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Isabel Cordova graduated from Smith College in 2019 with a degree in Studio Art, American Studies, and a concentration in Museum Studies. In this post, she reflects on her and Sydney Nguyen’s collaboration with Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) as the Post-Baccalaureate Assistants for the Indigenous American Collections at Five Colleges Inc.

This post refers to the installation of pieces by Indigenous artists from SCMA’s permanent collection on view in the Art after 1800 America, Europe, Africa Gallery (third level). 

Aprile Gallant, Mary Walcott Keyes 1931 Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs introduces a print by the Japanese artist Taniguchi Shigeru

Danielle Carrabino, curator of painting and sculpture, offers insight into a recently acquired print by Italian artist, Stefano della Bella (1610-1664). This print may be the earliest work of art in the collection to feature a Black man.

Julia Bender, a master’s candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the History of Art and Architecture department, explores the mysterious past of SCMA’s Saint Catherine sculpture.

Yao Wu, Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art, introduces an ink landscape painting made by Chen Xin in 1985 that is currently on view at SCMA on the lower level.

Who made it?

A Chinese artist called Chen Xin painted this landscape. Born in Beijing in 1956, Chen studied with several Chinese classical painting masters in his youth. In the 1980s, he received further training from artists of the Lingnan School, a style of painting from the Guangdong region in southern China.

Emma Chubb, Charlotte Feng Ford ’83 Curator of Contemporary Art, introduces a new work by Amanda Williams, part of her 2020-22 commission for SCMA entitled An Imposing Number of Times.

Mosa Molapo ‘22 graduated from Smith in May with a double major in Art History and African Studies.  Mosa also served as the 2021-2022 Kennedy Museum Research Fellow in Art History at SCMA.

Over the course of the academic year, I worked with the Baio collection, a group of 100 photographs donated by Joe Baio and Anne Griffin (class of 1983). One of my objectives was to acquire a new piece for the museum that engages both with this donation and the greater SCMA collection.

Annalise Edwards ‘23J, a curatorial research assistant, explores SCMA’s archives to learn about how and why John Wilson created this portrait of his brother. 

Yao Wu, Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art, introduces a print made by Anupam Sud in 1988.

Annalise Edwards ‘23J, a curatorial research assistant, discusses a recent addition to SCMA’s collection. 

In this summer series,  SCMA’s five curators will briefly introduce some recent exciting acquisitions by answering the following simple questions: 

Ariella Heise ‘22 reflects on two recent acquisitions in the SCMA collection. She currently works in the Marketing and Communications department at SCMA.