Author Archives: Jennifer Poleon

About Jennifer Poleon

CMA's Digital Communications Manager

Become a Docent at Columbus Museum of Art

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Do you love learning, have a passion for art, and like talking and sharing with others?  The Columbus Museum of Art is recruiting a new docent class for the 2012-2013 year.  Docents are volunteer gallery teachers who guide visitors in thinking, talking, and wondering about art.  They are instrumental in ensuring great experiences for 15,000 K-12 students and many of CMA’s nearly 200,000 annual visitors.

Becoming a docent involves nine months of rigorous training where candidates research and study art in the Museum’s collection, learn touring strategies to match various age groups, and explore educational philosophies. No previous art knowledge is necessary, but curiosity and commitment is required.

Docent candidates must commit to two years of touring and continuing education after successfully completing the nine-month study program. Graduates will join one of the most passionate and dedicated group of volunteers in central Ohio.  Benefits of becoming a docent include curatorial and guest lectures, interactions with contemporary artists, social events and art-focused trips, access to unique museum resources, discounts at the Museum store and cafe, and more.

To learn more, attend one of two docent open houses held on Thursday, June 14 6:00-7:30 pm and Saturday, June 23 10:00-11:30am.  Current docents and museum staff will be on hand to talk more about the program, answer questions, and tour you through the galleries.

For more information and to apply, download the 2012-2013 CMA Docent Information Sheet, then complete a Docent Program Application.

Applications will be accepted through June 30, 2012.  Interviews will commence in mid-July. Individuals accepted into the program will be notified by August 25, 2012.

Please contact Rachel Trinkley, Educator for Docent Programs, at rachel.trinkley@cmaohio.org with additional questions about the program.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Rachel Trinkley, Educator for Docent Programs

Adventure Out: Art Super Heroes

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Adventure Out Celebration
May 5, 2012, 10 AM – 5 PM

What happens when art educators and a museum’s permanent collection intersect with preschoolers? Join us as we celebrate our Adventure Out program, an in-depth art program for preschoolers at OSU’s Schoenbaum Family Center in Weinland Park. In the galleries, experienced facilitators will guide playful conversations about Columbus Museum of Art’s collection. In the studio, families can participate in a special exploration project. Adventure Out is made possible by funding from JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

 

12 for 12: Christopher Ries

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In the next of our 12 for 12 series in celebration of the Columbus Bicentennial, we feature native Columbus glass artist Christopher Ries.

While bow fishing as a child in Little Darby Creek, glass artist Christopher Ries was fascinated by the optical illusions created by light underwater. Ever since, Ries has been seeking to share his discoveries into the mystery of light as revealed through the medium of glass. Guided by this “inner necessity,” a phrase borrowed from Wassily Kandinsky, Ries sought material of increasing optical purity for his sculptures. Having found a lead crystal that transmits 99.8 percent of the light that strikes it, Ries has worked to create larger and more ambitious pieces.

Clearly Ries takes pride in his ability to create monumental pieces from cast crystal blocks. But there is a more profound reason for his fascination with scale. With a grander, more ambitious scale, the viewer can more readlily “enter” the piece and can set up an “I-Thou” relationship with it, eliciting the desired aesthetic and spiritual experience. Through the reflective power of glass, Ries combines his love of nature with his technology skills to create breathtakingly beautiful, deceptively simple, yet complex forms that pull the viewer into an intimate world of images that dance and soar within the sculpture.

Ries grew up on a farm in Central Ohio. He attended OSU and earned a BFA in ceramics and blown glass works, before he went on to earn his MFA at the University of Wisconsin where he assisted Harvey Littleton, the founder of the American Studio glass movement. Ries’ works have been displayed around the world. His major glass piece, Opus, greets travelers at Port Columbus International Airport as they are flying out or coming home. Currently Ries serves as the artist in residency for Schott Glass Technologies in Pennsylvania.

Ries’ work will be part of our upcoming exhibition Celebrating Glass: The 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement, which opens at Columbus Museum of Art on May 11, 2012.

Above image: Lotus by Christopher Ries, 1987.

