The annual Senior Art Exhibition which brings together art by Colby seniors who have completed extensive work in their medium.
Jessica Acker Bryan Brown Kerry Hanney Steve Holt Sara Hutchins Caitlin R. Leibenhaut Jared Luther Lucie Miller Nicholas Nassikas Shagin Jessica Suarez Jamie M. Warner
John Coffer (American, b. 1952)
“Emma” Turning Sorghum Press, 2006
Tintype, 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (16.5 x 21.6 cm)
John Coffer, "Photographist"
March 19, 2009 - June 7, 2009
UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES
This is the first solo museum exhibition of the contemporary photographer John Coffer, who has pioneered the rediscovery of early photographic techniques, particularly the wet-plate collodion process of the tintype. Coffer, who lives without modern conveniences in upstate New York, has made daily life his subject, documenting in loving detail the arduousness and joy of a reimagined nineteenth-century life. Works on view are drawn entirely from the museum’s Lunder Collection.
Unknown Photographer
Portrait of Arthur J. Roberts, Colby President, 1908-1927
Dry-plate glass negative, 7 x 5 in. (17.8 x 12.7 cm) Colby College Special Collections
From Salt- to C-Prints: Photographic Methods & Materials
March 19, 2009 - June 7, 2009
UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES
Curated by Gary Green
Organized to coincide with John Coffer, "Photographist," this exhibition will present a survey of photographic processes developed and employed prior to the present era of digital photography. On view will be historical examples of the daguerreotypes as well as the principal wet- and dry-plate photographic print techniques. The exhibition will also include a selection of works by contemporary artists who continue to use traditional photographic methods and materials.
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987)
Screen Test: Ann Buchanan, 1964
16mm film, black-and-white, silent, 4 minutes at 16 frames-per-second
Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol made 472 silent black-and-white cinematic portraits. This exhibition presents an ongoing projection of 10 Screen Tests—as these seminal works are known—in conjunction with Warhol’s Polaroid and black-and-white photographs. Photographs functioned as source images for the artist’s silkscreen paintings and, with his films, they constitute a comprehensive documentation of his diverse circle of acquaintances. The photographs are selected from the 150 Warhol photographs that were given to the Colby Museum in 2007 by the Photographic Legacy Program of the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Hannah Collins (British, b. 1956)
Beshencevo: A Current History, 2006 (detail)
Single-channel video with sound, 57 min.
Hannah Collins: A Current History
February 5, 2009 - May 27, 2009
THEATER GALLERY
A recent purchase and partial gift of the Alex Katz Foundation, Hannah Collins’ Beshencevo: A Current History is a highly evocative retelling of one day in the life of a family in a remote village in central Russia. Through a series of interwoven visual fragments including stark landscapes and contemplative domestic scenes, striking contrasts emerge between the realities of Post-Soviet life and the timeworn conventions of a traditional settlement.
Zhang Rocheng (China, 1722-1770)
The Summer Palace at Jehol (detail), 18th century
Ink and colors on silk, 183 1/2 x 20" Colby College Museum of Art
Ink Tales: Chinese Paintings from the Collections of the Museums of Bowdoin and Colby Colleges
January 22, 2009 - March 22, 2009
TEACHING GALLERY
Ink Tales, the result of a collaborative project by students at Colby and Bowdoin Colleges, features Chinese paintings drawn from the collections of both institutions. The exhibition, held simultaneously on both campuses, explores the variety of stories associated with the images, formats, and functions of Chinese paintings.
For more information, visit the web exhibition here.
Extended through Sunday, March 22.
Bevin Engman
Due East at the Pamet, 2006
Oil on panel, 7 x 11"
Bevin Engman: New Work
January 20, 2009 - March 8, 2009
UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES
Colby Associate Professor of Art Bevin Engman presents paintings, collages, and source photographs drawn from her recent explorations of the land, sea, and sky. These “quotes” from the environment of Cape Cod, where the artist spent her childhood and recently returned to paint, capture the inherent abstraction of the subject through subtle compositions of color and form.
