March 23 – July 30, 2017

Liz Whitney Quisgard was one of the few women artists represented by eminent gallerist Andre Emmerich in NYC in the 1960s.  Her career spans six decades and the work in this installation features an environment of patterned textiles and sculpture created in the last two decades.

The exhibition’s opening reception, featuring our three exhibits coinciding with Women’s History Month, is on Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 4:30-6:30pm.  Murderous Chanteuse will perform at the reception. Free to the public.

Exhibition on view March 23 through July 30, 2017. (Please note the Museum will be closed April 8-9, April 15-16, and May 8-15, 2017, as well as Mondays and holidays.)

March 23 – July 30, 2017

Objectifying Myself explores work by women artists, created between 1968-2005, which serve, to some degree, as self portraits.  But these “self portraits” employ surrogate objects rather than depictions of the artists’ faces or bodies. Artists in the exhibition include Judy Chicago, Louise Bourgeois, Miriam Schapiro, June Wayne, Louise Nevelson, and Kiki Smith. These works are on loan from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA) which was founded in 1805 by painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other Colonial artists and business leaders. We thank PAFA, and especially David Brigham, Executive Director of PAFA and University of Connecticut alumus, for their generosity in collaboration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 23 – July 30, 2017  (closed May 8 – 15)

Work It features paintings by Ellen Emmet Rand and other women artists in the first half of the 20^th century—how they fought for opportunities, paid their bills, and found ways to have their art and creativity seen and taken seriously. Featuring several works by Ellen Emmet Rand, as well as pieces by Dorothea Lange, Violet Oakley, Mary Foote, Eudora Welty, Lois Mailou Jones, and Imogen Cunningham, “Work It” features the diversity of styles and subjects that helped women achieve both recognition and security as working artists.

Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941) was arguably one of the most important and prolific American portrait painters of her time but likely you have not heard her name before. This is in spite of the fact that during her career, she painted portraits of famed author Henry James, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and over 800 other notables. Her early career was meteoric: she studied with William Merritt Chase; by eighteen she was a regular illustrator for Vogue; at twenty she was encouraged by John Singer Sargent and Stanford White to study in Paris. She returned to the US in 1901 and set about painting the most famous and important people who could afford her fees. Moving between diverse patrons—from state governors to opera singers—Rand carefully balanced changing social mores and fashions with her clients’ need to project authority, intelligence, and beauty through their portraits. For Rand, as with the other artists in this show, portraits, illustrations, advertising and fashion imagery paid the bills and supported families. Yet this work also, simultaneously, suggested that these women were not “real” artists, and instead only worked for money, not love or creative commitment. This exhibition looks to confront the complexity of the careers of women artists who had to work to have their art seen but also had to work for money.

Tuesday April 25: Ellen Emmet Rand and Women Artists in the Early 20^th Century. A dialogue with Dr. Alexis Boylan and Dr. Emily Burns. Talk begins at 5:30pm.  See our calendar for details.

The exhibition’s opening reception, featuring our three exhibits coinciding with Women’s History Month, is on Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 4:30-6:30pm.  Murderous Chanteuse will perform at the reception. Free to the public.

Exhibition on view March 23 through July 30, 2017. (Please note the Museum will be closed May 8-15, 2017, as well as Mondays and holidays.)

The Benton’s collection of Rand’s work is viewable online, here.

January 26 – March 12, 2017

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 2, 2017
4:30 – 6:30pm

This annual exhibition highlights recent work of the permanent, adjunct, and visiting studio art faculty from the Department of Art and Art History, School of Fine Arts at UConn. A variety of media are featured; painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, printmaking, photography, and installation art. Such diverse bodies of work represent the most significant directions in contemporary art, as well as the unique vision of each artist-faculty member.

Highlighted Faculty Artists
Deborah Dancy
Ray DiCapua
Janet Pritchard

Note:  Photos and image details of additional faculty work in the exhibition can be seen below.  These photos are meant for marketing purposes only and may not be the best quality.  To see the entire works as they were meant to be seen, please come view the exhibition in person!

