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.
Welcome Lilly Watson, Our New Assistant Museum Educator
Hello everyone! My name is Lilly Watson (they/them) and I am the new Post Baccalaureate Assistant Museum Educator here at SCMA.
Student Picks: Between the Lines – Image and Prose in the 20th Century Avant-Garde
By combining each artwork with poems, prose, and quotes from authors from the same period, 'Between the Lines' gives the viewer a new perspective on the influential and interpretive relationship between 20th century art and literature.
Monsters
We all have a relationship to the monsters we create in our subconscious or the ones we find in newspaper headlines.
Romare Bearden: Brilliant Ambiguity
Bearden’s "Untitled" watercolor drawing, which entered our collection this year, was produced during a transitional moment in the artist’s career.
W. Eugene Smith’s “Spanish Wake”
Smith passionately committed himself to capturing intimate scenes that revealed the essence of his subjects and hoped that his images would help to stir the emotions and conscience of his viewer.
Maximón Militar
The enigmatic Maximón, with his taste for alcohol and tobacco, is an unorthodox figure among Guatemalan congregations.
Announcing the 2012-2013 Student Picks Winners!
Congratulations to this year’s Student Picks curators!
From 'Canyon' to 'Crackerjack': What You See is What You Don’t
Both Rauschenberg's 'Canyon,' the subject of recent public controversy, and 'Crackerjacks,' a 1977 graduate photography portfolio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in SCMA's permanent collection, position contemporary art as an invitation to interpret.
Tara Donovan
There is an unmistakable magic in Tara Donovan’s work. 'Untitled' is a fairly early experimental two-dimensional work in which Donovan used soap bubbles as drawing tool creating a unique image that captured an ephemeral occurrence.
Whistler's Venice Set
Featuring 20 prints and photographs from the permanent collection, this summer's corridor exhibition 'Image and After-Image' looks at James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s etchings and drypoints alongside the development of photography in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Pandora's Box
Master ZBM's print 'Pandora's Box' was a pivotal work for this summer's curatorial SIAMS program students, but this print differs from most representations of Pandora in important ways.
Where Do You Put the Emphasis?
Influenced by Zen koans, statements of questions that resist linear thought, Wiley produced images and texts that blur the line between wisdom and whimsy.
Outside the [Box]
Just like Pandora, we wanted our audience to be fascinated by our boxes and to question them - to truly think "outside the [box]."
![nineteen students standing in front of a blue wall with white text that says "outside the [box]"](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-01/box%20featured.jpg?itok=zmV9E0Ce)