Museum Of Art

Read KSL's story here.Find out more about the exhibition at moa.byu.edu/sacredgifts.

Are comic-book mythologies becoming the new morality of the 21st Century? The upcoming contemporary art exhibition at the BYU Museum of Art, 'We Could Be Heroes: The Mythology of Monsters and Heroes in Contemporary Art,' delves into this growing captivation with super heroes and monsters in contemporary pop culture.

The opening of “Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture” was a huge success. An estimated 1,700 visitors packed the museum to experience the beauty of Islamic culture with more than 250 art objects, live dance and music performances by a Middle-Eastern dance and music group, Eastern Arts, and to sample baklava, a Middle-Eastern pastry.

Mark A. Magleby, a BYU art history faculty member since 1997, has been appointed as the new director of the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Stephen M. Jones, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications announced Wednesday.

Anyone who has ever taken a disappointing snapshot of spectacular Western scenery can understand the dilemma of early 20th-century artists in the American Southwest. How can a two-dimensional image do justice to the unbounded vistas, imposing mountains, sheer red-rock cliffs, blinding rays of sunlight, and endlessly spreading desert of the Southwest?

by Ricardo Castro

A century ago in 1909, BYU began collecting art when a generous donor gave the university a painting of a sycamore tree by Utah impressionist painter John Hafen (1856—1910). One hundred years later, the university’s art collection has grown to nearly 17,000 works housed in a state-of-the-art museum.

Those who read sacred religious texts are familiar with interpreting the literary devices – metaphors, parables and allegories – employed to communicate deeper spiritual meaning. A new exhibition at the Museum of Art seeks to help visitors become more familiar with interpreting the visual symbols that artists employ to communicate profound truths about the life and mission of Jesus Christ.“Types and Shadows: Intimations of Divinity,” on view from Friday, Sept. 18, through March 13, will encourage viewers to participate in the process of seeking out and finding meaning in the symbols, metaphors and veiled visual references that “point to” the divine mission of Jesus Christ.The exhibition will be in the Warren and Alice Jones and Paul and Betty Boshard galleries on the museum’s lower level. Admission is free.The 44 works in this exhibition, which include paintings, prints and sculpture, have been selected to guide the viewer through a process of seeing beyond obvious and familiar narratives. By carefully examining the visual elements within the works of art in this exhibition, visitors will find fresh meanings that resonate with their personal spiritual experiences and increase their understanding.“Religious art is often inspired by the artist’s most personal expressions of faith and belief,” says Dawn Pheysey, curator of religious art at the Museum of Art. “These images often have the power to articulate sacred truths that resonate with our own spiritual feelings. And just as determined searching of the scriptures expands our understanding, the careful study of sensitive religious depictions can lead to new insight and comprehension about profound gospel doctrines.”In the scriptures, types and shadows promise the coming of the Messiah, proclaim his divinity, and anticipate his life and supreme sacrifice.For instance, the manna from heaven provided for the Israelites served as a type of Christ: “the living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:51).By definition, a type is an intended similarity between a person, object or event, and another person, object or event. A shadow is similar in meaning, but refers to something that will follow or come to pass in the future.Museum curators and educators have designed an interpretive program for this exhibition to assist visitors in the process of seeing beyond the obvious. One component of this in-gallery program is a 44-page study guide titled “The Image Speaks:A Study Guide for Religious Art,” produced in cooperation with the BYU Religious Studies Center.This guide will lead visitors through eight strategies they can use to interpret and make meaningfrom the visual symbols in the works of art.The exhibition will also feature a digital comment wall that will allow visitors to input their personal comments and observations about their viewing experience and learn from the comments and observations of others. Additionally, a cell phone audio tour will provide visitors with insights from a selection of the living artists represented.“We hope these interpretive strategies will combine to enrich the viewing experience of our visitors for this fine selection of artworks, and build greater appreciation for the Savior and his ministry,” said Herman du Toit, Museum of Art educator.The majority of the works of art is drawn from the Museum of Art’s permanent collection and includes works by Lee Udall Bennion, Carl Heinrich Bloch, Albrecht DÏ‹rer, Franz Johansen, Brian Kershisnik, David Linn, Rembrandt, Minerva Teichert and the School of Titan. Additional works by artists including William Blake, James C. Christensen, Arnold Friberg, Ron Richmond, Bruce Smith and Chris Young will be on loan from artists, private collections, and Utah art museums.More information is available at moa.byu.edu.Free docent-led tours of “Types and Shadows: Intimations of Divinity” will be conducted during regular museum hours and must be scheduled at least one week in advance. Tours usually last about one hour. Call ext. 2-1140 to schedule a tour.The Museum of Art is open Monday though Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday evening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Sunday.+Source: BYU News

by Angela Fischer

Not long ago, BYU’s Museum of Art acquired a painting for their “Beholding Salvation” exhibition that depicts shepherds admiring the new-born Christ. There’s just one problem — it’s not completely certain who painted the scene in “Adoration of the Shepherds.” Enter BYU undergrad Caroline Larson, an art history major and recipient of an ORCA grant to investigate the top suspect, French Baroque painter Eustache Le Sueur. The Louvre, which holds 40 of Le Sueur’s known works, is where Larson will spend two months studying the Parisian’s artistry. She will also compare those techniques to those of Le Sueur’s contemporaries to see if elements of “Adoration of the Shepherds” reflect his distinctive style. “We are eager to establish a more complete provenance for this painting,” said Dawn Pheysey, curator of religious art at the Museum of Art. “We look forward to seeing Caroline’s research and are certainly willing to assist her in any way that we can.” Museum visitors can see the painting for themselves; it hangs next to the museum’s signature piece, Carl Heinrich Bloch’s “Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda.” Source: BYU News

