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Mulvane Art Museum Newsletter
January 2016
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Quick Links
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The 2016 Mulvane Art Fair
The Mulvane Art Fair will be on June 4th and 5th this year on the Washburn Campus. There will be live music, food trucks and activities for kids! If you know an artist, let them know to apply for the art fair at zapplication.org before the deadline: February 20th, 2016!
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Exhibitions
Albert Bloch: Scenes from the Life of Christ
October 23 - January 23, 2016
Garden Plots: Thomas Fox Averill & Clinton Ricketts
December 4 - January 23, 2016
Hallowed Absurdities: Works by Theodore Waddell
January 12 - March 5, 2016
Washburn University Art Department Student Exhibition
February 5 - March 5, 2016
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Upcoming Events
Albert Bloch: Scenes from the Life of Christ, a gallery talk by
Dr. Reinhild Janzen
January 20, 2016, 4-5 pm
Guest Curator of the Bloch exhibition, Dr. Janzen will give a tour of the show. Dr. Janzen is a professor emerita of art history at Washburn University and has previously written on Bloch and other topics.
The Simulated Garden: Brown Bag & Gallery Talk
January 21, 2016, 12:00 noon
Washburn University Associate Professor of Art Marguerite Perret will discuss her art series "The Simulated Garden."
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The Mulvane Art Museum Presents:
Hallowed Absurdities by Theodore Waddell
Made of road kill, animal skulls, jawbones, pelts and skins, as well as body bags, bullets,tools and actual guns, the art works in Hallowed Absurdities raise the issue of the use of guns in our society. According to the artist, "I hope this show will help people expose their feelings about guns. ... Whatever their opinions are, what really matters to me is the hope that we can talk about them." With humor, irony and wit, Theodore Waddell's mixed media assemblages poke fun at gun collectors, question the ethics of competitive big game hunting and defend the equality of all life, be it human or animal. Hallowed Absurdities will be on view from January 12 through March 5. A reception for the exhibition will be held during Topeka's First Friday Artwalk on February 5, 2016 from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
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Mulvane Staff Profile: Q & A!
Get to know the Mulvane Staff
Name: Elisabeth Warsinske
Describe your role at the Mulvane:
Collections Assistant
Favorite part of working at the Mulvane?
I love all the new artists I'm learning about and the unique exhibitions that we create. I'm always discovering something different when a new exhibition goes up.
What aspect of your career do you enjoy the most?
I like knowing that I am preserving history and culture that would be lost without museums.
Favorite food?
Any kind of pizza.
Least favorite food?
Mushrooms.
If you could be an apprentice to any artist in history or present day, who would it be and why?
I believe Mary Cassatt and I would get along quite well. We share many of the same views plus I could hang out with her Impressionist friends.
Favorite painting?
Gardeuse de Moutons (The Shepherdess) by William A. Bouguereau. The intensity and mysteriousness of that girl's eyes are mesmerizing.
Favorite art period?
Don't make me choose between the Renaissance and the Impressionist Movement! I could look at Madonna and Child paintings all day long, but I also have a soft spot for Van Gogh.
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From Our Collection
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Flemish, c. 1526-1569 Summer, 1568, engraved by Peter van der Heyden, 1570 engraving
According to Bruegel scholar Manfred Sellink, Summer is "among the most outstanding of Bruegel's drawings." In it June is represented by the picking of fruit in the center background and by the peasant with two baskets of produce at the right. July haying also takes place in the background with windrows of fresh cut hay on the left and haystacks on the right. In the front the wheat harvest symbolizes August.
Fifteenth and sixteenth-century religious calendars were sometimes decorated with scenes of the rural peasantry representing the months or the seasons, but Bruegel was one of the earliest artists to use these subjects for large-scale paintings. Such secular depictions were relatively new in Western art, which had been dominated by religious themes. In the 1650s, Bruegel travelled to Italy, and his interest in Italian art apparently reemerged in the last few years of his life. For example, in this work the large foreground figures with well-defined musculature and in complex, twisted poses recall the monumental work of Michelangelo. Bruegel shows these lower-class workers as strong and powerful, and he has carefully observed rural life. But he does poke a little fun at these peasants. For example, the figure in the right foreground has indecorously kicked off one shoe as he greedily drinks from a water jug. The upturned scythe between his legs may allude to another appetite. The scythe and the barefoot appear to extend beyond the border of the picture, perhaps referring to a Dutch phrase "to go beyond all bounds," i.e. going outside the limits of acceptable behavior.
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Tour Talk
By: Thomas Anderson
 I have worked for the Mulvane Art Museum for three years in the ArtLab and the Outreach programs. This has provided me with ample opportunities to practice my skills as a future educator.
The Museum was exhibiting Mulvane's Animal Farm when I was asked to give my first tour. This experience taught me how the galleries and the Artlab are connected and was very enlightening.
Through my experiences in the ArtLab, I was aware of our motto "Look, Create, Understand," and I would often share this message with visitors. However, I never personally experienced the "look" aspect. I knew there were tours being given in the galleries and that our projects in the ArtLab incorporated formal elements of the artwork that the children had just viewed. But, it wasn't until I led my first tour that I fully understood the fluidity of the transition from the galleries to the ArtLab.
One of the things that surprised me the most was how much children had to say. They were able to describe the complex pictures and paintings they were seeing. When I led the tours through the galleries, we discussed what we saw together. This led to a far greater understanding of the project we did in the ArtLab later. The feedback I received when I led the tour was much more detailed, relevant, and conceptual. I was able to witness kids of all ages understand things as simple as artist's choices to the complexities of perspective and point of view. They broadened my view of art and strengthened my beliefs as a future educator.
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Welcome New and Renewed Members!
Jim Bass, Kevin Eaton & Lora Carson, Steve & Fran Crouch, Donna Drumm, Tuck & Kathy Duncan, Duane Fager, Rachel Goossen, Beverly Gunderman, Mark & Lisa Heitz, Mary Ann Hill, Glinda B. Leach, Gordon & Melanie McQuere, Rosemary Menninger, Ed Miller, David Monical & Peggy Dunlap, Suzanne Montano, Pat & Jorge Nobo, Carolyn Orozco, Barbara Reinert, Diane K. Sneed, Lucy Stein, Kathy Svaty, Char Taggart, William Tsutsui, Dr. Howard N. & Ms. Marilyn S. Ward, Dale & Maggie Warren, Janet Wilson, Joan Wingerson
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