Process & Place: Exploring the Design Evolution of the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion

November 8, 2011 - March 30, 2013

LOWER JETTÉ GALLERIES

Currently under construction, the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion will open in the summer of 2013, marking the capstone event of Colby College’s bicentennial celebration. When complete, the new 26,000-square-foot addition will accommodate the Colby Museum’s growing collection as well as its administrative offices, education and outreach programs, and art studios for foundation and photography courses. The Pavilion will also function as the Museum’s primary entrance.
 
Presentations of new building projects typically feature finished designs in the form of plans and models. This exhibition, prepared by Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects, takes a different approach, exploring the contextual, collaborative, and place-envisioning process by which the Los Angeles-based firm arrived at the Pavilion’s design.

Rediscoveries 1: New Perspectives on the Permanent Collection

November 8, 2011 - January 22, 2012

LOWER JETTÉ GALLERIES

Curated by David Simon

Founded on the belief that a museum is a platform for new ideas from diverse perspectives, Rediscoveries, an ongoing exhibition series, presents rotating selections from the permanent collection chosen by members of the Colby College community. Representing a wide range of disciplines, interests, and areas of expertise, guest curators include Colby faculty, students, staff, and friends of the Museum.

Rediscoveries 1 has been curated by David Simon, Ellerton and Edith Jette Professor of Art.

American Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White

July 9, 2011 - October 2, 2011

UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES,DAVIS GALLERY

In the 1930s, photographers pushed the genre of documentary photography to the forefront of public culture in the United States and onto the walls of newly opened museums and art galleries. This exhibition, focusing exclusively on the work of American photographers Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, and Margaret Bourke-White, provides new insights into that historic development. Organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Colby Museum, the exhibition comes to Waterville after its display at the Amon Carter and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibiting Whistler: A Tribute to David P. Becker

June 16, 2011 - October 2, 2011

THEATER GALLERY

A Bowdoin College alumnus and longtime resident of Portland, David P. Becker (1947–2010) was also an internationally recognized print scholar and curator. Selected from the Lunder Collection by guest curator Susan Schulman, this tribute exhibition celebrates Mr. Becker’s passion for the print medium, his impeccable connoisseurship, and his work as guest curator, beginning in 2006, of several Whistler exhibitions at the Colby Museum.

Andrew Moore: Detroit Disassembled

June 2, 2011 - October 2, 2011

TEACHING GALLERY

Organized to coincide with American Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White, this exhibition presents seven works—all recent gifts to the collection—from Andrew Moore’s Detroit Disassembled series. Made between 2008 and 2009, these highly detailed color photographs capture the citywide impact of Detroit’s industrial decline and the gradual encroachment of nature on the city most associated with American mobility.

Senior Art Exhibition

May 5, 2011 - May 22, 2011

LOWER JETTÉ GALLERIES,TEACHING GALLERY

The annual Senior Art Exhibition which brings together art by Colby seniors who have completed extensive work in their medium. 

Maegan Beinoras
Patrick Burns
Katherine Gagnon
Madeline Gordon
Elizabeth Hathaway
Hopestill Kraft
Heather Liu
Samantha Richens
Michelle Russell
Jenna Sood
Allison Stroud
Emily VanWyk

Celebrating a Gift: The Norma B. Marin Photography Collection

April 14, 2011 - October 2, 2011

SOUTHEAST GALLERY

Norma B. Marin began collecting photographs in 1970, gradually acquiring works by such major practitioners as Berenice Abbott, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Charles Sheeler, Lee Friedlander, Harry Callahan, and André Kertész. In the spring of 2011, Norma Marin promised her collection to the Museum, dramatically transforming the breadth and depth of its photography offerings. This exhibition presents a selection from the collection, which is distinguished by its vintage prints and its wide range of subjects.

Susan Hiller: The J. Street Project

March 3, 2011 - June 12, 2011

DAVIS GALLERY

After noticing a street in Berlin called Judenstrasse (Jews Street) in 2002, the artist Susan Hiller spent three years attempting to document all the places in Germany whose names still showed evidence of their former Jewish inhabitants. The J. Street Project includes an installation of 303 photographs, a 67-minute video, and a map and book documenting these sites.

The Joan Whitney Payson Collection with Works from the Permanent Collection

February 3, 2011 - June 12, 2011

THEATER GALLERY

The Colby College Museum of Art presents five world-class works of art from The Joan Whitney Payson Collection, on biennial loan from the Portland Museum of Art, exhibited in conjunction with works from the Colby Museum's collection.  This impressive collection includes paintings by Gustave Courbet, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Alfred Sisley.

Alex Katz: Drawings

January 27, 2011 - October 2, 2011

THE PAUL J. SCHUPF WING FOR THE WORKS OF ALEX KATZ

Selected from the Alex Katz Collection, this exhibition offers an overview of Alex Katz’s drawing practice, from ink sketches to carefully finished graphite drawings constituted by the effects of light and pose.

Clemens Kalischer: Displaced Persons

January 13, 2011 - June 12, 2011

UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES

In 1947 and 1948, Clemens Kalischer (b. 1921, Germany) photographed World War II refugees from Europe as they awaited immigration processing in New York City. These photographs became Kalischer’s Displaced Persons series, one of his first assignments as a young photojournalist. Having entered the United States via the same route in 1942, Kalischer understood his subjects well. Drawn from the Lunder Collection, this selection from the series shows travelers in varying states of weariness and expectancy at the threshold of a new life.

