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 Academic French Nude

In French academic art, female nudity was permissible within the context of an imaginary fantasy landscape or a mythical or biblical setting.
Female nude reclining in drapery.

Gladys Engel Lang: Scholar, Author, and Collector

We are saddened to report the passing of Gladys Engel Lang on March 23, 2016. We are grateful to Gladys and the Lang family for entrusting SCMA with the legacy of their work in the form of the prints, drafts, and research for the Etched in Memory project.
A black and white photo of an older woman in formal dress including a short net veil.

Student Picks: Mundane Particulars

Each of these ordinary moments becomes extraordinary precisely because they are divorced from their original purpose. They are now irreverently assigned a new role in this room before you, bearing witness to just another particularly ordinary moment. 
street with back view of three figures, two young women holding hands and one man walking, center woman has a wood structure on her shoulders and man a wood box on his head, trucks and figures in background

Literary "Piracy" in the Fifteenth Century

The Nuremberg Chronicle was enormously popular; however, it was also very expensive. In the neighboring town of Augsburg, a rival printmaker named Johann Schönsperger sought to reach a new market.
Illustration of a castle with a heading in Latin.

Uncanny Valley: Portraits of the Almost-Human

The more realistic an image is, the more viewers tend to identify with it—up to a certain point. Lifelike sculptures often have a peculiar, unsettling quality, occupying a perceptual and emotional space known as the “uncanny valley.”
close-up black and white image of an urn in the foreground, with a white figural statue at the center and trees in the background

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

During the Renaissance, scholars began to move away from basing academic theory on Christian theology, focusing instead on the rediscovery and analysis of classical texts.  
recto-ink print of procession with woman on carriage kissing a swan; bottom half single descending column of black text

Student Picks: Time and Space

This exhibition loosely deals with American adolescence, of coming into a history with uncertain predictions of the future.
outdoor scene with red and blue alternating floor, black fence surrounding the area. in the background, pale pink and pale blue buildings. ominous clouds in the sky
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