The University of Michigan Museum of Art presents Recent Acquisitions: Curator’s Choice, Part I an exhibition on view November 12, 2011-March 18, 2012.
Berenice Abbott United States, 1898-1991 Seventh Avenue Looking North 1936 Gelatin silver print Gift of Ellen and William Kahn, 2008/2.272
This is the first part of a two-part exhibition introducing exciting, recently acquired works from UMMA’s collections gifted to the museum during the past five years. Recent Acquisitions: Curator’s Choice, Part I presents a first look at artworks, mostly prints, drawings, and photographs by artists as diverse as Annie Leibovitz, Edward Steichen, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Carole McNamara, Senior Curator of Western Art, chose works that focus on some of the enduring and compelling themes that have occupied artists in Europe and America. One is the preoccupation with the human form as an expression of ideas, feelings, and sensations. This selection begins with the tradition of the academic nude study and progresses to embrace different genres, from both secular and religious contexts. Another selection-landscapes and cityscapes-are each opportunities for artists to speak to our relationship to the natural world-both in how we experience landscape as well as how we construct our own urban environments.
This exhibition is made possible in part by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost.