Flint Institute of Arts fiamagazine MAR–APR 2013 from the director 2 Board of Trustees Samuel M. Harris exhibitions 3–8 President Honorary Trustee Katharine W. Eiferle Elizabeth Neithercut video gallery 9 First Vice-President Marilyn Kopp featured acquisition 10 Secretary Administration Diane Lindholm John B. Henry, III art on loan 11 Treasurer Director Elizabeth S. Murphy Kathryn K. Sharbaugh calendar 12 Immediate Past-President Assistant Director of Development fi l m s 1 3 – 1 4 Michael J. Behm Susan Steiner Bolhouse Michael A. Melenbrink Assistant Director of news & programs 15–19 Eleanor E. Brownell Finance & Administration James D. Draper Jeff Garrett art school 20–21 Shannon Easter White Assistant Director of the Art School Chris Flores education 22–26 Tracee J. Glab Mona Hardas Associate Curator of membership 27–30 Janice T. Harden Exhibitions Louis A. Hawkins Monique M. Desormeau contributions 31–34 Armando Hernandez Curator of Education art sales & rental gallery 35 Lynne Hurand Linda J. LeMieux founders travel 36 Thomas B. Lillie Thomas J. Mitchell museum shop 37 Robert S. Piper Michael Rucks Ira A. Rutherford Elisabeth Saab Grayce Scholt David T. Taylor D.J. Trela Claire M. White Michael Wright contents Dean Yeotis Cover Image From the exhibition Reflections on Water in American Painting: The Phelan Collection William Merritt Chase American, 1849–1916 Ponte Alla Grazia, The Arno - Florence (detail) oil on wood panel, 1909 6.125 x 9.25 inches Collection of Arthur J. Phelan FROM THE DIRECTOR 2 In addition to the many exhibitions, reading, talk about art to develop a programs, and events listed in this personal language and vocabulary, issue, the FIA continues to lay the utilize informal discussions with groundwork for future service to the other children to reinforce language community. development, increase critical thinking After decades of research, we skills as they look at and discuss know brain development accelerates what they see, practice language and quickly in infancy and is well sequencing (math) skills by telling advanced long before 5-year-olds stories about what they see, improve reach Kindergarten. Therefore, it language acquisition by utilizing is clear that if we wish to improve verbal descriptions (science) to students’ success, we must start identify selected artworks, and further in early childhood with high quality develop fine motor skills, hand-eye school readiness programs. Providing coordination and self expression while high quality programs for preschoolers creating art. prepares them for school success and ultimately can improve grades, attendance, and graduation rates, especially among children from low- income backgrounds with limited resources to provide the necessary stimulation for development. Starting this spring, the FIA will provide aesthetic experiences for infants/toddlers and educate parents about how to support their child’s visual literacy and language development. While infants may not be able to verbalize an opinion, research has proven that their body language can let an adult know when The Early Childhood programs they find an image aesthetically support the FIA’s long range strategic intriguing. At this point, adults can lay goal of increasing programs for the groundwork for perceptual and underserved populations, especially cognitive development to occur. By families with young children and talking to the child about the artwork, inner city residents, and addresses pointing out details, and using important community needs, school appropriate vocabulary, parents can readiness and literacy. Developed foster recognition of cultural symbols with input from the Flint Community and language development. Schools’ (FCS) Head Start staff to In addition, a 3 to 5-year-old ensure that the program meets FCS component provides gallery and Head Start needs, the FIA anticipates studio options that focuses on providing direct services to 100 curriculum themes and seeks to families with infants/toddlers, 800 3 develop and improve art skills as well to 5-year-old children, 1,000 family as math, science, and verbal-literacy members, and 30 Head Start teachers skills. The program will engages this year. students to observe artwork closely to sharpen visual discrimination John B. Henry, III and perception skills necessary for Director 3 EXHIBITIONS African American Works on Paper through 3.10.13 Graphic Arts Gallery Jacob Lawrence American, 1917–2000 on view Don’t miss the The 1920s...The Migrants last week of Cast Their Ballots African American serigraph on paper, 1974 32 x 25 inches Works on Paper, Gift of Lorillard, 1976.7.9 featuring works by important artists including Romare Bearden, Clarence Holbrook Carter, Jacob Lawrence, Benny Andrews, and Kara Walker. Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace Winfred Rembert through 3.17.13 American, b. 1945 Chain Gang Picking Cotton Hodge Galleries dye on carved and tooled leather, 2004 47 x 32 inches Only three weeks remain to Courtesy of Adelson Galleries, NY view Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace, an exhibition of more than 40 works on tooled leather. As a boy in Georgia, Rembert did backbreaking labor in the cotton fields. As a young man, he participated in the civil rights movement. At one march he was arrested, later surviving a seven-year prison sentence and a near lynching. “Mr. Rembert’s work is important because it offers an unvarnished view of the segregated South, from the vantage of a lived history,” according to a recent New York Times article, “What makes it resonate, however, is Mr. Rembert’s incredible spirit— what one writer in the [exhibition] catalog calls his ‘grace.’” This exhibition is sponsored by Organized by the Hudson River Museum EXHIBITIONS 4 Around the World with 80 Objects through 8.11.13 Artist Unknown African (Nigeria) Decorative Arts Gallery Yoruba Beaded Coronet, orikogbofo natural fiber, cloth, and beads, n.d. Around the World with 80 Objects 9 x 9.75 x 5.25 inches includes works drawn exclusively Courtesy of Pace Primitive, New York, L2011.5 from the FIA’s permanent collection, featuring objects born out of necessity, such as vessels, weaponry, and tools, alongside works collected for their fascinating artistic designs. Rarely seen selections from the four points of the compass and across millennia have been assembled into this provocative and stimulating exhibition. With a reflect the imaginative devices of variety of precious materials and artists from countries and cultures innovative techniques, these works across the globe. David Maxim Figure Portraits David Maxim American, b. 1945 Maura Graphite, colored pencil, 2002 12 x 18 inches Collection of the artist 3.16.13 – 6.2.13 Graphics Gallery San Francisco painter David Maxim has advanced on a broad front, from off-the- wall constructions to images of mountains to whimsical paintings opening in march that place historical painters in constructions and classically imagined landscapes. In all his developed paintings. The figure endeavors, he has shown himself drawings echo his ties to the to be an accomplished draftsman. Bay Area figurative tradition, to According to the artist’s statement: theater, and to a sense of personal “For me, thinking of people in terms freedom that has never allowed of drawing… has enriched my view Maxim to be limited to a single of the world around me.” Maxim medium or mode. is best known for his high-relief 5 EXHIBITIONS Reflections on Water in American Painting The Phelan Collection 4.6.13 – 6.16.13 William R. Wheeler American (1832–1894) Hodge I Gallery Great Lakes Marine Disaster oil on canvas, ca. 1860 Tracing the maritime and seaside history of 27.5 x 47.5 inches America through 50 paintings, the exhibition Reflections on Water in American Painting also illustrates the different artistic trends that shaped American art. opening in april Ranging in date from 1828 to 1945, these paintings depict ship portraits, sailboats, warships, waterside towns, waterscapes, harbor scenes, industrial waterfronts, and beach life, capturing virtually every aspect of life on or in the water. From its beginning, America’s history has been intertwined with the oceans that bracket the continent and the rivers that cross it. Waterways opened the continent for exploration and the inland Anton Otto Fischer commerce that followed. The fall of rivers American (1882–1962) and the accessibility of natural harbor basins Summer Seas oil on canvas, 1945 dictated the locations of many major cities. 26 x 32 inches Artists represented in this exhibition, from the early 19th century to the mid 20th century, have taken inspiration from water, depicting not only its functional and practical side but also exploring its inherent beauty. This exhibition is This exhibition, drawn from the collection of sponsored by Arthur J. Phelan, documents evolving trends in transportation, and records economic shifts as inland maritime commerce slowly diminished in the wake of railroad expansion. Highlights of the exhibition include a rare 1828 painting by John S. Blunt of a U.S. Naval frigate, James Bard’s meticulously rendered Hudson River steamboat, William Trost Richards’ breaking waves, William Merritt Chase’s beautiful study of the Arno River, Presented by and Reginald Marsh’s cathedral-like rendering of Exhibits Development a New Jersey railway bridge. Group, USA EXHIBITIONS 6 Members Preview Talk, Lecture & Reception Friday 4.5.13 Gallery Talk @ 5p Arthur J. Phelan will discuss his collection Arthur J. Phelan of paintings in this exhibition. Phelan, who Collector has a BA and MA from Yale University, finds American art to be a useful tool in understanding American history, a philosophy that brought him to collecting. From 1965 to 2000 Phelan has acquired more than 400 American oil paintings and watercolors. Lecture @ 6p Water in American Painting David Dearinger This illustrated lecture will survey and Curator, Boston investigate depictions in American paintings, Athenaeum from the 1700s to the twentieth century, in which water was given its most active role, images where it is a full player in the drama of nature and in the living, sometimes violent world around us.