|
U.Va.
Art Museum Kicks Off Yearlong Exploration Of American Cultural
Formation With “Jefferson In And Out,” A Look At The
World That Shaped His Cultural Interests
August 5, 2005 --
WHAT: “Jefferson In and Out” Exhibit
WHERE: University of Virginia Art Museum
155 Rugby Road
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 21 – Sunday,
Oct. 10
WHO: Roger Stein, professor emeritus of U.Va.’s McIntire Department of
Art
WHAT: Gallery Talk
WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 29, 2 p.m.
WHERE: U.Va. Art Museum
155 Rugby Road
WHO: Daniel Ehnbom, adjunct curator of South
Asian Art and associate professor, McIntire Department of Art
WHAT: Gallery talk, “South Asian Ragamala Pages”
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 18, 2 p.m.
WHERE: U.Va. Art Museum
155 Rugby Road
The University of Virginia Art Museum kicks off
a yearlong exploration of the formation of American culture with “Jefferson
In and Out,” an exhibit
that focuses on world influences that shaped Thomas Jefferson’s cultural
interests. “Jefferson In and Out” opens at the University of Virginia
Art Museum on Saturday, Aug. 21.
During the years between 1743 and 1826, the
dates of Jefferson’s birth
and death, the world was marked by social upheaval, including the struggle
between monarchy and populace; intellectual wrestling between the rational
and irrational;
and cultural contact between East and West.
“Jefferson In and Out” sites Jefferson’s cultural
interests, a subject explored previously in two museum exhibitions, “Thomas
Jefferson’s
Academical Village” and “Hindsight/Fore-site: Art for the New
Millennium.” Museum director
Jill Hartz wrote in “Siting Jefferson,” the catalog produced for
the latter exhibition, “Jefferson was a cultured 18th-century man who appreciated
the visual and performing arts.”
The works in the exhibition reflect
what was happening during Jefferson’s
lifetime and pair paintings that reveal the complex, fluctuating world
that influenced his cultural vision. Thus, South Asian Ragmala pages
from manuscripts owned by
the upper class are shown alongside Japanese woodblock prints that describe
the life of courtesans whose outsider status is subverted by the proximity
of their
images to text describing noble activity. The neoclassical heroic paintings
by Benjamin West and Angelica Kaufmann highlight the importance of the
state versus
the desires of the populace. These works are juxtaposed with prints by
Francisco Goya, known for his critiques of the state, and a print by
William Pether, which
celebrates the dignity of the working class.
The exhibit is the first
in a yearlong investigation of American cultural formation and explores
the impact that cultural production has on the
way we, as Americans,
construct our sense of self.
Roger Stein, professor emeritus in the
McIntire Department of Art, will give a Gallery Talk in the museum
on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 2 p.m.
For details about the exhibit or information
about the museum, call (434) 924-3592, or visit the museum’s
Web site: http://www.virginia.edu/artmusuem.
Contact: Jane Ford, (434) 924-4298 |