Archives

Of Natural Liberty and Independence: George Catlin’s Portraits of Native Americans

The nineteenth-century painter George Catlin (1796-1872) recorded the appearance and customs of Native Americans for his generation and for posterity. Beginning in 1830, Catlin made numerous trips to the American West to document the “natural liberty and independence” of a disappearing culture. He often presented Native Americans in formal poses prevalent in portraits of the period. They were presented as proof of the commonalties among all people. The nine illustrations in this exhibition are taken from two editions of James Cowles Prichard’s The Natural History of Man. The prints are hand-colored etchings printed on time-toned paper. This exhibition is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, please phone 804.204.2681.

LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free

Code Number: GA-93
Framed Size: 16″ x 20″
Running Feet: 14′
Boxed Weight: 105 lbs.

To supplement the exhibition, we recommend the following related resources available through the Statewide Program. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.

Speakers on the Arts:
(Mis)Perceptions: Truth, Purpose, and Beauty in American Indian Art with Barbara Rothermel
The World of George Catlin with Jeffrey W. Allison

Teacher Workshops:
American Myths of the Wild West

The Classical Past: Greece and Rome

Can you picture the glory and grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome? Athletes contended for victory, fame—and coveted prizes—in the first Olympic games. Trading ships loaded with olive oil, wine, grain, and other goods sailed the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Poets, politicians, playwrights, philosophers, sculptors, architects, and artisans created a legacy that has inspired Western culture throughout the following millennia. In this limited security exhibition, the Classical World comes to life through photographic reproductions of objects chosen from the permanent collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Fourteen panels explore the Classical World, including the development of direct and representative democracy, natural resources, warfare,art,politics, and social structures.

 

They Call It Stormy Weather: How Artists see the Weather and the Seasons

Meteorologists aren’t the only people who watch the sky. So do artists – for ideas, subjects and inspiration. They Call It Stormy Weather explores the numerous ways in which weather and the seasons have inspired artists throughout the ages. From thunderstorms on raging seas to sunny skies above spring fields, artists have responded to weather and other natural forces through a range of media and styles.

Some of the works in this educational exhibition use weather to directly represent a mood or state. Others convey more subtly the reflection of human experience in natural forces, while some reflect the spiritual meaning that weather holds for many artists. The 15 photographic reproductions were selected from the permanent collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. A variety of artists are represented including Japanese woodblock artist, Hiroshige; Vincent Van Gogh; and contemporary American photographer, Joel Sternfeld. While this exhibition is SOL-based and perfect for K-12 students, anyone interested in the changing effects of weather or art history will find the diversity of works fascinating.

This exhibition is one of a variety of exhibitions organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for statewide travel and is supported by the Paul Mellon Fund. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, phone 804.204.2681.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: GA-106
Framed Size: 16″ x 20″
Running Feet: 19.5′
Boxed Weight: 60 lbs.

Uncovering Home: A Visual Essay on Jamestown Archaeology

What’s new on Jamestown Island? Archaeologists from the Jamestown Rediscovery project at Historic Jamestowne are uncovering James Fort’s oldest artifacts, and creating a revised picture of life in the first permanent English settlement in America! This limited security exhibition is perfect for schools, libraries, and art centers.

The exhibition’s 12 panels paint a vivid picture of the struggles of the early colonists, while illustrating critical processes of historical archaeology. Research, images, text, and support materials are being developed with the guidance of Tonia Deetz Rock, Statewide Educational Coordinator for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA).

Are you looking for ways to generate enthusiasm for SOL-related Virginia history, science, and math? Book this exhibition!

LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free

Code Number: GA-99
Panels Size: 22″ x 30″
Running Feet: 26′
Boxed Weight: 130 lbs.

Programming Recommendations
To supplement the exhibition, we recommend the following related resources available through the Statewide Program. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.

Media Resources
DVD:
Life After Île Ste-Croix

Videotapes:
An Englishman’s Home #s: 1. Arundel Castle; 2. Goodwood House; 4. Wilton
The Real Story of Jamestown
The Royal Collection #s: 1. The Collectors; 2. The Kingdom of Nature; 3. Private View; 4. Sword and Scepter; 5. The Genius of Italy; 6. The Regal Image
Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting #3 Baroque to Romanticism

CD-ROMs:
English Architecture
Life in Tudor Times

What’s So Radical About Impressionism?

The word “Impressionism” makes most people think of beautiful, sunlit paintings of the French countryside, glorious gardens and lily ponds, and fashionable Parisians enjoining life in charming cafes. But in 1874, when the men and women who came to be known as the Impressionists first exhibited their work, it was considered shocking and outrageous by all but the most to forward-thinking viewers. Why did these young artists cause such an uproar?

