The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College

July 13, 2013 - June 8, 2014

THE ALFOND-LUNDER FAMILY PAVILION,LUNDER WING

In 2007 Peter and Paula Lunder, longtime benefactors of Colby College, promised their collection of more than 500 works of art to the Colby College Museum of Art. The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College, installed in the new Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion and the Lunder Wing, commemorates the formal transfer of this extraordinary gift to Colby. The exhibition presents more than 280 works from the Lunder Collection and showcases the collection's strengths in 19th and 20th-century American and contemporary art. On view will be paintings and works on paper by American masters George Caleb Bingham, George Catlin, John La Farge, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, George Inness, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O'Keeffe, sculptures by Augustus Saint Gaudens, Frederick Remington, Paul Manship, Elie Nadelman, and Alexander Calder, and important contemporary works by Romare Bearden, Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, John Chamberlain, Jenny Holzer, and Maya Lin. The exhibition also includes more than 30 prints and paintings by James McNeill Whistler. These works are drawn from the Lunder Collection's deep Whistler holdings, which comprise the largest single collection of work by this pivotal artist to be given to an American academic museum to date.  The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated book of collection highlights, with essays by noted curators and art historians.

Spaces & Places: Chinese Art from the Lunder-Colville Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

July 13, 2013 - June 8, 2014

UPPER JETTÉ GALLERIES

Curated by Ankeney Weitz

Spaces & Places presents Chinese artworks from the rich holdings of the Lunder-Colville Chinese Art Collection at Colby College and the world-renowned collection of Chinese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. By featuring works that were displayed in the imperial court, private residences, temples, and tombs, the exhibition demonstrates how art enlivened these spaces and created meaning within four very different realms of visual culture. A wide range of objects drawn from all periods of premodern China—from paintings to ceramics, textiles to sculptures—allows viewers to appreciate and understand art’s power and varied purposes in specific contexts.  

American Weathervanes from a Distinguished Maine Collection

July 13, 2013 - June 8, 2014

SAGE GALLERY

The wind is our most immediate predictor of weather, an endlessly fascinating phenomenon for human observation and discussion. The practice of gauging wind direction dates as far back as ancient Greece, and decorative weathervanes were common on churches in medieval Europe. Early settlers brought the tradition to America, where it evolved from its religious and scientific roots to become a thriving, creative industry and a means for self-expression. The works in this exhibition, drawn from a private collection in Maine, represent some of the finest designs and iconic forms of the late nineteenth century, the heyday of weathervane production.

Alex Katz: A Matter of Light

July 13, 2013 - September 15, 2013

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

Curated by Diana Tuite

Whatever the medium in which he works, artist Alex Katz endeavors to record his experience of optical sensations. Featuring an array of prints, drawings, and paintings from the permanent collection, this installation demonstrates Katz’s study of light and shadow and, especially, their relationships to flat color. In his depiction of windows ablaze within a dark façade, for example, or sunlight striking a figure's head and shoulders, Katz succeeds in rendering light with extraordinary materiality.

Please note: A Matter of Light will close temporarily from March 31 through July 12 during reinstallation of the Museum. The exhibition will re-open on July 13 and remain on view through September 15, 2013.

“A Thing Alive”: Modern Views from the Marin Collections

July 13, 2013 - September 29, 2013

DAVIS GALLERY

Writing in 1913, John Marin declared, “a work of art is a thing alive.” He continued, “Thus the whole city is alive; buildings, people, are all alive; and the more they move me the more I feel them to be alive.”

Marin’s words guide this selection of works drawn from the John Marin Collection and the Norma B. Marin Photography Collection. The exhibition features Marin’s abstracted cityscapes and landscapes as well as photographs of urban and rural subjects by Berenice Abbott, Eugène Atget, Alfred Stieglitz, and others. Presenting exhilarating views of New York skyscrapers alongside delicate renderings of coastal Maine, A Thing Alive reflects on the bold changes that occurred in twentieth-century artistic representations of the natural and built environment.

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

July 13, 2013 - October 13, 2013

LOWER JETTÉ GALLERIES

Prepared by Frederick Fisher and Partners, Process & Place explores the contextual, collaborative, and place-envisioning process by which the Los Angeles-based architecture firm arrived at the design of the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion, a newly completed, 26,000-square-foot addition to the Colby College Museum of Art. The exhibition consists of source imagery dedicated to the core concepts that guided the Pavilion’s development. It also includes a time-lapse video documenting the construction, renderings of the Museum’s master plan, and information on the Pavilion’s sustainable design strategies.