#wcma

Spring Lee

Deborah Rothschild retires this week after hunting for rocks, getting chased by farm animals, helping incite student dissent, as well as holding out for just the right Picasso for the sake of her job as the Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the WCMA. She told me over coffee that her two passions are working with living artists and researching, "digging like those boars that root for truffles until I find the gems I'm looking for. I love that. I love making the connections that you make when you research thoroughly enough to make them surface. And I got to do them both."

Highlights of working with said living artists, circa 1994, The Rock Fan: "David Hammons – he did the Rock Fan, which people who take Art History 10 still study. He worked improvisationally, and so he came up here and the galleries were empty—there were nothing in them. Which for me, who plans, I [kept saying], 'Well, what are you going to put in them, what are you going to put in them?' And he kept saying, 'Well, we'll see.' I was a nervous wreck, and I said, "What if it doesn't work? What if it's not good?" And he said, "That's okay. Not everything has to be a home run'—which," she breaks into laughter, "which was a really new concept for me. I'm type A, and you know, want to make everything perfect. It was eye-opening.

He did this piece: he placed this huge boulder—and we went together into a field in Adams on a farm for just the right boulder and we were chased by bulls…. I mean, not exactly part of the job description! But we finally got the boulder here and he screwed in about thirty rotary fans and put it right in front of Chapin Hall. And this caused a riot on campus. The students were protesting, it was on the radio, they gathered around complaining that their tuition money was being spent on this—and of course, it wasn't; it was funded by a grant by the Lannan Foundation. I think there was also a little racism involved: he was a black artist. And the piece was this craggy, irregular thing with all these funny fans on it; it looked ugly at first. It got covered in post-it notes: Ban the Fan, I don't want my tuition money going into this, that kind of stuff. And his attitude towards this was just wonderful. 'Poor little guy, he's just been born. It's a new thing on the planet, and anything new at first looks ugly. You guys are gonna have to get used to it.' His idea has to do with flight, it has to do with escape, and ultimately, it's tied into slavery. And his thought was, "Well, when the wind blows, the fans will turn, and the rock will rise up." [Laughter.] Which, of course, was impossible. I mean, this thing was like a ten ton rock, but the concept was beautiful. But he eventually won students over. Working with him was a peak experience.

Tell me about your process setting up an exhibit: First and foremost, it's an art museum, so you need to get the art. The last exhibit [Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy] was very labor-intensive because the cast of characters is so large. It wasn't just Gerald and Sara Murphy, there are all the illustrious friends they had: Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Picasso, Johnathan Parker and Cole Porter and Stravinsky…on and on an on.

Gerald was an artist who produced a very limited body of work, and only seven paintings survive, and it was critical to get all seven—and it was difficult to get all seven. Then we needed a major Picasso, which I call a Sarah-type, which looks like Sarah was an inspiration for it. Not any Picasso would do—I needed just the right one.

Lenders are recalcitrant, and you have to keep going back and not hear 'no.' If I'd had to do this show when I was 20 years younger, it never would have happened. I would have thought it impolite, and I wouldn't have had the perseverence, which I learned.

It was so gratifying because I felt like I'd really come to know [Gerald and Sara, and their group of friends] and see their value in a way I couldn't have done if I hadn't done everything—read the letters, gone through the archives.

You must be on to bigger and better things: what are you up to next after that laundry list of impossible tasks?

WCMA Summer School: A Weekly Mashup of Campus Life Crafted by Artist Lexa Walsh Thursdays in July & August

4 pm: Get a healthy dose of academics in the galleries with a mini course led by Williams College faculty.

5-8 pm: A playful taste of Williams culture with artfully curated food and drinks on the patio.

Ongoing: Study up on artists and exhibitions all summer long in our Reading Room!

https://wcma.williams.edu/summer-school-2016/!

WCMA 107 Enlivening Texture & Textile in Art

Deborah Brothers, Costume Designer and Lecturer in Theatre

Thursday, July 7

4 pm

Whether in paint, marble, or graphite, artists’ renderings of texture, form, and movement beckon the viewer to respond with the body. One might imagine reaching out to touch the ruffed collar of a Dutch nobleman, or turning toward the wind cascading through a figure’s gauzy cloak.  In this mini course, we’ll engage the senses in a close study of the ways costume, texture, and material are rendered by artists. Class Format: Workshop Online Registration

The Art & Science of Beer

Thursday, July 7

5 pm on the patio

Chemistry Professor Thomas Smith and local beer brewer Sam Amoroso team up to show you how and why beer tastes as good as it does. Finish off the evening with a glass of homebrew.