The exhibition and its accompanying classroom educational guide show how their radical ideas, techniques, and subjects broke time-honored rules and traditions of art in late 19th-century France. The exhibitions features twelve large-scale photo reproductions of works from the VMFA collection. Paintings by Eugène Boudin, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pierre August Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Vincent van Gogh are contrasted with an earlier, more traditional style as examplified by Nicholas Poussin.

The classroom educational guide, Outside and Out of the Box: A Guide to Impressionism, accompanies the exhibition and provides educators with lesson plans, additional background information, and six posters to use in the classroom. While this exhibition is SOL-based and perfect for K-12 students, anyone interested in the art of the Impressionists will enjoy the selection of works. The creation and distribution of this exhibition is supported by the Paul Mellon Fund.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, please phone 804.204.2681 or e-mail edpartner@vmfa.museum

LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free

Code Number: GA-110
Size of panels: 16” X 20”
Running Feet: Approx. 20′

To supplement the exhibition, the following related resources available through the Statewide Partnership Program are recommended. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.

Teacher Workshops: They All Came to Paris: An American Fascination

MEDIA RESOURCES

DVDs:
Cezanne in Provence
Claude Monet
Degas
Degas and the Dance
Edgar Degas
Edouard Manet
From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
Impressionist Paintings
The Impressionist Surface
Linnea in Monet’s Garden
Little Dancer Aged 14
Manet
Mary Cassatt: A Brush with Independence
Monet
Paris 1900
Paul Cezanne
Paul Gauguin
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pisarro
Renoir
Seurat
Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre
Vincent Van Gogh

VHS Cassettes:
American Impressionists and Realists
A Day in the Country
Degas: Beyond Impressionism
Impression: Painting Quickly
Impressionists on the Seine
In a Brilliant Light: Van Gogh
In Open Air: American Impressionists
Monet’s Garden at Giverny
Van Gogh: A Stroke of Genius
Van Gogh’s Van Goghs
What is Impressionism?

Outside and Out of the Box: A Guide to Impressionism resource portfolios (while supplies last)

The Cartoonist in Comics: Varying Levels of Autobiography in Dean Haspiel’s Comics

More than any single living cartoonist, Dean Haspiel has presented slivers and full looks at both his life and others through his work. The master of the “semi-autobio” comic, Dean has presented his life directly in Opposable Thumbs, partially in Street Code, and through the lens of a fictitious avatar in his successful comic book and digital strip Billy Dogma. Dean’s work has also graced the biographies of authors Harvey Pekar (American Splendor), Jonathan Ames (The Quitter), and Inverna Lockpez (Cuba). This presentation chronicles the cartoonist from his early days as an assistant in the industry to his current position as a digital comics pioneer.

Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics

Irving performs a reading of his book with Seth Kushner, accompanied with a slideshow of comic book creator portraits that starts with Captain America co-creator Joe Simon and ending with emerging comics talent. Irving conveys verbal snippets of the history of the American comic book, straight from the mouths of the creators themselves. Subjects include Stan Lee (Marvel Comics, Spider-Man), Frank Miller (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), Art Spiegelman (Maus), Chris Ware (Building Stories), Harvey Pekar (American Splendor), and Dennis O’Neil (Batman).

It’s Your Art

Docents and members of the Council of VMFA take the museum into the community by presenting a very visual introduction to its history, services and facilities. Speakers interpret images from the permanent collection and preview coming exhibitions.  Service clubs, church fellowships, women’s clubs and senior citizen groups will find that this FREE program at your location provides an excellent enrichment program and prepares the audience to visit VMFA, a world-class museum that belongs to all Virginians.

That’s (Not) All Folks: Classic Cartoons and Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to animal or non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts.  Examples include animals, plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to converse.  The word derives from the combination of the Greek words for “human” and “shape” or “form.”  Anthropomorphism is also referred to as “personification.”  It is strongly associated with art and storytelling, where it has ancient roots.  Most cultures possess a long-standing fable tradition with anthropomorphized animals as characters that can stand as commonly recognized types of human behavior.  Many of the stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as a proud lion, can be traced to ancient fables, stories that impart a moral or practical lesson and usually feature animals.  This lecture links those traditions with Classic Cartoons, including Looney Tunes, Mickey Mouse and the Pink Panther.

Printing on the Kitchen Table

This lecture covers four distinct “low tech” printing processes that are fun, easy and produce amazing prints.  Ms. Belle will discuss how to adapt these techniques for classroom application by addressing the issues of practicality, cost, the “messiness factor”, low cost supply alternatives and age appropriateness.  Physical examples of supplies and prints will be examined and a handout with pertinent highlights is included for easy recall.  This lecture can include a hands-on element if desired.