On Wednesday, Sept. 24, the four Brigham Young University museums will host an educator services open house from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the BYU Museum of Art’s Lied Gallery that will display the learning opportunities each museum provides.

Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art presents a new exhibition, “Windows on a Hidden World: Japanese Woodblock Print from the BYU Museum of Art Collection,” on display from Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 through Jan. 17, 2009.

by Marissa Ballantyne

by Christopher Wilson

by Aaron Searle

When Minerva Teichert attended art school in Chicago and New York in the early 1900s, mural paintings and theatrical pageants were dynamic components of American popular culture. Teichert embraced these popular art forms and used the visual language they provided to tell the stories of her religious heritage and the American West.

Before professional sports figures, movie stars and rock bands captivated the public’s attention, the great ballerinas of the mid-19th century were among the first “stars” to achieve celebrity.“Splendor and Spectacle: Images of Dance from Court Ballet to Broadway,” a new exhibition at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, illustrates the evolution of ballet from the 18th-century courts of Europe, through the great 19th-century Romantic Ballet, to the arrival of the art form in America in the 1860s.The exhibition will be on view in the Warren & Alice Jones and Paul & Betty Boshard galleries on the museum’s lower level from Friday, July 6, through Tuesday, Jan. 1. It will feature 65 prints and 33 objets d’art from the private collection of BYU faculty members Madison and Debra Sowell.An opening reception will be held Thursday, July 5, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the J. Herbert Milburn Gallery on the museum’s lower level. Light refreshments will be served, and the BYU community is welcome to attend.“This exhibition traces the development of one of the great genres of classical entertainment that has come down to our time,” says curator Paul Anderson. “Since most of these developments in ballet history took place before photography was in wide use, especially for documentary purposes, this collection of prints and objets d’art is particularly valuable in preserving the history and the personalities of this period.”The introductory section explores the precursors to the Romantic Ballet in the 18th century. During this period, dance was an important part of life in the royal courts of Europe. Many social events attended by the upper classes were marked by spectacular formal dances where everyone was expected to participate. Professional dancers also performed for aristocratic audiences in a more formal setting.Among the works on view in this section are engravings of various dancers who performed in royal courts across Europe. The second section of the exhibition focuses on the development of the Romantic Ballet in the 19th century.Social and economic changes in Europe around the beginning of the 19th century gave rise to a wealthy middle class and led to the construction of opera houses in large cities across Europe where opera, drama and dance could be performed for growing audiences. But it wasn’t until the 1830s that ballet reached the height of its popularity with the evolution of a new technique – dancing en pointe.“The dancer who really revolutionizes ballet is Marie Taglioni who appears in ‘La Sylphide,’ which is a pivotal production in the history of ballet,” Anderson says. “Taglioni dancing on her toes in a diaphanous costume representing an other-worldly spirit must have caused a sensation. No one had ever seen a person dance with such an illusion of weightlessness or in a way that created such an ethereal feeling. She became one of the first international celebrities.”Taglioni and other famous ballerinas of the time were immortalized in lithographs, etchings, and engravings, and their likenesses were reproduced on decorative objects such as candelabras, porcelain vases and statuettes, soap and cigar boxes, paper dolls, and bronze medallions. Examples of many of these items will be on view in the exhibition.The final section of the exhibition examines the arrival of ballet in America in the mid-1800s. Prior to the American Civil War, a few European ballet troops toured the United States. Nathanial Currier of Currier and Ives fame created lithographs of some of these famous ballet stars in connection with their visits, three of which will be in the exhibition. However, it was the serendipitous New York production of “The Black Crook” in the mid-1860s that jumpstarted the popularity of ballet and musical theater in America.“A French ballet troupe arrived in New York to find the theater they were scheduled to perform in had burned down and their performances had been cancelled. The leaders of their group teamed up with a producer from Broadway who was in the process of producing what promised to be a rather dull, melodramatic play. And they came together to produce ‘The Black Crook,’” Anderson says.“It was an enormous hit. ‘The Black Crook’ was revived over and over again through the end of the century and was seen by a large audience.”The works in this exhibition are drawn from the collection of dance scholar Debra H. Sowell and her husband, BYU Honors Program Director Madison U. Sowell. For the past three decades, the Sowells have collected antique prints, rare books and objets d'art that document and illustrate approximately 400 years of the history of Western theatrical dance.Source: BYU News

by Christopher Wilson