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.

Charcoal drawing on cream paper of a woman with bobbed dark hair sitting cross-legged in a chair. She wears a button-up shirt, tie, knee-length skirt, and heeled boots with tiny buttons up the side.

Art as Archive: Curating Germany, 1918-1945

October 30, 2025

Rebecca McClung is a Ph.D. student in the history department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Degas Doppelgängers: SCMA Lithographs From Same Series as Gardner Heist Drawings

With the recent efforts of the FBI to again publicize the crime and recover the works, we thought we’d highlight the parallel works in our collection in solidarity with the Gardner.

drawings of ballerina's feet and man playing a cello, with French advertisement for a show in the bottom left corner

Munio Makuuchi

Like all of Makuuchi’s visual works, "On Boy’s Day" relates directly to his life history.

landscape with sun at upper left, large arch of water with two salmon at lower left and three at right, top one arching back toward top center image

Smith Tours: Diego Rivera and the Value of Art

Designing and giving a tour at the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) is both exciting and unpredictable.

woman and child in yellow outfits, child with hat, walking in woods in front of a stand of brown trees

Daumier's Bathers

Daumier produced a series entitled Les Baigneurs, which provides humorous commentary on bourgeois bathers in the nineteenth-century.

two women in a bathhouse holding glasses; public pool on the right

From our archives: The Age of Mezzotint

Mezzotint, a printmaking technique invented by the German amateur artist Lugwig von Siegen in 1642, created unprecedented capabilities for translating paintings into prints.

half-length portrait of a young woman with long curly hair, wearing a large lace collar, dark dress, a bow around her neck and a feather in her hair

Student Picks: From Tissot to Toulouse-Lautrec - Fashion Focus in 19th-century French Art

From Degas’ depiction of dancers, to Mary Cassatt’s rendition of social life and mother-daughter bonds, to Toulouse-Lautrec’s images of prostitutes at the Moulin Rouge, they all allow us to muse over the garments worn at the time by every kind of person in the social spectrum.

Curator, Who Me?

The exhibition, developed in conjuncture with Smith’s Celebrating Collaborations conference, was truly a collaborative effort.

Installing Sol LeWitt's "Wall Drawing #139"

My experience assisting in the installation of Sol LeWitt’s "Wall Drawing #139" is among the highlights of my Smith career.

girl standing on a yellow ladder, drawing on a white wall. another girl stands below her, also drawing on the wall

Student Picks: Beauty by Design - The Art of Japanese Kimono

While working on a project which involved researching feudal Japanese costume, I fell in love with the beautiful and exotic Japanese kimonos.

woman wearing kimono, holding a tiered lacquer box; upper right corner has a book open to an illustration of a chapter from the "Tale of Genji"

Less is More: Josef Albers

The grandfather of Minimalism, Josef Albers was a prolific painter, printmaker, designer, and teacher who illuminated the importance of astute perception and restrained expression.

concentric red squares of increasingly dark shades

Visual Occupation

Within the Occuprint portfolio, a unique language has been spawned that encourages a visual occupation both in our minds and on the streets.

yellow ground with large black flowers; on top section: OCCUPY in yellow framed with black and BIG MOTHER in white; on bottom section: ITS WATCHING in white and EARTH in yellow framed in black; political

The Grief of Humanity: Dmitri Baltermants & World War II

“We photographers make magnificent shots of wars, fires, earthquakes, and murder: the grief of humanity."

soldiers stand with rifles, gathering at the opening of a building. piano sitting behind them