WCMA 114 Museum: The Gathering

David Gurçay-Morris, Assistant Professor of Theatre

Thursday, July 14

4 pm

Can art be democratic? Should it be? Is culture the result of a popularity contest, or should some individuals be chosen to represent us and curate our cultural experience? Players will grapple with these, and other questions as they craft their own aesthetic worlds in this immersive performance. Class Format: Performance Online Registration

No Hook, Finger Crook: Finger Crocheting with Seth Koen

Thursday, July 14

5 pm on the patio

Make new friends and some friendly minimalist art with crochet artist Seth Koen. Pick up some yarn, a few new skills, and create a collective work of art.

WCMA 121 Labeling: A History Lesson

Katarzyna Pieprzak, Chair and Professor of Francophone Literature, French Language, and Comparative Literature

Thursday, July 21

4 pm

Museums constantly make decisions about objects and their reception. Which work gets shared? What is displayed alongside it? How are objects written about and analyzed? These decisions impact the way that works of art, knowledge, and even people have been organized over time. Consider the implications of these decisions by creatively re-crafting WCMA and its taxonomies. Class Format: Workshop Online Registration

Food Lab

Thursday, July 21

5 pm on the patio

Get a taste of the role science plays in your kitchen. Artist and chef Lexa Walsh cooks up some surprises on our patio.

WCMA 128 State of the Art/Art of the State

Christina Simko, Assistant Professor of Sociology

Thursday, July 28

4 pm

It isn’t just propaganda that promulgates state agendas. Think through the many ways that art reproduces, resists, or reformulates cultural and political narratives. Delve into works of art from African Art Against the State and put them into conversation with politically significant American art. Class Format: Lecture OnlineRegistration

WTF + WCMA: A Guided Tour

Thursday, July 28

6 pm

Williamstown Theatre Festival actors bring WCMA’s collection to life in this trip through the galleries that makes protagonists of portrait sitters. The tour starts and ends on the patio.

WCMA 104 After Images: Photography and Its Shifting Stories

Emilie Boone, Mellon Curatorial Fellow

Thursday, Aug 4

4 pm

Whether a family snapshot, a document of political trauma, or a visual tool of cultural triumph, every photograph tells a story. The story, though, is far from fixed. How do those stories change over time and how can we account for their shifting meanings? Class Format: Lecture Online Registration

Athletics & Aesthetics: Mini-Golf

Thursday, Aug 4

5 pm on the patio

Perfect your putt with the help of a pro-golfer on our artist-designed mini-golf course on the patio.

WCMA 111 Markets and Museums: The Economics of Aesthetics

Stephen Sheppard, Class of 2012 Professor of Economics

Thursday, Aug 11

4 pm

How do Museum exhibitions and installations impact the art market? Contemplate the intersections between museum and market, aesthetics and economics and contextualize these theories within WCMA’s walls. Class Format: Lecture Online Registration

Dance Class: Salsa!

Thursday, Aug 11

5 pm on the patio

Get moving to the beat with Latin Dance instructor Alan Franco.

WCMA 118 The Aesthetics of Evolution: Natural and Sexual Selection in the Era of Abbott Handerson Thayer

Luana Maroja, Assistant Professor of Biology

Thursday, Aug 18

4 pm

Consider the scientific role that animal coloration plays in natural and sexual selection. Using the now extinct Passenger Pigeon as a start, we will trace the story of how scientific and public acceptance of natural and sexual selection changed over time. Class Format: Lecture Online Registration

WTF + WCMA: The Dinner Party

Thursday, Aug 18

6 pm

What happens when characters from WCMA’s collection leave the museum walls and sit down to dinner? Grab a bite on the patio and find out as the conversation unfolds across centuries and continents with Williamstown Theatre Festival actors! Reserve a Seat Online

WCMA 125 What’s in a Name?: The Politics of Identification in African Art

Michelle Apotsos, Assistant Professor of Art

Thursday, Aug 25

4 pm

What are the implications of identifying an artist as “Unknown” or using the name of a cultural group in the place of an individual artist? Further, what are the politics of identifying a contemporary artist in a way that they contest? Unpack the politics of identity and identification within the shifting roles of African artists from past to present in African Art Against the State. Class Format: Lecture Online Registration

Athletics & Aesthetics: Badminton

Thursday, Aug 25

5 pm on the patio

Get physical as sound artist Crank Sturgeon amplifies the sounds of a live Badminton game. Take part in the game or kick back and listen.

Watch/listen here: