News and Events | Montana Museum of Art & Culture | April 2013

A Hundred Years Later: Julius Seyler Among the Blackfeet

May 2 - August 3, 2013

A Hundred Years Later: Julius Seyler Among the Blackfeet commemorates German painter Julius Seyler's (1873-1955) centennial visit to Glacier National Park.  The two years Seyler spent in Glacier among the Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet), Sqeilo (Salish) and K'tanaxa (Kootenai) tribes transformed the artist's work.  Seyler, a celebrated German Expressionist painter, trained at the influential Munich Academy. Seyler was introduced to Glacier National Park through Louis Hill, son of James J. Hill, Chair of the Great Northern Railway board who was influential in establishing the park. Seyler spent two summers there creating a body of work that endures as a record of Blackfeet culture.  Though he never visited Montana again, Seyler continued to make paintings based on his experiences in Glacier.  His artwork lapsed into obscurity and remains relatively unknown.  In 2010, UM Professor Emeritus Bill Farr wrote the first-ever monograph on Seyler which chronicled his life and career. 

Richard Buswell: Close To Home

May 2 - August 3, 2013 

Richard Buswell, a fourth generation Montanan, has been photographing Montana settlement sites, ghost towns, and frontier homesteads for over forty-one years.  In this new body of work, Buswell moves closer to his subject matter.  Instead of mythologizing the West, his close-up photographs are rendered abstractly without identifying context. He uses silver selenide gelatin prints, among the most stable material for long term photographic preservation, to capture fleeting instances, or as he states, "the inspired moment", that may vanish soon after the shutter clicks.  The University of New Mexico Press is publishing a fourth book of Buswell's photography, by the same title.  The book reproduces all 59 images in the exhibition.

Image top: Julius Seyler, Searching for the Enemy, no date, oil on board, 27 x 19.5 inches, Collection of Sigrid Reisch

Image bottom: Richard Buswell, Seed Pods in a Corral, 2008, selenium-toned gelatin silver print, 18 x 14 inches

PUBLIC DOCENT TOUR

CELEBRITY ARTIST TOUR AND PANEL DISCUSSION

Celebrity Artist Tour

On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, Laura Alvarez, Associate Professor, UM School of Theatre & Dance gave an insightful Celebrity Artist tour in the Paxson Gallery for Follow That Thread: Fashion and Textiles from the MMAC Permanent Collection.
  

Photo: Laura Alvarez and guests

Panel Discussion

The March 27 tour was followed by a panel discussion: The History of the MMAC Textile Collection with UM Professor Emeritus Christine Milodragovich, UM School of Theatre & Dance, Laura Alvarez, Associate Professor, UM School of Theatre & Dance and moderated by MMAC Director, Barbara Koostra.  The panel provided wonderful information about the MMAC textile collection, the exhibition, the story of fashion and much more. Thank you Christine and Laura for your excellent presentations!

Photo: left to right, Barbara Koostra, Christine Milodragovich, Laura Alvarez

MASTERPIECE LEAVES APRIL 9, 2013

Please note Richard Diebenkorn's masterpiece Horizon-Ocean View will be on public display at The University of Montana Office of the President reception area in University hall through April 9, 2013 instead of May 24, 2013 as previously announced.  The painting is on loan to the Montana Museum of Art & Culture through a private collection. 

Diebenkorn created representational paintings from 1955-1966. The works from this period are characterized by relatively flat areas of color, unusual perspectives and the division of space by strong lines.  In these paintings, Diebenkorn evokes the hazy coastal light of Southern California.  Diebenkorn's landscapes of this era became important precursors to the abstract paintings and drawings know as the Ocean Park series, the work for which he is best known. 

The Office of the President is open to the public from 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday, except during University holidays.

FRA DANA EXHIBITION IN WYOMING

Fra Dana: American Impressionist in the Rockies  
  

Late last fall, Director & Chief Curator for the Bradford Brinton Memorial & Museum, Kenneth L. Schuster received a call from Barbara Koostra, Director of the Montana Museum of Art & Culture. Koostra had been contacted by Christy Love of the Sheridan County Historical Society who spoke very highly of the Brinton Museum and relayed their interest in possibly hosting an exhibition of the Fra Dana Collection. Fra and her husband lived in Parkman, Wyoming and Montana. Fra Dana: American Impressionist in the Rockies will be on display at the Brinton Museum, April 14 through June 23, 2013. For more information about the Brinton Museum visit www.bbmandm.org

ARTWORK OF THE MONTH

Crescencio Martínez is considered by many to be the father of watercolor painting among Puebloan Indians, leading to the Southwestern School of Indian painting. Martínez began drawing sometime before 1910, using crayons he picked up while working as a janitor at the San Ildefonso Day School. Edgar Hewett, excavating near San Ildefonso in about 1915, hired Crescencio as a laborer. After noticing that Crescencio was drawing on the ends of cardboard boxes, Hewett gave him drawing paper and watercolors, and bought many of his drawings. Dana likely purchased this on a trip to the Southwest.