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.

Sepia photograph of two girls with their hair pulled back leaning out of a dormer window.

The Wing Sisters, Part III: The Wing Collection

Meredith Clowse ‘26 is an Art History Major and an Archives Concentrator at Smith.

Visiting James Ensor

A couple of years ago I ventured out on a small personal pilgrimage to visit the hometown and gravesite of an artist whom I consider to be one of Belgium’s best; James Ensor.
drawing of soldiers on a battlefield; clouds in the sky above

Diebenkorn's Untitled #25

Diebenkorn embarked on the playing card drawings after his mother, Dorothy Diebenkorn, became severely ill during the early 1980s.
abstract with white background and straight and curving lines in black

The Great Wall

Louise Nevelson’s work relentlessly defies categorization of both style and media.
fifteen pieces of metal squares or rectangles stacked to make a wall

Robetta’s Adoration of the Magi

The Adoration of the Magi was a popular subject for Italian artists because it allowed the artist to showcase their ability to create an elaborate composition filled with animals, sumptuously clothed figures, and often a vast landscape.
The Virgin and Child seated between two trees, with three angels overhead and Saint Joseph behind them, a crowd of figures on either side, two in the front kneeling, more people with horses in mid-distance, rolling hills with scattered dwellings in distance

Death in Art

In times of war, famine, or disease, when death was personal, undiscriminating, and close, visual representations of death in many forms were more commonplace.
dark interior; woman sitting at a table, eyes closed, leaning away, child sitting at table, an arm held around his neck, to the right, the skull and arm of a skeleton emerges, its arm reaching for the dead or sleeping woman; man standing facing away in right foreground; face of child and skull lit by candle on the table

Picasso and the Minotaur

In this work, Greek mythology collides with Picasso’s own personal mythology of artistic creation.
minotaur in center with hand on shoulder of blond woman holding a bird, male at left leans on rocks at left and two figures in a small boat with sail at right

TASS Window #850

In 1941 a group of Soviet writers and artists founded the TASS News Agency to create large-scale war-themed propaganda posters called “TASS Windows.”
bandaged figures, bleeding and black & blue with Russian text at bottom
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