Schmucker Art Gallery
A Portrait of the Artist, 1525-1825: Prints from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (Main Gallery)
Curated by Cyndy Basil ’25 and Isobel Debenham ‘25
September 4 – December 14, 2024
Gallery Talks and Opening Reception: September 4, 4-6 pm
Lecture: “‘Extravagant genius’? A Portrait of the Artist,” by James Clifton, Director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, September 18, 4 pm, followed by a reception until 6 pm
Consisting of fifty-one prints on loan from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this exhibition examines how artists depicted themselves and their profession from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The show includes artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Salvator Rosa, William Hogarth, Claude Lorrian, and Francisco Goya, among others. Created during a period when the social status of artists was in flux, the prints represent both artists’ lives and work and the roles that both artists and the arts held in society. Full of allegory and rich in satire, the works include self-portraits, representations of artists at work, and exhibition and academy spaces.
This exhibition was curated by Cyndy Basil, ’25, under the direction of Gallery Director Sarah Kate Gillespie, and Kolbe Summer Scholar Isobel Debenham, ’25, under the direction of Professor Felicia Else, Art History.
Violet Oakley: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania (Project Space)
Curated by Sarah Louise Huebschen ‘26
September 4 – November 9, 2024
Gallery Talk and Opening Reception: September 4, 4-6 pm
Curated by Sarah Louise Huebschen ’26, the spring 2024 Susan ’77, and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, this exhibition features twelve prints by Pennsylvania artist Violet Oakley (1874-1961). Created in 1922, the silkscreens represent two cycles of her earlier murals located at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. The series for the Governor’s reception room depicts the history of the state, celebrating the principles of nonviolence, equality, and liberty of conscience Oakley admired. The second series is after Oakley’s murals in the Senate Chamber, titled “The Creation and Preservation of the Union.” These prints show scenes from American history, including President Lincoln at Gettysburg, as well as allegorical depictions of unity.