New Exhibition  

July 6, 2011

The Bunnell Decades

On the occasion of the endowment of the Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography, we celebrate the Princeton professor who mentored a generation of scholar-curators while building one of this country's great teaching collections. The Bunnell Decades is a timeline in which each major exhibition that Bunnell mounted between 1972 and 2002 is represented by one of the photographs featured in it. Paralleling the evolution of Bunnell's scholarly interests, the exhibition chronicles the growth of the Museum's photography collection, from its origins to the present.

New on View

Georgia O'Keeffe's 1924 marriage to photographer Alfred Stieglitz in Cliffside Park, N.J., is one of her few connections to the Garden State. Yet as this painting attests, she created at least two works inspired by time spent in Hunterdon County nearly two decades later. In contrast to the somber tonalities of the artist's initial From a New Jersey Weekend, the delicate, brightened palette of this second version seems to evoke the pink sandstone cliffs of O'Keeffe's beloved Ghost Ranch near Taos, N.M., where she moved permanently in 1949.

Must See in the Museum

A bronze medallion of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), sculpted in a Romantic updating of the classical profile portrait tradition, is on view in the Museum's European galleries. One of the most widely read French authors, Dumas was the son of a Haitian officer who served in the French Revolutionary army, and the grandson of a slave. His novels exploring the history of France include The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, and promote the democratic values of Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood. Celebrate Bastille Day, the French national holiday, on July 14 by visiting this great portrait of a hero of the French Republic.

Late Thursdays

Memory and the Moving Image: Memento (2000)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Thursday, July 7, sundown
Outside the Museum's main entrance

Memento follows a man seeking to avenge his wife's murder, while suffering from short-term memory loss. To aid in his search for answers, he takes copious notes and Polaroid pictures, even tattooing himself with important information. This film is rated R. Popcorn and soda will be served; please bring your own seating. 

Part of MEMORY AND THE WORK OF ART, a Princeton community collaboration, this series of films explores themes of memory and loss.

In case of rain, the film will be screened in McCormick 101.

Be Late. Be Cool. Summer at the Art Museum.

Save the Date

It's About Time: A Summer Party to Remember
Thursday, July 28, 6-9 p.m. 

Mark your calendar to join us as we celebrate our summer season with three exhibitions that explore time, transformation, and memory: The Life and Death of Buildings, Cartographies of Time and The Bunnell Decades. These exhibitions are presented as part of MEMORY AND THE WORK OF ART. 

Highlights  

MEMORY AND THE WORK OF ART is a collaborative investigation into the relationship between the arts and cultural memory.

Cartographies of Time, through September 18

The Life and Death of Buildings, July 23-November 6

The Bunnell Decades, through October 23 

Credits (top to bottom):

Princeton University Art Museum. Photo: Bruce M. White.

Virginia Beahan, American, born 1946, and Laura McPhee, American, born 1958: Artificial Volcano Erupting, Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1995. Chromogenic print, 47.2 x 59.7 cm. Museum purchase, gift of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (1995-386). © 1995, Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, photo by Bruce M. White.

Georgia O'Keeffe, American, 1887-1986: From a New Jersey Weekend II, 1941. Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 61 cm. Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation (y1994-136). © 2011, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo by Bruce M. White.

Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, French, 1788-1856: Dumas (right profile), 1829. Bronze, brown patina,

diam. 12 cm. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (2002-272.9).

Memento (2000) movie poster. Newmarket Capital Group/Summit Entertainment/Team Todd/I Remember Productions.

Tim Davis, American, born 1969: Colosseum Pictures (The New Antiquity), 2009. Chromogenic print, 41.9 x 53.3 cm. Museum purchase, gift of the Charina Foundation (2009-130). © 2009, Tim Davis/image courtesy Greenberg Van Doren Gallery.

Reproduction of all images is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without written permission from the copyright holder. © 2011 Princeton University Art Museum