The Radical Camera Opens in Columbus

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Find out more about our major exhibition, The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936 – 1951, which opens this Thursday April 19, 2012 in Columbus. We co-organized the exhibition with The Jewish Museum, where it premiered this fall to rave reviews. The New York Times calls The Radical Camera “a stirring show.”

Guided by a belief in the transformative power of photography, the Photo League took to the streets in the 1930s and 1940s to record the effects of poverty, war, racial inequality, and social injustice. Artists in the Photo League were known for capturing sharply revealing, compelling moments from everyday life.  Their focus centered on New York City and its vibrant streets – a shoeshine boy, a brass band on a bustling corner, a crowded beach at Coney Island.  Many of the images are beautiful, yet harbor strong social commentary on issues of class, race, and opportunity.  The Radical Camera exhibition explores the fascinating blend of aesthetics and social activism at the heart of the Photo League.

The innovative contributions of the Photo League during its 15-year existence (1936–1951) were significant. As it grew, the League would mirror monumental shifts in the world starting with the Depression, through World War II and ending with the Red Scare. Born of the worker’s movement, the Photo League was an organization of young, idealistic photographers who believed in documentary photography as an expressive medium and powerful tool for exposing social problems. It was also a school with teachers such as Sid Grossman, who encouraged students to take their cameras to the streets and discover the meaning of their work as well as their relationship to it.  The League had a darkroom for printing, published an acclaimed newsletter called Photo Notes, offered exhibition space, and was a place to socialize, especially among first-generation Jewish-Americans.

The first museum exhibition in three decades to comprehensively look at the Photo League, The Radical Camera reveals that the League encouraged a surprisingly broad spectrum of work throughout extraordinarily turbulent times.  The organization’s members included some of the most noted photographers of the mid-20th century—W. Eugene Smith, Weegee, Lisette Model, Berenice Abbott and Aaron Siskind, to name a few.  The Photo League helped validate photography as a fine art, presenting student work and guest exhibitions by established photographers such as Eugène Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Edward Weston, among others.

These affecting black and white photographs show life as it was lived mostly on the streets, sidewalks and subways of New York. Joy, playfulness, and caprice as well as poverty and hardship are in evidence.  In addition to their urban focus, Leaguers photographed in rural America, and during World War II, in Latin America and Europe.  The exhibition also addresses the active participation of women who found rare access and recognition at the League. The Radical Camera presents the League within a critical, historical context. Developments in photojournalism were catalyzing a new information era in which photo essays were appearing for the first time in magazines such as Life and Look.

As time went on, its social documentary roots evolved toward a more experimental approach, laying the foundation for the next generation of street photographers. One of the principal themes of the exhibition is how the League fostered a multifaceted and changing identity of documentary photography, and a move toward a more subjective, poetic reading of life.

In 1947, the League came under the pall of McCarthyism and was blacklisted for its alleged involvement with the Communist Party.  Ironically, the Photo League had just begun a national campaign to broaden its base as a “Center for American Photography.”  Despite the support of Ansel Adams, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, Paul Strand and many other national figures, this vision of a national photography center could not overcome the Red Scare. As paranoia and fear spread, the Photo League was forced to disband in 1951. As ARTnews said in their review, “This long-overdue and well-deserved survey demonstrates the extent to which the Photo League influenced our understanding of documentary photography.”

The exhibition was organized by Catherine Evans, William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography, Columbus Museum of Art and Mason Klein, Curator of Fine Arts, The Jewish Museum.

Following its CMA presentation, The Radical Camera exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (November 15, 2012 – February 24, 2013); and Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (March 16 – June 16, 2013).

Photo: Autorama Top Hats, by Dan Weiner, 1950s, © Estate of Dan Weiner, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio-Museum Purchase with funds provided by Elizabeth M. Ross, the Derby Fund, John S. and Catherine Chapin Kobacker, and the Friends of the Photo League.

A Day in the Life of Graphic Novelist Paul Hornschemeier

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Paul Hornschemeier from thisartist on Vimeo.

