Sheldon's citizenship, surreal life exhibitions close Dec. 29

Sheldon Museum of Art’s current exhibitions explore citizenship and both the everyday and surreal sides of our world.

The rotating exhibitions will each close Dec. 29. The museum will participate in First Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Dec. 6. Christian Wurst, associate curator for exhibitions, and Erin Hanas, curator for academic and campus engagement, spoke on some of the highlights in their last weeks on display.

Sheldon in Focus: Jacob Lawrence

Courtesy photo

“Paper Boats” by Jacob Lawrence

This exhibition focuses on Jacob Lawrence, an early 20th century painter who grew up in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. Lawrence’s work often depicts scenes from everyday life he saw in his own neighborhood. As a teenager, Lawrence took classes at community arts centers in the area and made a career as an artist from that young age.

“He’s technically considered a self-taught artist, except in the environment he was in, he absorbed a lot for someone so young,” Wurst said.

“Paper Boats” shows three Black men constructing paper boats in Lawrence’s signature geometric style.

Voting is People Power

“My right is a future of equality with other Americans” by Elizabeth Catlett

This linocut speaks to the power of the individual voter when it comes to democracy. All of the works in the exhibition are on paper, including this one, and prints are often described as a “democratic medium,” Hanas said.

“They’re easily reproducible, easy to disseminate and reasonably cheap, so we liked that connection between the medium and this broader idea of democracy,” she said.

“Untitled” by William N. Copley

This reimagined flag changes the colors and replaces the stars of the familiar image to provoke conversation. Hanas said it asks the viewer to consider the true meaning behind the American flag.

“It’s an invitation to really contemplate what the U.S. flag represents and stands for,” Hanas said.

“Voting Button in Landscape” by Claes Oldenburg

Oldenburg, who also created “Torn Notebook” on City Campus, created this work for 1984 presidential campaign of Walter Mondale. It is only one of the works donated to campaigns or causes the artists featured in the exhibition believed in and reinforces the power of art in these conversations.

Uncanny Encounters: The Disturbing, Surreal, and Supernatural in American Art

“Resurrection” by Jack Zajac

This sculpture looms over the entrance to this exhibition, which explores surreal and unsettling works in the museum’s collection. The haunting figure of “Resurrection” demonstrates one of the exhibition’s themes — the ways unusual depictions of the human body can be discomforting.

“Cadeau” by Man Ray

Man Ray experimented with the concept of readymades, which designates existing, manufactured objects as fine art. He would also alter objects to add a surreal element.

“Cadeau” is an iron with nails attached to its face, creating a twisted version of what would otherwise be a functional object.

“It’s a little surreal,” Wurst said, “And the function of it is made useless because of the nails he adhered to the iron.”

“Midnight #2” by Hobson Lafayette Pittman

This painting is one of a series by Pittman depicting small, frail women in large, Gothic spaces. This oil on canvas shows a diminutive figure resting in a large bedroom beside a towering window.

“It’s just a woman sleeping but our own connotations of the space is what drives our interpretation of it being eerie and unsettling,” Wurst said.

Pittman’s mother died when he was a teenager, and the works in this series seem to explore memories of her and his childhood.

Collection Galleries

“Yellow Band” by Mark Rothko

This abstract painting was recently on display at the Foundation Louis Vuitton, a museum in Paris. It is one of the first works visitors see when walking into the gallery and is one of the most high-profile in the collection. This work, along with “Room in New York” by Edward Hopper and “The County Agricultural Agent” by Norman Rockwell, are the most requested by visitors to Sheldon.

“Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts” by Wayne Thiebaud

This oil painting uses the medium of the oil paint itself to enhance the subject of the work, rows and rows of colorful sweets.

“He thought a lot about how oil paint mimics the marshmallows and frosting and was well known for painting desserts, so the material kind of mimics the subject matter,” Hanas said.

The museum acquired this work the year it was painted, before Thiebaud’s star began to rise in the art world. It was included in his first solo gallery show.

“Pensive Figure” by Elizabeth Catlett

This sculpture sits alongside works by Robert Colescott and Catlett’s former husband Charles White, and Wurst said these work together because of the way the artists influenced each other, with Catlett and White being contemporaries and Colescott being someone they inspired.

“You have these two pioneers of American art and then Robert Colescott was someone who was influenced by the subject matter they focused on,” he said. “He is clearly inspired both visually and thematically.”

Also on display is Blue Skies Ahead, an exhibition organized by the Sheldon Student Advisory Board featuring many playful, colorful works by Russell T. Gordon, Patrick Hughes and Byron Kim.