Scott Reed: Characters

January 13, 2011 - March 20, 2011

UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES

Associate Professor of Art Scott Reed describes the imagery in his ink drawings as comprising "Worlds within worlds, personalities within personalities, characters all."

Little Elegies: The Art of Nineteenth-Century Mourning

November 18, 2010 - October 2, 2011

DE FERRARI GALLERY

Drawn from the Museum's collections, this exhibition presents paintings, texts, and objects created to assuage grief, memorialize the dead, and remind viewers of religious beliefs during a period when death was an ever-present part of American life.

Inspired by Buddhism: Asian Art from the Permanent Collection

November 18, 2010 - October 2, 2011

GOURLEY GALLERY

Inspired by Buddhism showcases Colby's strong holdings in Asian art, including works from the Lunder Collection, with objects from Cambodia, China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan.

currents6: Gina Siepel

November 4, 2010 - February 13, 2011

DAVIS GALLERY

The currents series provides solo exhibition opportunities for emerging artists with connections to Maine. currents 6 presents process- and performance-based works by Gina Siepel, including the artist's hand-built river workboat based on the traditional bateau and video documentation of her trips along the Kennebec River with a series of "guides"—individuals invited by the artist to share their expertise and personal reflections on the river. The exhibition also features Siepel's photographic restagings of Winslow Homer's iconic images of wilderness guides and videos exploring often overlooked historic markers and their surrounding environments. Commissioned by the Colby Museum, the installation by Siepel—a graduate of the Maine College of Art and alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture—reconsiders the artist's role in society and creates what she describes as "living links" to the past.

Fall Faculty Exhibition

November 4, 2010 - January 2, 2011

UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES

The Fall Faculty Exhibition presents an opportunity to view recent work by Colby College faculty members Bevin Engman, Gary Green, Maggie Libby, Harriett Matthews, Abbott Meader, Nancy Meader, Garry Mitchell, and Scott Reed.

Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art

June 1, 2010 - October 7, 2011

LOWER JETTÉ GALLERIES,TEACHING GALLERY

On view this summer is a dynamic group of new acquisitions in a wide range of media, including paintings by Bob Thompson, David Salle, Helmut Federle, and Nicole Wittenberg, all gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation; print purchases by Julie Mehretu, Vija Celmins, and Lee Bontecou made possible by Lindsay Leard Coolidge ’78; sculptures by Louise Nevelson and Kiki Smith from the Lunder Collection; and a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois on loan from Barbara and Ted Alfond.

The Search for Beauty: Whistler and His Time

May 20, 2010 - January 28, 2011

THEATER GALLERY

A leading figure of the Aesthetic movement, James McNeill Whistler valued beauty and “art for art’s sake.” Primarily composed of works from the Lunder Collection, this exhibition considers Whistler in the context of other 19th-century artists who similarly embraced Aesthetic ideals.

Photographs from the Collection of Norma B. Marin

March 25, 2010 - April 3, 2011

SOUTHEAST GALLERY

Organized in collaboration with Gary M. Green, Assistant Professor of Art, this exhibition will present black-and-white photographs by American modernists from the collection of Norma B. Marin. Featured artists include Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz, and Paul Strand, among others.

Permanent Collection and Highlights from the Lunder Collection

January 6, 2000 - October 7, 2011

LUNDER WING

On an ongoing basis, the Colby Museum presents selections from the full range of its holdings in American art alongside highlights from the Lunder Collection. Concentrated in the gracious galleries of the Lunder Wing are early American portraits, 19th century master works in landscape, still life, and sculpture, as well as superb examples of genre scenes and folk art, and exemplary paintings and sculptures from early twentieth century American modernism. Arranged chronologically and by subject, the Colby Museum’s permanent collection galleries offer a comprehensive introduction to American art with an emphasis on regional themes characteristic of Maine and New England. Prominently featured is the James McNeill Whistler Collection, part of the Lunder gift. Permanent collection and Lunder Collection works from the mid-20th century to the present, many of which are large in scale, appear in the Jetté Galleries. The Colville Collection of Early Chinese Art, another component of the Lunder gift, is also on view.

Alex Katz Collection

January 1, 2000 - October 7, 2011

PAUL J. SCHUPF WING

The Paul J. Schupf Wing for the Works of Alex Katz presents rotating selections from the Colby Museum’s comprehensive holdings of paintings, painted sculptures, and works on paper by this renowned American artist. On view are numerous examples of Katz’s iconic figurative works, including the monumental painting Pas de Deux from 1983, a gift from Paul J. Schupf in honor of Hugh J. Gourley III, director emeritus of the museum. Also featured are Katz’s expansive landscapes and cityscapes, paintings that capture qualities of light and aspects of the seasons with astounding economy and assuredness. Other highlights of the Katz Collection on view include the artist’s cut-out metal portraits and standing figures, painted front and back for a playful display of flatness in three dimensions.

John Marin Collection

January 1, 2000 - October 7, 2011

OSHER GALLERY

The John Marin Collection at the Colby College Museum of Art displays a retrospective collection of paintings, watercolors, drawings, etchings, and photographs by this important American modernist. Twenty-four works spanning the artist’s career from 1888 to 1953 were given to the museum in 1973 by John Marin Jr. and Norma B. Marin. An additional work was given in 1992, and in 1998 Norma Marin made a promised gift of 29 etchings by Marin and seven vintage photographs of Marin, including a platinum print by Alfred Stieglitz. The complete collection of Marin works is presented on an ongoing basis in two dedicated galleries of the Lunder Wing.