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.
Welcome Lilly Watson, Our New Assistant Museum Educator
Hello everyone! My name is Lilly Watson (they/them) and I am the new Post Baccalaureate Assistant Museum Educator here at SCMA.
On Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s “Dressing to Go Out/Undressing to Go In” (or, Don’t Try This At Home)
The hurried, active quality of the photographs that comprise the work allows viewers a glimpse into what ‘motherhood’ could have looked like for a working female artist during one of the more pivotal moments of second-wave feminism in America.
Contemporary Black Women Artists in the Cunningham Center: Kara Walker
Walker’s work explores the violences of the history of slavery in the American antebellum South as she creates elaborate scenes of outlined slaves and masters, oppressors and the oppressed.
Contemporary Black Women Artists in the Cunningham Center: Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems's work addresses racism, sexism, family relationships, class and power, her photographs spanning from intimate documentations of her family and community to powerful works that widely address the African-American experience.
Contemporary Black Women Artists in the Cunningham Center: Lorna Simpson
Lorna Simpson rose to prominence in the art world in the 1980s for her art exploring black female identity and historical memory. Her work combines photography, text art and installation to create subtle and engaging works that are difficult to decode but meaningful in the effort it takes to understand them.
Welcome, Shanice!
Meet Shanice Bailey '17J, a recent Smith graduate and the new Brown Post-Baccalaureate Curatorial Fellow at SCMA!
On View: The Hilary Tolman, class of 1987, Collection of Twentieth-Century Japanese Prints
In honor of the thirtieth reunion of the class of 1987, selections from The Hilary Tolman Collection--a landmark gift of Japanese prints from the 1950s to the present day--are currently on view in the Christ Gallery. Featuring works. from thirty different artists, this exhibition spans a wide variety of styles and subject matter within the realm of Japanese printmaking.
The Modern Machine
Charles Sheeler’s paintings and photographs of machinery were quintessential depictions of the American industrial age. Though they span a variety of time periods, the selected photographs in this cabinet—one of which is by Sheeler—capture a fascination with the aesthetics of power.
Reunion Class Gifts
Welcome back, reunion classes!
New York's Most Famous Unknown Artist
Two collages by “New York’s most famous unknown artist,” Ray Johnson, have recently arrived at SCMA as part of a promised gift. These are the first works by Johnson in the Five Colleges.
STUDENT PICKS: Let Them In
We see Asia being represented by the West. But how do contemporary Asian artists depict themselves and their community?
The Many Faces of the Grotesque
What comes to mind when you hear the word grotesque? Monsters? Caricatures? The grotesque is a broad and continuously evolving category that helps people grapple with unnatural or repulsive things.
STUDENT PICKS: Not Your Forte? Exploring Depictions of Music
Spanning Europe, Iran, the U.S, Asia, and Latin America, this show includes literal representations of music, such as prints and photographs of people playing instruments, posters advertising for musical events in the ‘60s, and a 15th century Italian manuscript page with bars of music.
