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.
Outside the Box: Frames to Focus on During Your Next SCMA Visit
Kay Horak ‘24 is a self-designed Art Conservation Major with a Mathematical Sciences Minor and Museums Concentration.
Collecting the Past: Sled and Seal
The sheer isolation of the Canadian Arctic allowed native Inuit populations to remain relatively uninfluenced by Anglos until the nineteen fifties, when a flurry of government service ventures pushed northward.
Gabrielle de Veaux Clements: Artist, Teacher and World Traveler
One intriguing aspect of The Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang Collection is that half of the artists represented in it are women. Some, such as Gabrielle de Veaux Clements, left traces of their legacy in the public sphere and are widely renowned.
Spotlight on Jiha Moon
By using hanji paper, elements of contemporary Asian pop culture, and Western art techniques, Moon’s pieces become a blend of East and West, reflecting her own background.
Welcome, Colleen!
Hello! I’m Colleen McDermott, and starting this week I’m taking over as the new Brown Post-Baccalaureate Curatorial Fellow.
Teaching with Paper
Every afternoon for three weeks, sixteen enthusiastic 4th-6th graders come to the Museum to connect with art. Our students spend time in the galleries, investigate artists in the museum’s collection, and go behind-the-scenes with museum staff.
Introducing SCMA’s IFPDA Intern
We’re pleased to be joined this summer by Nicole Viglini, '04J, who will be working in the Cunningham Center this summer as the IFPDA Intern.
Orpheus Greeting the Moon
A tree ascended there. Oh pure transcendence! / Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear!
Tolman Collection: Hiromitsu Takahashi
Hiromitsu’s beautifully vibrant and slightly playful prints are a modern take on ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing developed during the country’s Edo period.
Never Exhausted
Over the course of his life, Paul Landacre became a master of wood engraving, and a standard for those exploring this printmaking medium.
Standing Turk
The French academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme is known for his hyper illusionistic style, which he used to create detailed paintings of life and culture in the newly discovered East during the nineteenth century.
Buzkashi from the series Musharraff
An integration of Persian and Indian influences, 'Buzkashi' by Saira Wasim resonates with early Mughal ruler portraits and painting traditions.
Figure and Image
The collection of Selma Erving is comprised of 540 drawings, 74 prints, and 100 illustrated books, the majority of which come from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Needless to say, picking less than twenty objects to hang was a Herculean task, especially for someone as interested in the time period and style that Ms. Erving seemed to favor as I am.