Spring Break
It's Springtime At The Benton
Tina Forbes
Issue date: 1/29/07 Section: Focus
The William Benton Museum of Art has an entirely new look from last semester. Examples of the art featured this spring include historical pieces as well as contemporary, while also highlighting the dynamics between the two periods. Upon entering the upstairs galleries, the first exhibition is "Landscape: Fact and Fiction," which features photography representing interesting perspectives of a variety of landscapes.
"It's good to see an exhibit in landscape photography where landscapes are no longer just the background," said Paige Feeser, an 8th-semester English major, and a docent at the museum. "[`Landscape'] shows true being...it shows landscape in its most complex form. [The exhibit] tells us so much about ourselves; our pasts and our future."
The theme of the exhibition is to challenge the viewer to look beyond the initial "pretty picture" that is offered by the different pieces in order to realize the "truth" of the image. One example is photographer Alec Soth's portrayal of Niagara Falls. Soth contrasts a clichéd, romantic image of the falls themselves with a more trite and realistic version of the area surrounding the falls.
Other photographers featured in "Landscape" are Deborah Bright, Linda Conner, Robert Dawson, Frank Gohlke, Emmet Gowin, Betty Hahn, Mark Klett, Bruce Myren, John Pfahl and Mark Ruwedel. The exhibition was organized by Janet Pritchard, a Professor of Photography, and will run until March 2.
In the Human Rights Gallery, "Intemperate Times: Kathe Kollwitz, 1918-1934," is on display until the end of the semester. The 30 prints and photographs focus on Kollwitz's post- World War I work, which address the social issues of Germany and Eastern Europe in the 1920's. "Intemperate Times" is exhibited in correlation with "in fear," a contemporary video by Leslee Broerma. In the film, Broerma represents connections between historical and present events using clips from documentary films produced by the U.S. government in the 1940s and 50s with recent original footage. "Intemperate Times" adds another layer of comparison between time periods, and a widened perspective of history as it relates to the current political landscape.
"It's good to see an exhibit in landscape photography where landscapes are no longer just the background," said Paige Feeser, an 8th-semester English major, and a docent at the museum. "[`Landscape'] shows true being...it shows landscape in its most complex form. [The exhibit] tells us so much about ourselves; our pasts and our future."
The theme of the exhibition is to challenge the viewer to look beyond the initial "pretty picture" that is offered by the different pieces in order to realize the "truth" of the image. One example is photographer Alec Soth's portrayal of Niagara Falls. Soth contrasts a clichéd, romantic image of the falls themselves with a more trite and realistic version of the area surrounding the falls.
Other photographers featured in "Landscape" are Deborah Bright, Linda Conner, Robert Dawson, Frank Gohlke, Emmet Gowin, Betty Hahn, Mark Klett, Bruce Myren, John Pfahl and Mark Ruwedel. The exhibition was organized by Janet Pritchard, a Professor of Photography, and will run until March 2.
In the Human Rights Gallery, "Intemperate Times: Kathe Kollwitz, 1918-1934," is on display until the end of the semester. The 30 prints and photographs focus on Kollwitz's post- World War I work, which address the social issues of Germany and Eastern Europe in the 1920's. "Intemperate Times" is exhibited in correlation with "in fear," a contemporary video by Leslee Broerma. In the film, Broerma represents connections between historical and present events using clips from documentary films produced by the U.S. government in the 1940s and 50s with recent original footage. "Intemperate Times" adds another layer of comparison between time periods, and a widened perspective of history as it relates to the current political landscape.
Be the first to comment on this story