Recent exhibits
College Humor to Italian Tesserae: Celebrating the Centennial of James S. Watrous
August 1 - September 30, 2008
Marking the centennial of James S. Watrous (1908-1999), the exhibit looks at the many contributions of this artist and art historian to the UW campus. The exhibit was inspired by John Dobbertin, a collector of college humor magazines, and Lynne Watrous Eich, daughter of James Watrous. During his student days in the early 1930s, “Jimmy Watrous” illustrated a number of covers and cartoons for the campus magazine called Octopus. A few years later, he worked as a muralist for the government sponsored Public Works Art Project (PWAP) and frescoed the walls of the Paul Bunyan Room in the Memorial Union, creating striking images of that large lumberjack of folklore fame and Babe the Blue Ox. As a doctoral candidate, Watrous studied with the noted German art historian Oskar Hagen, earning his Ph.D. in 1939, at which time he joined the Department of Art History until his retirement in 1976. His interest in art flourished in the 1950s when he travelled to Italy to study mosaic techniques. Using small tesserae of colored Venetian glass, he created memorable mosaics for buildings on campus (Vilas Hall, Memorial Union, Ingraham Hall, and the Social Sciences Building). His major publications include The Craft of Old-Master Drawings (1957), and A Century of American Printmaking, 1880-1980 (1984), both published by the University of Wisconsin Press. As chairman of the building committee, he played a key role in the planning and construction of the new Elvehjem Art Center, which opened in 1970. The exhibit displays photographs, books and realia from the University Archives, the Kohler Art Library and the Watrous family. The exhibit is mounted in conjunction with exhibits on college humor magazines at the Memorial Union and Department of Special Collections (Memorial Library) during August and September.
Curated by Lyn Korenic, director, Kohler Art Library, and David Null, director, University Archives.
Blooming Books
June 18 - July 31, 2008The books in these cases all explore the beauty and wonder of nature found in flowers, trees, blossoms and leaves. The colors of summer, the burst of a bud, the growth of a vine, and the potential of a seed are all evident in these wonderfully inventive artists' books. A variety of book structures and bindings are used to explore this theme: pop-up, tunnel, accordion, interlocking forms and concertina, among others. And what's a plant community without bugs? They're here for your viewing pleasure as well!
The books are on exhibit at the Kohler Art Library from June 18-July 31, 2008.
Curated by Lyn Korenic.
Sketchbooks: Selections from the Kohler Art Library
February 18 - May 19, 2008One can almost see the hand of an artist by looking at a sketchbook. Artists use sketchbooks to quickly capture a fleeting moment depicted in a scene, face, impression, interior view, animal, rambling thought (doodle), or general idea. Sketchbooks come in all sizes, but for the most part they are portable and accompany the artist to local sites or faraway places. Facsimiles have been published to reproduce the exact sketchbook and/or pages of the sketchbook used by the artist. Smudges, rips, stains, and stray marks are all reproduced to match the original artifact. The art library has a growing collection of these facsimiles, such as the sketchbooks of Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Paul Klee, and Le Corbusier, among others. Contemporary book artists such as Henrik Drescher and Susan Bee incorporate a sketchbook-like quality in their work with splashes of dazzling color and playful line drawings. All of the sketchbooks on display show work that is “in the moment” and unrehearsed. They are fresh, vibrant, and great fun to view! This exhibit is a corollary to the “Workbooks” exhibit currently on display in Memorial Library, Special Collections. Both exhibits run from February 18 – May 19, 2008.
Curated by Lyn Korenic.
The Scientist's Eye: Dialogues between Art & Science
an exhibition of artist and rare books from the Kohler Art Library and Special Collections (Memorial Library)
January 14 - February 16, 2008
The disciplinary division between the visual arts and the natural sciences was not always as strictly demarcated as our contemporary academic conventions might suggest; rather, the line between art and science was blurry, by preference and necessity. Many prime movers of the Scientific Revolution, including Copernicus, Vesalius, Hooke and Descartes saw the visual arts as an essential piece of scientific inquiry and the dissemination of knowledge. The motivation behind The Scientist’s Eye: Dialogues between Art & Science is to explore the visual discourse between artistic expression and scientific inquiry. Many rare books from Special Collections and artists’ books from the Kohler Art Library dialogue directly with one another, creating a transhistorical conversation that indicates the profound interactions between the arts and sciences.
The Scientist's Eye is presented in conjunction with "Visualizing Science," an interdisciplinary conference organized by the Visual Culture Center at UW-Madison. For more information about VCC events, please visit www.visualculture.wisc.edu/events.htm. Funding for The Scientist's Eye is provided by the Department of Art History at UW-Madison.
There will be an exhibition viewing and curators' talk in the Kohler Art Library on February 8 at 3:30-4:00 pm.
This exhibition was co-curated by Amy Noell and Beth Zinsli. Amy Noell is a PhD Student in the Department of Art History at UW-Madison. She studies transnational contemporary art and visual culture. Beth Zinsli is a PhD Student in the Department of Art History at UW-Madison. She studies the global history of photography.