SCMAinsider

SCMAinsider offers dynamic perspectives on the diverse collections and visions that shape the
Smith College Museum of Art.

We welcome contributions from all members of our community and seek to cultivate a range of
voices and experiences. If you want to contribute to the blog, please contact us at scmacuratorial@smith.edu.

January at SCMA: Museums and Meditation at MacLeish

Anna Ziegler is a senior Art History major and works at the Cunningham Center at SCMA.

The Sublime in the Mundane

in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the sublime was already on the decline. In the shadow of industrialization, nature ceded itself to humanity — that, or humanity encroached on nature so that it disappeared.
Cityscape, a river in the lower right hand corner, half sky, half city

Melancholy Dominance

With sparse, barren trees surrounding the homestead in an otherwise naked field, Barkin's illustration carries that sure sense of late autumn decay and the melancholy that never fails to accompany it.
Image of November Sunlight print - black and white image of two-story house with barn behind in center of large empty lawn, surrounded by trees and open sky

Enveloped Encroachment

Paul Dougherty's Road Through Trees in Sunlight takes the human-environmental relationship to early 20th century America. The Romantic, spreading to the United States, took to a new environment, adopting new representations as human exceptionalism spread.
Reddish-brown drawing of a dirt road lined with trees, sun coming through the branches

On the Threshold

John Crome’s Wooded Landscape (included in his Norfolk Picturesque Scenery Series) depicts the edge of a forest looming over a clearing. With billowing clouds in the receding landscape, the scene depicts a period of calm before a creeping storm — a storm one could read as human encroachment.
Black and white etching of a wooded scene on right foreground with a cloudy sky in the background

The Sublime in the Mundane: Human Encroachment in the Natural Landscape

As I become increasingly aware of anthropogenic environmental destruction, I find myself drawn to nature. It is in nature, in the intertwining body of roots and branches, air and light, that I find comfort amid the stresses of human life. Nature is pure. It is awe-inspiring. It is sublime.
Triptych drawing of classical statues adorned with flowers and vines - one standing, two reclining

Lavinia Fontana: Renaissance Artist

Earlier this year, the SCMA acquired two small portraits by the Italian Renaissance artist, Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614). These paintings are an important addition to the collection as the earliest works of art by a named woman artist. They also add a new dimension to the historic collection as objects that may not have been considered “fine” art at the time of their creation, but instead pertained more to the world of material culture.
Fontana, Portrait of a Woman

Defiant Vision Q&A: Final Questions

This is the final Q&A post for Defiant Vision: Prints & Poetry by Munio Makuuchi before it closes exhibition closes on Sunday, December 8. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already had the chance!

In this series, Aprile Gallant, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs responds to visitor questions from the exhibition’s comment book. Accompanying images are in the slideshow above.

 

In the Mood Day Sun

Defiant Vision Q&A: Paintings or Prints?

In this series, Aprile Gallant, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs answers visitor questions about the SCMA exhibition Defiant Vision: Prints & Poetry by Munio Makuuchi.
Makuuchi plate

Questions and answers from Defiant Vision: Prints & poetry by Munio Makuuchi

In this series, Aprile Gallant, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs answers visitor questions about the SCMA exhibition Defiant Vision: Prints & Poetry by Munio Makuuchi. Visit the exhibition to pose a question in the comment book, then check the book and SCMA Insider for the answers! Our first question explores Makuuchi's selective use of color in his work.
Munio Makuuchi American, 1934–2000. On Boys day I 'I.D.' with Rocky Mountain Salmon . . . / . . . So where’s the Salmon?, 1985.

Honoring Kurt Lang (January 25, 1924—May 1, 2019)

Henriette Kets de Vries is the Cunningham Center Manager and Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the SCMA. She worked closely with Kurt Lang and featured works from his collection in the exhibition No Man's Land: Prints from the Front Lines of WWI.

Kurt Lang in the 1940s while he was home on leave from U.S. Army basic training during World II
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