Image Detail of work by Edvin Yegir “Trumpula Rasa”, 2017

January 26 – March 12, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 2, 2017
4:30 – 6:30pm

Inspired by this year’s UConn Reads selected book, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America by Eboo Patel, this exhibition features artists and subjects connected by a shared history, ideals, and identity that serve as bridges of cooperation throughout Islam and America.

*All works in the exhibition courtesy of the Leila Heller Gallery.

“The University of Connecticut’s UConn Reads program has been created to bring together the University community – from students, faculty, and staff to alumni and friends of UConn, as well as citizens of Connecticut – for a far-reaching and engaging dialogue centered on a book suggested by the community.”

Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo Patel is the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based organization building the interfaith movement on college campuses. Author of the books “Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America” and “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,” which won the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Eboo is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR, and CNN. He served on President Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz, and two sons. When he’s not teaching his kids about interfaith cooperation, you’ll find him feeding his coffee addiction and rooting for Notre Dame.–Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC)

Image Credit: The Snake Charmer of the 21s Century Savage, 2013. Shoja Azari, American/Iranian b. 1958

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 20 – December 18, 2016

VIRTUAL EXHIBITIONS:
Steaming Ahead: Reginald Marsh Watercolors of Locomotives
Reginald Marsh Watercolors of Havana

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION ON VIEW IN THE MUSEUM GALLERIES
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) is best known for his images of gritty New York—the beaches of Coney Island, the burlesque halls of lower Manhattan—while his depictions of trains are almost unknown. This exhibition features over twenty-five watercolors and prints (lithographs and etchings) of locomotives, produced between 1927 and 1934, along with one from 1940, all from the permanent collection of the William Benton Museum of Art.

Etchings were some of Marsh’s earliest work. He was fascinated by technique and often experimented with variations on the etching process, all the while keeping careful technical notes. But Marsh was primarily a watercolorist. He worked almost exclusively in watercolor from the early 1920s until 1929 when artist Thomas Hart Benton introduced him to egg tempera.

Some have interpreted Marsh’s depictions of trains as symbols of strength and power as well as offering a counterpart to his images of strong women. The gritty imagery must have also appealed to him. According to steam train expert Audrey Conrad, “Steam locomotives by their nature are accessible to the senses. When you see one move, all of the parts are right out there in the open, you can see the rods moving and turning the wheels; you can feel the heat of the boiler and steam; you can smell the coal smoke and hot oil. At the time he was painting them, steam locomotives were not obsolete: they were the prevailing type of motive power in the US and the world.”

While his studio on 14th Street was very close to the New York and Harlem railroad that was an electric train and Marsh focused on steam locomotives. The Erie Railroad terminal in Jersey City, NJ appears to have been his favorite haunt. Jersey City offered many engine terminals and freight yards in a relatively small area and most of Marsh’s watercolors of steam locomotives were painted there.

Steaming Ahead: Reginald Marsh Watercolors of Locomotives and the virtual exhibitions were made possible in part by the generosity of the Robert T. Leo Jr. Exhibition Fund.

 

 

On view on the Balcony Gallery from September 1 – December 18, 2016

This marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the first published reports of what would come to be called the AIDS epidemic with exhibitions at The Benton Museum, the Dodd Research Center, and at the School of Nursing. Ironically, 2016 also marks another AIDS anniversary: twenty years since the introduction of protease inhibitors and other retroviral drug combinations that turned HIV infection from a death sentence to a manageable chronic infection. To mark these events, the William Benton Museum of Art has worked with Dr. Thomas Lawrence Long to curate an exhibition which helps shed light on these happenings. This exhibit assembles images produced in response to the AIDS epidemic or by artists associated with it, and highlights how artists and AIDs activists produced a variety of imagery in an attempt to control the way the disease was perceived by the public.

See http://wp.dolancollection.uconn.edu/aids35/ for other AIDS related exhibitions on the UConn Storrs campus.