 

Join us this Thursday April 5, 2012 for an interview with Paul Hornschemeier, Ohio State University alumnus and author of graphic novels including Mother, Come Home and the New York Times bestselling Life With Mr. Dangerous. Hornschemeier is the first recipient of a new Graphic Novelist Residency, a collaboration between Columbus Museum of Art and Thurber House. The three-week residency, supported by a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, is designed to provide a graphic artist/writer with an opportunity to develop a work-in-progress.

Find out more about Hornschemeier’s creative process during the talk and interview led by comics writer, and blogger Jared Gardner, a professor of English and Film Studies at Ohio State University.

For the past few weeks Hornschemeier has been living in the two-bedroom apartment located in the boyhood home of author and New Yorker cartoonist, James Thurber. He’s given two graphic novel workshops (one for kids and one for adults), as well as continuing to research and produce new work, including some Ohio and Columbus themed drawings.

“We are incredibly excited to be part of this new residency,” said Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director of the Columbus Museum of Art. “It gives us the opportunity to continue the conversation about the place comic art holds in the art world as we deepen our relationship with Thurber House.”

“CMA and Thurber House share a strong commitment to outreach and education within the Columbus community,” said Susanne Jaffe, executive director of Thurber House. “Connecting the visual and written arts through this residency has been a natural partnership.”

In conjunction with his talk, we’ll be displaying a selection of Hornschemeier’s scripts, storyboards, and sketches highlighting his creative process. The 7 pm talk is free with museum admission.

The Art Madness Title Goes To:

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Thanks to everyone who participated in Art Madness, our version of March Madness for Art Lovers. To put together our bracket we selected some of our most beloved pieces from our permanent collection. Each day we posted a new match on Facebook. Just like the March Madness tournament, there were a few Cinderella stories along the way. Photo Leaguer Ida Wyman and her Sidewalk Clock, NYC beat two titans of the art world, first Henry Moore, then Georgia O’Keeffe. Magic Realist George Tooker had his own Cinderella run, easily beating both Russian Expressionist Alexaj Jawlensy, then Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock.

The final came down to two of our most loved pieces: contemporary sculptor Alison Saar’s Nocturne Navigator, the sculpture we commissioned in honor of the Underground Railroad vs. master Impressionist Edgar Degas’ The Breakfast, one of the the highlights of our Sirak Collection.

And the winner and still champion: Degas.

 

 

12 for 12: Ann Hamilton

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Watch Spirituality on PBS. See more from ART:21.

This month we highlight Ann Hamilton in our 12 for 12 Columbus Bicentennial series featuring Columbus artists from the museum’s collections.

MacArthur Fellow Ann Hamilton was chosen as the artist to represent the U.S. at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Hamilton has won any number of other prestigious awards and fellowships, and her work has been shown at more than 60 solo and group exhibitions. She currently lives in Columbus, and is a professor of Art at Ohio State University.

Hamilton often uses her herself and the human figure as a means of exploring perceptual awareness. “Part of making work is to allow those things that perhaps are already there, but not visible to us, and to try and make them visible in a way that they’re experienceable,” says Hamilton of her work.

We could go on and on about Hamilton’s work, but hear more from the Columbus artist herself in this video excerpt from PBS’s Art21 series.

Art Madness

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Introducing Art Madness, our version of March Madness for Art Lovers. To put together our bracket we selected some of our most beloved pieces from four of our strongest collections, as well as a few sleepers. It’s Photography versus Contemporary. Europeans versus the Americans. The Renaissance Region versus the Impressionism Region. Ashcan School Region versus Abstract Expressionism Region. Who will be a bracket buster? Who will come from behind and be the Cinderella of Art Madness? Who will be crowned the Art Madness champion? That’s all up to you. Each day we’ll have a new pairing on Facebook. The artwork with the most likes by the next day at noon will advance on to the next round.

Want to keep track of the winners? Download the Art Madness Bracket.

Please note: just like the NCAA Tournament, the Region a team competes in may be different. i.e. O’Keeffe is not a Renaissance painter. That’s just the region she’s competing in.

