| Smith College Museum of Art

Always Been Here: Indigenous Artwork Reemerges from Storage

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).

This pot is cream in color, with a black scene of animals (deer, bird) and plants (trees, cactus) painted onto the vessel. Mountains and clouds are also featured. A black line encompasses the rim. Like other Tohono O'odham ceramics, a large portion of the vessel is left painted white with little decoration.

Large clay bowl with sepia drawings of animals and wilderness

Colonial Entanglements: Native American Artwork from the SCMA Collection

August 30, 2022–May 28, 2023

This grouping of fourteen objects highlights the relationship between North American Indigenous artists and artists from the European societies that occupy their homelands.

Painted wood sculpture of a frontal facing full figure jolly man in robes

Brought to Life: Painted Wood Sculpture from Europe, 1300–1700

September 16, 2022–August 6, 2023

This exhibition investigates the materials, techniques and reception of painted wood sculpture in Europe between the 13th and the 18th centuries. Polychrome (multicolored) wood sculptures are today recognized as art objects, but at the time they were made, viewers interacted with the sculptures as if they were alive. Most of the works on view here represent sacred figures from Christianity, and their lifelike appearance was central to their function as objects of prayer and devotion. Whether located in a church or a home, the sculptures were part of a multisensory experience.

Collecting for the future: Taniguchi Shigeru’s Three Colors Paint

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

young person with shoulder-length dark hair wearing a blue collared shirt. Splashes of yellow, blue, and red on top

An Investigation into the Authenticity of SCMA’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria

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.

standing robed woman with coronet on head and book in hands

Collecting for the future: Stefano della Bella

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.

Collecting for the future: Chen Xin's Pine, Clouds, and Flying Waterfalls

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.

Skinny vertical piece depicting clouds above pine trees and a rushing waterfall in black and white

A split screen shows a man cooking shirtless in the kitchen, and a closeup of a hanging American flag that says "100% cotton made in China"

Chien-Chi Chang: China Town

On View Through June 25, 2023

Chien-Chi Chang's video "China Town" documents the experiences of undocumented workers in New York City's Chinatown and their family members in Fujian, China. An immigrant himself, the artist believes immigration is propelled by both suffering and hope.

Collecting for the future: Amanda Williams’ Matterful Black Lives Tea Set

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.

handmade tea set comprised of 6 cups (with three different shapes), tea pot with two handles, creamer and sugar dish with lid in black glazed and/or black clay; nside of cups is painted by hand in black, white, and greyscale colors inspired by the Black Lives Matter banners on Smith campus houses, as part of the commission "An Imposing Number of Times" (2020-22)

Andrea Chung Joins the SCMA Collection

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.

Two framed pieces of standing young women side-by-side. Figures are decorated with beads and shells. Paper flowers and leaves below and behind them