Listen to Thomas Long, Curator of the exhibition at the Benton on WNPR’s “Where we Live” http://wnpr.org/post/marking-35-years-hivaids

Guerrilla Girls, Missing in Action, 1991, Poster

September 9 – December 18, 2016
The exhibition consists of more than 60 rare and important presidential campaign flags and textiles produced between 1815 and 1912. Also on view is an official Massachusetts broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed in Massachusetts on July 20, 1776, before word reached them that the New York state delegates had adopted the Declaration. This copy shows New York as abstaining.

We at the Benton Museum wish to extend our deepest thanks to Mark Shenkman (CLAS 1965, Honorary 2007) for graciously and generously loaning his important collection.  Mr. Shenkman is a UConn alumnus, founder of Shenkman Capital Management Inc., and is Chair emeritus of the University of Connecticut’s Foundation Board of Directors. We also extend our gratitude to Jeff Bridgman, the leading expert on early American flags for his indispensable assistance and his expertise.

Public Programs:
Thursday, October 6,  6 pm
Lecture:  Jeff R. Bridgman, owner of Jeff R. Bridgman Antiques, Inc., is an expert on antique American flags, and preeminent dealer in American political textiles. In addition to buying, evaluating, researching and writing about flags, Jeff and his staff for the past 17 years have operated a textile conservation lab. He has lectured on antique American flags for many years and has curated museum exhibits and performed appraisals for both leading museums and insurance companies. Jeff, who has his antiques business headquartered in historic York County, Pennsylvania, has helped to build many of the nation’s best private collections of antique flags and actively curates some of the most significant among them. He serves on the board of directors of the Stars & Stripes Foundation, which presents exhibits nationwide. Jeff is a member of the three top professional organizations in America for the antiques trade, The Antiques & Arts Dealer’s League of America, the American Antiques Dealers Association, and the Antiques Council. He has served on the boards and committees of two of these and is regularly asked to appraise quality and authenticity at vetted antique shows. www.jeffbridgman.com
A short reception preceeds the talk.

Friday, October 14, 6-7pm:
“Teddy Roosevelt: Mind, Body, and Spirit.”   * Tickets Required; Limited Availability
Ted Zalewski, accomplished actor, author and historian, will present “Teddy Roosevelt: Mind, Body and Spirit.”
One man, one hour, do not miss actor/author/educator Ted Zalewski bring to life one of America’s greatest presidents! Combining history, drama and fun, he gives voice to many of Roosevelt’s own words, writings and beliefs. Cowboy, soldier, naturalist, historian, father, statesman and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Theodore Roosevelt lived a life that inspires us still.

“Meet the President” reception after the performance.

Tickets Required in advance as space is limited. $5 admission to general public; Students Free with ID. Purchase tickets at the Museum’s Visitor’s Service Desk or email karen.sommer@uconn.edu.

September 1 – 25, 2016

Opening Reception: September 1, 4:30–6:30 PM

Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night. These famous plays and 15 others by Shakespeare would probably have been lost to us without the First Folio. Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, and only 233 copies are known today. This year, to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Folger Shakespeare Library is sending a First Folio to every state in the United States, and we have been selected for Connecticut. Join us in September 2016 in celebrating the greatest playwright of the English language with this exhibit from the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. (shakespeare.uconn.edu/what-is-the-first-folio/)

First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, is a national traveling exhibition organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and produced in association with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center. First Folio! has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the support of Google.org, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, The British Council, and other generous donors. (shakespeare.uconn.edu)

Booking a School Trip: School tours can be scheduled and will include UConn faculty speaking about various aspects of the First Folio and Shakespeare in addition to a museum tour.  School tours are available Tuesday through Friday at 10:30am, 11:30am and 1pm.*  Call the Benton Museum at 860-486-4520 or submit this form to book your trip today!

*Self-guided tour groups will not be admitted during scheduled times of 10:30, 11:30, and 1pm. Groups of 12 or more must schedule their visit in advance or tours may be turned away due to overcrowding.

Tours at other times will be self-guided.

Featured Image Credit:  Title page with Droeshout engraving of Shakespeare. From the Folger Shakespeare Library.