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Yale Center for British Art Presents Art in Focus: William III

The Yale Center for British Art presents Art in Focus: William III, an exhibition on view through Sunday, July 31, 2011.

Art in Focus is an academic initiative for members of the Yale Center for British Art Student Guide Program, through which students are introduced to every aspect of exhibition practice. Students intensify their engagement with the Center’s collections, strengthen their research skills, and test writing in new formats. Student curators select objects for exhibition, write text panels and object labels, and make decisions about installation.

The fifth exhibition in this initiative, Art in Focus: William III, examines an eighteenth-century lead sculpture of King William by the Dutch artist John Nost the Elder or the British sculptor John Cheere. Measuring almost six feet tall, William III will be temporarily installed on a high base, affording the viewer a perspective similar to its original display. Related works from the Center’s collections, including portraits of William III and contemporaneous sculptures in a variety of media, will be exhibited with the sculpture. Through this group of objects, the exhibition will address the contested image and historical legacy of William III (1650–1702), his own under-appreciated collecting practices, and the Dutch artists who came to work in England in William’s wake. In addition, it will investigate the history of the sculpture’s production, ownership, and iconography. Students will examine the way in which technological innovations at this time made an impact upon material culture and allowed British artists and craftspeople to become leaders in their fields.

Image: William III, Yale Center for British Art

The Yale Center for British Art is a public art museum and research institute for the study of British art and culture. Presented to Yale University by Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), the Center houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom.

Yale Center for British Art
1080 Chapel Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06510-2302
Toll free: 1 877 BRIT ART (274 8278)
(within the United States)
International: +1 203 432 2800
[email protected]
http://britishart.yale.edu

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