SCMAinsider

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

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The intro text for the show is on the far left and a portrait of a person with gilded gold frame to the right of the intro text.

Thinking Through Drawing: On View through September 7, 2025

November 19, 2024

Henriette Kets de Vries is the Associate Curator and Manager of the Cunningham Study Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs.

I Hope You Learned Your Lesson

Although many details are playful, there’s still an edge to this work. The phrase “I Hope You Learned Your Lesson” not only conjures up a boring, uncreative classroom, but also implies the aftermath of punishment.

Image of small student chalkboard in wooden frame on a white background with a message in straighthand and cursive writing: "I HOPE YOU LEARNED your lesson / 1974 W," with faint barely visible errors crossed out and erased behind

Standing Turk

Gérôme added fodder to his peers' Orientalist visions. To them, a sketch such as Standing Turk became an irrefutable rendering of what all Turkish men wore. The reality is much more complex.

standing man facing left in coat and turban with hands pressed together at his waist

Cartomania

Cartes-de-visite were a revolutionary form of photography – while earlier methods were expensive or clunky, cartes were small and mounted on card paper, which made them easy to handle.

tree and telephone pole sidewalk on left, curving street on right, large stone buildings behind trees, telephone poles and paths to sidewalk on opposite side of street

Clare Leighton: The blackest black to dead white

Leighton was drawn to wood-engraving, the process of printing from an engraved block of wood.

three men in tall boots standing shallow water with low hills and flying seagulls in background, left figure has a bucket attached to a rake over his shoulder, center figure is bend over pulling his rake with bucket of clams near him, third figure is bent pulling his rake with his bucket between his legs

Eric Avery

The AIDS crisis is a prime example of a historical force that raised crucial issues related to a key civil liberty: the maintenance of public health and access to health care. It is also an issue that mobilized a broad range of activist artists, including Eric Avery.

grinning skull with missing teeth and AIDS printed below on sheet printed in rose pattern

Low and Slow

As lowrider culture flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, it became more than a shared interest, and grew to encompass a sense of belonging to Mexican-American communities.

Sonic gas station with Christmas tree in background, sedan painted dull orange/gold with swirled designs, young man in jeans and short sleeve shirt squatting down near passenger door and smiling

Reinstall, Revive!

The Museum Reinstallation & Reinterpretation Project is in full swing!

empty art gallery, with wood floors, black cabinets, and two rectangular windows

St. Jerome in his Study

Despite his print’s remarkable similarity to Dürer’s own print, Johan Wierix was not attempting to trick anyone into mistaking his prints for Dürer’s actual work.

man with halo at table writing in a book; figure of crucified Christ on corner of table, hour glass hanging on wall behind man; lion and dog sleeping in front of table; skull on window seat on left side of image

Tolman Collection: Reika Iwami

This spring, SCMA was pleased to receive a gift of 50 prints by 5 different Japanese artists from The Tolman Collection, the largest publisher of contemporary editions in Japan.

dark rectangle with overlapping red netting forming bottom third, and above three overlapping circles, textured gray circle, half circle in wood grain and full circle in white, small gold butterfly shapes above

The Clamorous Owl

Named "The Owl," this piece was the creation of Leonard Baskin, who taught at Smith College between the years of 1953 and 1974.

over life-size owl with wings spread and rough surface finish

Keїta’s Legacy

Building on the rich African tradition of portrait photography, Seydou Keїta worked through the mid to late 20th century documenting Bamako society in Mali at a time of considerable social and political change.

woman seated in front of patterned cloth, head wrapped in scarf, wearing printed dress, earrings, bracelet and ring, hands crossed over one another on her lap, details of cloth, earrings and fingernails hand tinted red

Homage to Quevedo

The Cunningham Center holds one of Cuevas’ literary portfolios, Homage to Quevedo. This suite of prints was inspired by the poetry of Francisco Gómez de Quevedo, a Spanish writer who worked in the seventeenth century.