SCOUTING REPORT ON THE ART MADNESS TEAMS


A Lady with a Parrot and a Gentleman with a Monkey
by Caspar NetscherDutch portrait artist Netscher’s work is often cited as
a perennial fan favorite among the Columbus Museum of Art permanent collection. Here he uses the penchant for symbolism to great effect: oysters as aphrodisiacs, a feather to indicate pleasure, a monkey to indicate lust.
Autumn Leaves – Lake George, N.Y.
by Georgia O’KeeffePerhaps the most famous female artist of all time, O’Keeffe is a strong contender to win the Big Dance. She changed the art world with her emphasis on color, shape, clean lines, and close-ups that fell somewhere between representation and abstraction like this painting of leaves from her summer home with her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Sidewalk Clock, NYC
by Ida Wyman

Wyman was one of the nearly 100 female photographers of the Photo League, the pioneering documentary photo movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Here Wyman captures the movement and rhythm of the city. Analysis: really knows how to pace her game.
Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped
by Henry Moore

England’s most famous sculptor is known for his sometimes surreal and sensuous sculptures like this iconic piece on the front lawn of the Columbus Museum of Art. Talk about tough: this art can withstand snow, sleet, and heavy winds, and may be hard to beat down the stretch.

Playing Cards and Glass of Beer
by Juan GrisSpanish painter, sculptor, compatriot of Picasso, Gris, was one of one of the founding members of the Cubism movement. Here Gris really pulls his team together with a collage-style painting constructed of real objects combined with painted ones.
Polo at Lakewood
by George BellowsColumbus homeboy Bellows, an OSU athlete and one of the preeminent artists of the Ashcan School, was known for depicting scenes of action like this one, where his slashing brushstrokes contrast with the genteel nature of the crowd. Like his Ohio State alma mater he’s likely to go far in the tournament.

Nocturne Navigator
by Alison SaarThe “Blue Lady” as this artwork is nicknamed, was commissioned by the Columbus Museum of Art as a commemoration to the Underground Railroad. It’s a powerhouse piece beloved by the Columbus community.
Coney Island
by Sid GrossmanGrossman advanced his passion for photography through the Photo League, the pioneering documentary photography movement he founded. He was often cited for his belief that photography could change the world. Grossman’s work (as well as Wyman’s) will be on display as part of our upcoming Radical Camera exhibition, which the New York Times calls “stirring.”

The Swimmer
by Yasuo KuniyoshiJapanese American Kuniyoshi takes his cue from the strong lines and low key colors of 18th- and 19th- century Japanese art. The swimmer is an allusion to bas reliefs of ancient Egypt and Assyria in which sea nymphs often swim among water plants. Will this piece swim its way to victory?
The Breakfast
by Edgar DegasMaster draftsman and Impressionist Degas explored with intensity and pleasure the potential of pastel for spontaneous, sensuous expression. This piece from our renowned Sirak Collection may be quiet and peaceful, however in the art world it remains a beloved, tough contender.

Andalusia
by Henri Cartier-BressonFrench photographer Bresson began as a Cubist painter, and was drawn into the circle of the French surrealists. He’s definitely a clutch player, able to capture what he calls “the decisive moment,” as in this photograph where the boys appear to be enveloped in graffiti.
A Street Called Home
by Aminah RobinsonHometown hero and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Aminah Robinson combines traditional art materials with found objects and everyday materials such as buttons, cloth, leather, twigs, shells, and music box workings. She often works on pieces she calls RagGonNons, art that often takes years to research and continues to evolve as others respond to the works. Home court advantage: Robinson.

Composition with Flames
by Jackson PollockPassionate Pollock revolutionized the art world with his Abstract Expressionist style. The man put his whole body into his painting, which eventually became known as Action Painting. Enough said.
Jill and I
by Tina BarneyConsider Barney the Harvard of the art world. Barney portrays intimate portraits of upper class family and friends like in this haunting photograph. Will Barney and her work be the Cinderella story of Art Madness?

Cornice
by George TookerTooker’s paintings were often psychologically charged, haunting, and mysterious. He was known as a magic realist combining real life with fantasy. Does Tooker’s work have what it takes to go all the way?
Schokko with a Red Hat
by Alexaj JawlenskyJawlensky was a former Russian army officer turned Expressionist painter, and key member of the Blue Rider, an influential group of Russian emigrants and German artists in the early 1900s that also included Jawlensky’s compatriot Kandinsky. Schokko may just ride all the way to victory.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

12 for 12: Aminah Robinson

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(From CMA’s 2011 Aminah Robinson exhibition Street Talk and Spiritual Matters)

In the next in our “12 for 12″ series, our Columbus Bicentennial initiative highlighting Columbus artists from CMA’s permanent collection, we feature Aminah Robinson.

