I discovered a stack of Polaroids in the “Loans” file for the 1984 exhibition Southwestern Weaving Traditions: Past and Present. The images feature rugs and blankets being held up by their owners (I can only assume), and views of the items in the homes of the lenders. I’m not sure whether these weavings were loaned for the exhibition, but I find the casualness of the snapshots and the vivid (Polaroid-enhanced) colors of the rugs charming in and of themselves.
Exhibitions come and go quickly, so sometimes it’s nice to look back and remember past accomplishments. These are a few of the catalogues we’ve found from exhibitions developed by the University Gallery in the latter half of the 1970s:
Animals from Legend and Life in Antique and German Porcelain, 1977
The Desert: Indian Art of the Southwest,1976
People of the Plains 1820-1850, 1978
Mimbres Painted Pottery, 1979
Once Upon a Time: Illustrations of Children’s Tales from Around the World, 1979
The Mountains of Marsden Hartley, 1979
An Italian artist named Luciano Lattanzi had an exhibition titled “Semantic Paintings and Drawings” at the University Gallery in 1960. While logging his file, I found a mysterious stack of pen drawings, rendered in a spiderweb-like scrawl. These turned out to be made by the artist himself — you can see his signature at the bottom of the images. I realized these were templates for a promotional poster for the show. The file contained a reproduction of the following drawing, so I assume they chose this for the poster:
And here are two of the unused poster designs:
In the fall of 1960, the University Gallery showed 40 master prints by the famed Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. These contact sheets feature images from the opening. Everyone seems to be drinking coffee or tea from tea cups, a tradition I’d rather like to see revived at art openings.
Two gigantic paintings by James Rosenquist and Roy Litchenstein (both painted for the 1964 World Fair) have long been important works in the Weisman Art Museum’s collection. I discovered these newspaper clippings and some small photos from 1966 in the files, which commemorate the first display of these works in Northrop Auditorium, where the University Gallery resided. They had to be laid out on the ground for viewing, as there was no place to hang such large work (and as I gather, they are still a bear to move). Apparently, the paintings were created to represent current American culture at the World’s Fair in New York. Afterward, they were given to the University by the artists, which found a home for them in the Weisman Art Museum.
Following Ruth Lawrence’s retirement in 1957, Sidney Simon, assistant professor of art, was hired as the next director of the University Art Gallery.
Meeting Minutes of the Board of Regents from Nov. 7-8, 1958 (Digital Conservancy) record the details of his appointment:
Sidney Simon appointed as Assistant Professor and Art Gallery Director Sept. 16, 1958 to June 15, 1960 at the rate of $6,235 Term B to read Nov. 16, 1958 to June 15, 1960
Due to Lawrence’s efforts in building the Gallery’s permanent collection over the course of her directorship (1934-1957), Simon would have ample opportunity to feature the University’s collection. A January 3 1961, U of M News Service release (Digital Conservancy) announces the Gallery’s annual permanent collection exhibition,
The choicest jewels of the University of Minnesota gallery – oils by Georgia O’Keeffe, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Dove, Hartley and Feininger, water colors by Marin and Gross, Picasso prints, Kaethe Kollwitz drawings – will be put on public display in Northrop Memorial auditorium Thursday, January 12…
Following the permanent collection exhibition, a January 17th news release (Digital Conservancy) announces the Gallery’s “big show” of the year, “The Eighteenth Century – One Hundred Drawings by One Hundred Artists,” to open on January 23,
Outstanding 18th Century artists whose original works have been borrowed from museums throughout the world include Watteau, Fragonard and Boucher from France; Gainsborough and Romney from England; and Canaletto and Guardi, from Italy as well as numerous works from Germany, Switzerland and Holland… The show, which will hang in the galleries until March 7, is planned as a feature of the 49th annual meetings, in Minneapolis on Jan. 27, 28 and 29, of the College Art Association of America and the 14th annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians…
The works were assembled by University art department faculty, Professor Lorenz E.A. Eitner and Associate Professor Hylton A. Thomas, and were exhibited in the fourth floor gallery of Northrop:
I hadn’t heard of the Belgian painter Pierre Alechinsky before I came upon his file (the University Gallery exhibited his work in 1965), but some of the colorful pieces in the catalog caught my eye.
Another item that caught my attention in the file was a small hand-cut manipulated photo of a face, which I think is Alechinsky himself. There is no indication as to who made it or for what purpose, but it’s quite an interesting little piece.
Photos from the Alechinsky opening, 1965:
Image from the catalog:
In 1959, the University Gallery was looking to bring in some hot young artists from the New York art scene. They wrote to (the now famous) Jasper Johns and his gallerist, Leo Castelli, and managed to put up a show of Johns’ work in 1960 — and this was only two years after Johns had his first solo show in New York. The letter to Johns states:
The University Gallery, on a very modest budget, hopes to be able to initiate a new program which will aim at bringing to the campus a series of small exhibitions of work by New York artists of interest.
Letter to Jasper Johns and a list of the pieces loaned:
Amongst the files that were kept on exhibitions held at the University Gallery, an occasional treat is provided to the processor by the inclusion of photographs of the installation and final appearance of the exhibit. Often intermixed with correspondence and checklists of artwork, these photographs offer us prime examples of exhibit design from the era in which the exhibition was held.
“Materials and Tools of Art,” prepared by Gallery staff, was held from September 29 to October 29, 1947.
A September 16, 1947 news release from the U of M News Service (Digital Conservancy) offers this statement:
“The exhibition will show the materials and tools from which an artist works and will explain how his choice of materials and tools plus his inventiveness and creativeness go into the making of a work of art.”
Fresco
Watercolor, Stone
In 1959, the University Gallery hosted a Japanese flower-arranging demonstration in conjunction with the exhibition “Japanese Prints”, and I discovered this contact sheet documenting the event in the files. I love contact sheets, since they show every shot the photographer took on that roll, prior to editing.
