Opening Reception and Dance Performance at the Hillstrom Museum of ArtSeptember 12, 2011 at 7–9 p.m.
The Hillstrom Museum of Art will hold an opening reception 7 to 9 p.m. on Monday, September 12, 2011, for three new concurrent exhibitions: "Comfort Me, Said He, eRecent Work by Kristen Lowe; A Collector's Passion for D??rer's Secrets: the MAGJEKL Collection; and FOCUS IN/ON: Guy P??ne du Bois' Connoisseurs. A special dance performance will be presented in the Museum at 7:30 p.m. during the reception (information below). There will also be a reception for the three exhibitions during the Nobel Conference of Gustavus Adolphus College on October 4 (6-8 p.m.). The exhibitions will remain on view through November 6, 2011.
"Comfort Me, Said He, eRecent Work by Kristen Lowe features a suite of large-scale charcoal and chalk drawings by Gustavus Adolphus College faculty artist Kristen Lowe. Many of the dramatic black and white works are six feet or more in height, and they feature images of sheep set against rich, dark backgrounds. Lowe raises questions in her works regarding (quoting her artist statement) "the metaphorical and mythical potential of the domestic flock and the relationship between these animals and their keepers. e She continues, "What is about to happen; what has happened? Where and when did this or will this take place? e She indicates that she wishes the viewer's perceived illusion of space and time in the works to "remain negotiable and psychologically ambiguous, eand that she wants to see "what will happen formally and what sensation can occur within a heightened paradoxical space of description (fact) and invention (fiction). e/p>
In conjunction with Lowe's exhibition a dance work will be presented, created collaboratively by Melissa Rolnick of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Renee Guittar, senior dance major. Titled Excess and danced by Guittar, it is a site-specific, emotionally-provocative solo dance choreographed in response to Lowe's works and exhibit, set to the music of jazz bass saxophonist Colin Stetson. Excess will be presented in the Museum twice, September 12, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. (during the exhibition's opening reception) and October 4, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. (during the Nobel Conference reception).
Lowe will give public gallery talks in the Hillstrom Museum of Art on Saturday, September 17, at 1:30 and 3:00 p.m., to discuss her work in the exhibit.
A Collector's Passion for D??rer's Secrets: the MAGJEKL Collection debuts a private collection of the works of the great German Renaissance artist Albrecht D??rer (1471-1528). It features around forty engravings and woodblocks by the master, assembled only since 2006 by Connecticut collector Elizabeth Maxwell-Garner. Her passionate devotion has led Garner to systematic study of the artist that has drawn on the expertise of prominent dealers and experts on D??rer and has included intense and methodical study of his works. The collector's close inspection of details of D??rer's works has led her to perplexing discoveries, many of which appear never to have been reported in the literature on the artist. She hypothesizes that some of the artist's prints are interrelated, a concept little explored before, and that they often contain references to persons and events from D??rer's life and times, some previously unrecognized.
In conjunction with A Collector's Passion for D??rer's Secrets, Garner will present a public lecture titled "New Secrets in D??rer's Art, eat 3:30 p.m., October 16, 2011, in Wallenberg Auditorium, Nobel Hall of Science, Gustavus Adolphus College, and she will also present a public gallery talk in the Hillstrom Museum of Art at 7:30 p.m., October 17, 2011.
FOCUS IN/ON: Guy P??ne du Bois' Connoisseurs considers a watercolor titled Connoisseurs by American painter and prominent art critic Guy P??ne du Bois (1884-1958), in another of the Museum's FOCUS IN/ON projects, in which a single work from the Hillstrom Collection is analyzed in depth, in collaboration with a colleague from across the Gustavus Adolphus College curriculum. An essay co-written by Richard Hilbert, Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Donald Myers, Director, Hillstrom Museum of Art, and Instructor, Department of Art and Art History, consider the artist, his career, milieu, and social aspirations, and the sociological implications of interpreting an artwork such as Connoisseurs.
These exhibitions and programs are all free and open to the public. For further information, see the Museum's website at www.gustav