Two days ago, when I was talking, or rather trying to talk, to a group of theater students, words just leaked out of my ears before they could reach my tongue. Talking and writing is hard work. At least for me. That reminds me of what Terre Haute sculptor, Janet Scudder, said about the job [...]
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In The News: 2 Nov 2009
From the Tribune Star Readers’ Forum: Nov. 2, 2009
Swope director helps students discover art
Recently, the sixth-grade art classes at West Vigo Middle School traveled to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for a field trip to discover art. This trip was special, as Brian Whisenhunt, director of the Swope Art Museum joined our group to help [...]
Andy Warhol: The Last Decade
There’s a great exhibit up at the Milwaukee Art Museum now through January 3 2010, Andy Warhol: The Last Decade. This is the first US museum show to look exclusively at the later works of Warhol, an era often overshadowed by the Marilyns, Maos and soup cans of his earlier career. This [...]
Benton and Pollock
Visitors to the Swope admiring Thomas Hart Benton’s painting Threshing Wheat may be surprised to learn that the realist Benton was an influential mentor to abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. An article in the Smithsonian describes their relationship a bit and brings up some interesting points about Pollock’s work.
The author of the article, Henry Adams, suggests [...]
The Forger’s Spell
Recently, a painting at the Met has been reattributed to Velazquez. The painting, a portrait of a man in his 30s appropriately known as “Portrait of a Man”, initially entered the museum as a Velazquez in 1949, and some 30 years later it was demoted when experts declared that it was the work of a [...]
Interview with Ismael Muhammad Nieves on Graffiti
Ismael Muhammad Nieves (Ish) is the guest curator for “Heartland Graffiti: writers from the Midwest” on view at the Swope October 2, 2009-January 2, 2010. This is an interview conducted by Swope Curator Lisa Petrulis. The exhibition opens as part of October’s first Friday events and Ish will be on hand to talk about the [...]
Preparation and Programming for “Print Shop”
Here I am, fresh, young and encourageble and I have been given the task of curating four exhibitions on printmaking. Perhaps my background should be mentioned; I have a Bachelor of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (with printmaking as my major area of study) and a Master of Fine [...]
My Top Five
In keeping with the great and grand tradition of listing my top five _____(fill in the blank). I have decided to share my top five movies. Why here, why now, what has brought this on, you ask? The recent release of “The Watchmen” has had me thinking about my top five’s of a lot [...]
Swope Book Club: To Kill A Mockingbird
Last week, I reread To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee in order to prepare for the Swope Book Club discussion. We have a book club as part of our First Friday event and select texts related to works of art in the Museum’s collection. Mockingbird was selected because of a special exhibition [...]
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
I started my day thinking I would write about the film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The adapted memoir of Jean-Dominique Beauby, former editor of Elle. It was the most visually interesting film I have seen in a long time. It is shot from Beauby’s perspective, literally seen through his eyes, as he struggles [...]
