Indigenous art has long existed under the radar at Yale University, with its thousands of artworks and cultural and sacred items residing in disparate collections scattered throughout the campus. “Objects have been displayed in glass cabinets or tucked away in storage, in wooden drawers and steel cabinets, with catalogue numbers scrawled across their birch bark, river cane and hide,” the curators write in introducing “Place, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 Years of Indigenous North American Art,” a compelling exhibition that draws upon objects from the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The beautiful and poignant show is in many ways a paean to the 40 Indian nations whose art is finally being given the respect it deserves. Co-curated by three Yale university graduates, Katherine Nova McCleary … [Read more...] about INDIGENOUS ART AT YALE: “AN ENTANGLED, OFTEN-VIOLENT, SHARED HISTORY”
Yale University Art Gallery
GLISTENING AND CONTEMPORARY: YALE CELEBRATES THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN GLASS
The Yale University Art Gallery is showcasing its magnificent Mabel Brady Garvan Glass Collection in a student-curated exhibition that feels fresh and contemporary. The accompanying catalogue goes a long way to add flesh to the stories behind these objects, beginning with the history of Francis P. Garvan and his evolution as a major 20th century collector. The son of prosperous Irish immigrants, Garvan was born and reared in East Hartford and educated at Yale College. He went on to earn his law degree from New York University and today is perhaps best known for his role in prosecuting Harry Thaw in the murder of the architect Stanford White. He married into the Brady family of Albany, with his father-in-law the self-made titan of the Albany Gas Company. Upon his father-in-law’s death, Garvan had both the means and the resources by which to begin furnishing his home with fine glass and … [Read more...] about GLISTENING AND CONTEMPORARY: YALE CELEBRATES THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN GLASS
DEATH, DESTRUCTION, REGENERATION: MATT BARNEY’S TEMPORARY FORTIFICATION AT YALE
Sculptor and filmmaker Matthew Barney has been pushing boundaries for many years now — and his deeply complex multi-media exhibition, “Redoubt,” created during the years of 2016–2019, promises to take audiences on yet another far-ranging conceptual ride. The exhibition trains its lens on winter in Idaho’s deeply rugged Sawtooth Mountains, a place where one still encounters elk and Dall sheep as well as a pack of wolves that have been reintroduced to the wild. Through film and objects, including four monumental sculptures, his narrative surrounding a mythic wolf hunt gradually emerges, asking viewers to contemplate stories drawn from classical mythology as well as archetypal ideas about humans versus nature that have dominated the Western landscape. Barney, who grew up in Idaho and has long been drawn to the Sawtooth region, has once again collaborated with composer Jonathan Bepler, … [Read more...] about DEATH, DESTRUCTION, REGENERATION: MATT BARNEY’S TEMPORARY FORTIFICATION AT YALE