De Wain Valentine: Thinking Inside and Outside The Box

In grade school we learn about the basic shapes in geometry: circles, ovals, squares, triangles, rectangles, quadrangles, parallelograms, the rhombus, pentagons, hexagons, octagons—the list goes on and on. Under most circumstances, these shapes are only used as simple elements within a much larger work of art. For example, one might use a circle and a triangle in a basic sketch. With added detail, the circle can become a head and the triangle takes the shape of a nose. With more shading, a few lines and a pair of eyes, facial features come into view, and eventually we lose track of the painting’s humble beginnings.

Like any other artist, De Wain Valentine approaches his sculptures with the basic geometry of the finished product in mind. But instead of fading away through added details such as fine chiseling or added sanding and polishing, the concept of the shape serves as the most essential part of his work. That is not to say Valentine doesn’t pay attention to detail—the technical composition of his large, polyester resin sculptures requires a complex process to bring out a sheen that acts as both an opaque reflector and a filter for light to pass through. In this regard, Valentine enables his audiences to look at both themselves and at other people within the scope of his sculptures, almost literally immersing the viewer in art.

De Wain Valentine
"Lavender Column"

De Wain Valentine
"Circle Blue Smoke Flow"

Valentine has had installations shown in the Museum of Modern Art, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu and the San Diego Museum of Art. The Georgia Museum of Art, through the efforts of chief curator and Curator of American Art Paul Manoguerra, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art Lynn Boland, Director William Underwood Eiland, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, has put together an exhibition featuring Valentine’s work in Human Scale. The exhibition will run from Sept. 8, 2012, until Jan. 27, 2013. 

Start the Semester With a BANG!

The Georgia Museum of Art Student Association commits itself to spreading awareness about art and encouraging the influence of a student voice at the museum. That doesn’t mean, however, that they don’t know how to kick back and have a good time.

On Thursday, Aug. 30, the GMOASA will host BANG! Back to School Student Night, which will go from 8 until 10:30 pm. The theme is “War Meets Post-War,” exemplified by the exhibitions of Francisco de Goya’s “Disasters of War” and “The New York Collection for Stockholm,” which highlight two very different time periods and war-era moods.

Not only will there be fun and free food, but the association will also have a range of activities including a photo booth with props and images based on 1960s American art and pop culture, a scavenger hunt starting at 8:30, which will involve searching through the galleries to receive cool prizes, and DIY projects based around Chakaia Booker’s works in the sculpture garden. You’ll also have the opportunity to meet members of the association, including the president, Eva Berlin, and mingle with other students who share similar interests in the arts.

The best part about this event? Besides the experience of art, meeting new people, and having a good time? How about the fact that all of this is FREE? So come start the new school year on a good foot. The museum and the Georgia Museum of Art Student Association will be waiting for you at 90 Carlton Street!

Makeover

If you're a regular visitor to our blog, you may well have noticed the new look and new name, both recently implemented. After years of the blog going by "Curator's Corner," we realized that wasn't always accurate. Paul Manoguerra, our chief curator and curator of American art, originally started this blog, back in the days when he had more time to write for it. But he has exhibitions to plan and books to write and many other things to do that interfere with his blogging duties. Paul still contributes occasionally, as does Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art at the museum, but this blog is now overwhelmingly written by our wonderful students in the department of communications.

A fresh look complements the new name: Holbrook's Trunk. Alfred Heber Holbrook, pictured above, was the founder and first director of the Georgia Museum of Art. A retired New York lawyer, he devoted the second half of his life to collecting art and then to evangelizing about it. We are forever thankful that he met Lamar Dodd and decided to give his collection to the University of Georgia to establish a museum for the citizens of the state. Since 1945, when the museum was made official (despite the fact that it didn't have a building until 1948), we have been directed by his philosophy. Holbrook was so dedicated to promoting the importance of art that he used to load paintings into the trunk of his car and take off around the state, spreading the gospel to whoever would listen. That kind of carefree behavior with works of art is, somewhat unfortunately, no longer a possibility, but the impulse behind it—to sing the praises of the visual arts across the state, in as relatable a way as possible—still drives us and this blog.

We hope you like the rebrand. Let us know what you think in the comments.

On Display: The Epic and the Intimate

The Epic and the Intimate: French Drawings from the John D. Reilly Collection at the Snite Museum of Art is a travelling exhibition compiled by the University of Notre Dame’s museum.

The exhibition contains 60 examples tracing the history of French drawings, some of them from before the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture’s establishment, and dating through the French Revolution in 1789. Those 60 drawings, however, are only a taste of the highlights of the full collection at Notre Dame. The John D. Reilly ’63 Collection of Old Master and Nineteenth-Century Drawings currently holds more than 500 French drawings assembled through the collaboration of Reilly and emeritus curator Stephen Spiro.

As the aim of The Epic and the Intimate is to depict a specific period in French history, the collection features work by such artists as Antoine Watteau, Charles de la Fosse and Eugène Delacroix. Most of these drawings were produced during the late 1600s to the early 1700s and, as such, represent a turning point not only in French history, but also in French artistic style. The majority of these revolutionary techniques, in drawing especially, were compounded by the founding of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648. The Academy was responsible for opening schools, appointing instructors and organizing competitions. It ultimately monopolized the art market, generating an influx of new artistic design. One of the changes in technique included a focus on the intimate details of the subject, cultivating a more in-depth and powerful scene or portrait for the viewer.

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (1767 – 1824), Christ Led from Pilate, ca. 1789, black chalk on off-white laid paper.
Snite Museum of Art: Gift of Mr. John D. Reilly ’63, 2000.074.007.

So far, the exhibition has travelled from the Snite Museum to the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, Mich., and will be featured at the Crocker Art Museum in California next year. Through the efforts of Lynn Boland (the Georgia Museum of Art’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art), the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, GMOA has secured a spot in its schedule for The Epic and the Intimate, and the collection will be on display at the museum from August 18 until November 3 of this year.