2008 Woodie Awards
Along the lines
Cole Cheney - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: 80 Hours
Following the VOOM exhibition is no easy task. It's like being on deck while George Clooney is up to bat: You better stick to the basics because no amount of flashiness will make you shine more than his celebrity. The Power of the Line: European and American Etching Revival Prints from the Lee Collection, which have its opening reception at 3:30 p.m. Friday, appears rudimentary in theme yet could give Oceans 11 a run for its money.
Using a method called etching, the exhibit features Etching Revival artists who used acid to texture molds - etchers utilize one color of ink to press the image onto a sheet of paper. The result is a highly precise piece of work that is rich in texture and singular in color. Collected from a donation by longtime UI Museum of Art backers Debra Gabrielson Lee and J. Thomas Lee, the exhibit allows people to select and display 19th- and 20th-century etchings on their terms.
"I feel like the line is one of the most important parts of art," said UI senior Leslie Smith, one of the student curators for the exhibit. "The lack of different colors forces the artists emphasizes the texture so accurately."
Among other art students, Smith headed committees that pored over nearly 300 etchings to select a small percentage for display at the exhibit. The class, The Art Museum: Theory and Practice, which is taught by art Professor Joni Kinsey, exposed students to the process of museum display. The instruction was new even to veteran museum curator and art history Ph.D. student David Riep, who works in with the African department in the UI museum.
"This is far outside my specialty, and the setup showed me the many different techniques that artists can etch with a single color," he said.
"Shard, blurring, and smokey effects on Japan Paper, satin and cotton linen give the displays a lot diversity."
Organizing graduate and undergraduate students into committees in the "Topics: Art History" class, Kinsey instructed students as they selected the most interesting pieces to display. Ranging from maritime to nature scenery to sheep, the different exhibits beg for a closer inspection, with each line becoming more intricate the closer the scrutiny. While only blues, reds, and blacks bounce off beige walls and white frames, the exhibit maintains an air of perfection through simplicity: The scenes take on individual meanings through each line. The straight and clear lines display an image rivaling 3-D photography; the blurred lines take on a surreal tone, suggesting a hazy scene or memory. What the exhibit lacks in celebrity, it compensates with time and space transcending images that evoke American history and scenery as desired by UI students.
"VOOM will be tough to beat, attendance-wise," said museum media Spokeswoman Margaret Anderson. "I do think, however, that the era of the exhibit, along with student participation in its creation, should attract people."
E-mail DI reporter Cole Cheney at:
cole-cheney@uiowa.edu
Using a method called etching, the exhibit features Etching Revival artists who used acid to texture molds - etchers utilize one color of ink to press the image onto a sheet of paper. The result is a highly precise piece of work that is rich in texture and singular in color. Collected from a donation by longtime UI Museum of Art backers Debra Gabrielson Lee and J. Thomas Lee, the exhibit allows people to select and display 19th- and 20th-century etchings on their terms.
"I feel like the line is one of the most important parts of art," said UI senior Leslie Smith, one of the student curators for the exhibit. "The lack of different colors forces the artists emphasizes the texture so accurately."
Among other art students, Smith headed committees that pored over nearly 300 etchings to select a small percentage for display at the exhibit. The class, The Art Museum: Theory and Practice, which is taught by art Professor Joni Kinsey, exposed students to the process of museum display. The instruction was new even to veteran museum curator and art history Ph.D. student David Riep, who works in with the African department in the UI museum.
"This is far outside my specialty, and the setup showed me the many different techniques that artists can etch with a single color," he said.
"Shard, blurring, and smokey effects on Japan Paper, satin and cotton linen give the displays a lot diversity."
Organizing graduate and undergraduate students into committees in the "Topics: Art History" class, Kinsey instructed students as they selected the most interesting pieces to display. Ranging from maritime to nature scenery to sheep, the different exhibits beg for a closer inspection, with each line becoming more intricate the closer the scrutiny. While only blues, reds, and blacks bounce off beige walls and white frames, the exhibit maintains an air of perfection through simplicity: The scenes take on individual meanings through each line. The straight and clear lines display an image rivaling 3-D photography; the blurred lines take on a surreal tone, suggesting a hazy scene or memory. What the exhibit lacks in celebrity, it compensates with time and space transcending images that evoke American history and scenery as desired by UI students.
"VOOM will be tough to beat, attendance-wise," said museum media Spokeswoman Margaret Anderson. "I do think, however, that the era of the exhibit, along with student participation in its creation, should attract people."
E-mail DI reporter Cole Cheney at:
cole-cheney@uiowa.edu
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