Harriett Matthews
Agia Theodora in Vasta, 2008
Cast bronze and cherry wood, 10 1/2 x 12 inches
Fall Faculty Exhibition
November 13, 2008 - January 18, 2009
LOWER JETTÉ GALLERIES
The Fall Faculty Exhibition presents an opportunity to view recent work by Colby College faculty members Bonnie Bishop, Bevin Engman, Gary Green, Maggie Libby, Harriett Matthews, Abbott Meader, Nancy Meader, Garry Mitchell, Scott Reed, and Barbara Sullivan.
Hiraki Sawa
Migration, 2003
Still from single-channel video (7:10). Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York
Hiraki Sawa
November 6, 2008 - January 25, 2009
THEATER GALLERY
This exhibition presents three videos by the London-based, Japanese-born artist Hiraki Sawa. At once playful and meditative, Sawa’s works show imaginary, often miniaturized worlds animated by such seemingly incongruous elements as airplanes aloft in an otherwise mundane apartment, running and walking figures that evoke the early photographic movement studies of Eadweard Muybridge, and the shadowy silhouettes of animals placidly but persistently en route to somewhere else.
James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903)
Study (Maud Franklin), 1878
Lithograph, 10 5/8 x 8 1/16" The Lunder Collection
Whistler & the Figure: Prints from the Lunder Collection
November 1, 2008 - May 31, 2009
GOURLEY GALLERY
Curated by David Becker
Throughout his career, James McNeill Whistler was preoccupied with portraying the human figure. Though best known for his elegant and enigmatic oil portraits of society notables and – of course – his own mother, he also executed many smaller-scale figural works within the private space of his home and studio and the public spaces of city and countryside. This selection from the more than two hundred Whistler etchings and lithographs in the Lunder Collection focuses on the artist’s equally keen perception of the figure from near and far.
t s Beall
Landing Sequence from Predator UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), Iraq, 2004
Video still
Currents5: t s Beall
October 9, 2008 - February 1, 2009
DAVIS GALLERY
In the fifth installment of currents, an annual solo exhibition dedicated to the work of an emerging artist with connections to Maine, the Colby College Museum of Art presents Here Be Dragons (2008), a new video installation by t s Beall, an American artist living in Glasgow who attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2003. The exhibition consists of a single watchtower surmounted by a rotating platform outfitted with video projectors. From it, circular, scope-like video sequences of landscape imagery drawn from desolate outposts and contested areas are projected onto the walls of the gallery.
Ivory, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 71.287, acquired by Henry Walters, 1922
Realms of Faith: Medieval Art from the Walters Art Museum
September 7, 2008 - January 4, 2009
UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES
Curated by Véronique B. Plesch, Professor of Art and David L. Simon, Ellerton and Edith Jette Professor of Art
Drawn from one of the largest and finest medieval art collections in the United States, this exhibition of rare and beautiful objects dating from the sixth to the fifteenth century focuses on Christian liturgical practices and personal devotion during one of the most fascinating periods in world history. This exhibition was organized by The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
For a downloadable pdf of programs and events, click here.
John La Farge, American (1835-1910)
Agathon to Erosanthe (Votive Wreath), 1861
Oil on canvas, 23 x 13" The Lunder Collection
Permanent Collection and Highlights from the Lunder Collection
Reopening Spring 2010
LUNDER WING
On an ongoing basis, the Colby Museum presents selections from the full range of its holdings in American art alongside highlights from the Lunder Collection. Concentrated in the gracious galleries of the Lunder Wing are early American portraits, 19th century master works in landscape, still life, and sculpture, as well as superb examples of genre scenes and folk art, and exemplary paintings and sculptures from early twentieth century American modernism. Arranged chronologically and by subject, the Colby Museum’s permanent collection galleries offer a comprehensive introduction to American art with an emphasis on regional themes characteristic of Maine and New England. Prominently featured is the James McNeill Whistler Collection, part of the Lunder gift. Permanent collection and Lunder Collection works from the mid-20th century to the present, many of which are large in scale, appear in the Jetté Galleries. The Colville Collection of Early Chinese Art, another component of the Lunder gift, is also on view.
