is closed Mondays and holidays. On May 18, summer hours will begin at the Mead and continue through September 3. The Museum will be open Tuesdays through Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.
More information can be found on the Museum's Website at http://www.amherst.edu/~mead or by calling the Mead Art Museum at 413/542-2335.
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