For more than sixty years, Columbus artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson has been creating art inspired by the African concept of Sankofa, understanding the past in order to go forward. Her work reflects the drawing, paper-making, and needlework traditions that she learned from her parents and the training she received in art school. Aminah creates sculpture, large complex work she calls RagGonNons, rag paintings, paintings on cloth, drawings, and books about her family and community, African-American history, her travels, and the stories she has been told by her elders. Her goal is to inspire others to research and document the history of their families and communities and to “pass them on” to the next generation.

When she was asked to illustrate Evelyn Coleman’s manuscript for To Be A Drum, Aminah reflected, “I was touched deeply. I was transported to a past, present, and future that blended together like the sound of beating drums. I saw Africa, the Middle Passage, slavery, the civil-rights struggle, black artists, teachers, and heroes, and always, the children, looking toward tomorrow.” In 2002, the Columbus Museum of Art organized Symphonic Poem, a retrospective exhibition of her work that traveled throughout the United States. In 2004, Aminah was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, given to individuals, “who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.”  In 2008, the Museum launched Aminah’s World, where visitors can learn about Aminah and her work and create their own online art inspired by the artist.  CMA continues to feature the unique work of this artist through continuing exhibitions including 2007′s Along Water Street and our 2011 exhibition Street Talk and Spiritual Matters.

Aminah Robinson Columbus Walking Tour
In much of her art, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson documents the history of the Columbus neighborhoods where she has lived and worked for all of her life. Take a walking tour of the Discovery District where you can see Robinson’s works in the Columbus Museum of Art permanent collection, the State Auto Insurance Garage, and the main staircase of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.



State Auto Garage, Washington Street, just east of CMA
Aminah wrote and illustrated A Street Called Home, an accordion-style book, about the Mt. Vernon Avenue neighborhood where she grew up. In 2005, a group of students from the Columbus College of Art and Design painted this mural based on the art in the book. Look for a school-age Aminah drawing on the sidewalk alongside two artists painting on easels.

Columbus Metropolitan Library, 96 South Grant Avenue
In 1990, Aminah was asked to create a work of art for the main staircase of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The scenes that she depicts are drawn from stories about old Columbus neighborhoods that she heard from her elders as well as from the research she conducted at the library. Look for scenes from the Sells Brothers Circus, the Ohio Theater, the Columbus Dispatch, and the neighborhood known as the Blackberry Patch.

2012 Summer Art Workshops Announced

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Summer Art Workshops provide playful and creative opportunities for children entering preschool through 8th grade. This year’s workshops at the Columbus Museum of Art include everything from dinosaur dioramas and Alice in Wonderland to digital design and guerrilla art.

Preschool (3 years old minimum)
Partnership with Columbus Children’s Theater
Duck, Duck, Mother Goose, July 9-13, 2012
Choose Your Own Wonderland, July 16-20, 2012

Kindergarten-1st Grade
Party Around the World, July 9-13, 2012
Wish You Were Here, July 16-20, 2012

2nd-3rd Grade
Land of the Lost: A Dinosaur Adventure, June 18-22, 2012
A Perfectly Playful Puppet Performance, July 23-27, 2012

4th-5th Grade
Craftin’ Bonanza, June 25-29, 2012
Step Right Up! July 30-August 3, 2012

Ages 8-11
Columbus Children’s Theater Workshop at CMA The Write Stuff, July 23-27, 2012

6th-8th Grade
Digital Design: Creature Feature, July 30-August 3, 2012
Top Secret: Guerrilla Art, August 6-10, 2012

See here for full summer art workshops descriptions at the Columbus Museum of Art. Please note: workshop spaces are limited, so register early.  See here for pricing, details and scholarship information. CMA members get first dibs on Summer Art Workshop classes. Registration opens to the general public March 1, 2012.