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8BThe Daily Tar HeelMonday, August 29, 1983
Exhibit to celebrate Ackland Art Museum's 25th anniversary
By GIGI SONNER
Staff Writer
This year will be one of celebration and transition
for the Ackland Art Museum.
The Ackland will celebrate its 25th anniversary
this September with an exhibition that will highlight
the musuem's early history. The exhibit will bring
together for the first time some of the important
works that were already on campus when the Uni
versity was awarded the William Hayes Ackland
Trust.
The trust, meant by Ackland to be used to
establish a center for the study of art at a major
Southern university, was used to build the museum.
It has since been used only for the acquisition of art.
Although its dollar value is not made public, the
trust generates more money each year than any
other university collection in the U.S., according to
Gayle Warwick, Ackland publicity and relations
manager. With this large trust behind it, the
Ackland has been a major competitor in the inter
national art market.
And the art is there to prove it. Spanning from
the second century B.C. to the modern era, the
names of some of the artists represented in the per
manent collection read like a study guide for a sur-
r
vey course in the history of Western art: Eugene
Delacroix, Peter Paul Rubens, Camille Pissano.
Maurice Utrillo, Salomon Koninck, Auguste Rodin,
Thomas Eakins and Max Weber, among others.
The Ackland's main problem is the lack of suf
ficient space to show its treasures. Only 30 percent
of the museum's permanent collection is on view;
the rest is in storage. And although some of the col
lection could not be shown regularly for preserva
tion reasons, the Ackland is forced to rotate some
of its works every four to six months in order to give
the whole collection more exposure.
The space in the main gallery is currently devoted
to photographs from the museum's permanent col
lection that have not been displayed before or have
not been on view at the Ackland recently. Although
only 100 of the Ackland's 422 photographs are on
view, those on exhibit show the historical range of
the whole collection.
The exhibit, arranged chronologically, shows the
development of photographic approaches and tech
niques as the medium's potential was explored.
From Alexander Gardner's journalistic Dunker
Church, Antietam, September 16th, 1862, showing
a field of men who died in the Civil War, to Edward
Westen's abstract Back of a Model T Ford. 1937.
the photographs vary in the degree to which they are
self-consciously "artsy."
"In most recent years, the emphasis in building
the collection has tended to be upon depth rather
than breadth," said Dr. Innis H. Shoemaker, direc
tor of the Ackland. "An effort has been made to
acquire several photographs by each of a few master
photographers with the idea of suggesting the range
of each master's achievement."
American photographer Berenice Abbott is well
represented in the exhibit. Inspired by Eugene Atget
(who also has several works exhibited), Abbott left a
profitable career as a portrait photographer in Paris
to return to the United States with a "fantastic pas
sion" to document the growth and development of
New York City. But the year was 1929, and the de
pression kept her from finding a sponsor. It wasn't
until 1938 that the government, through the Works
Progress Administration, funded the documenta
tion. Th WPA donated her photographs to UNC
in 1943, before the Ackland's founding.
Along with the works of Abbott and Atget, those
of masters such as Doris Ulmann, Paul Caponigro,
John Menepace and Lewis Hine are part of the
exhibition, which runs through Sept. 4.
The most recent addition to the collection, a rare
vintage print of Homing Ship by Andre Kertesz, is
also being shown in the exhibit. Kertesz, born in
Hungary in 1894, taught himself the art and craft of
photography. Between the two world wars, he was
active in Paris' avant-garde scene. But on coming to
New York, he found American taste much different
from his; the editors of Life magazine said his pic
tures "spoke too much." He was freelancing for
popular magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue,
Town & Country and Colliers when this photograph
was taken. He later received an exclusive contract
from Conde Nast Publications before working for
himself. He now lives in Greenwich Village and is
considered one of America's greatest living photo
graphers. Homing Ship was donated to the Ackland last
April in honor of former museum director Evan
Turner, who left in April to become director of the
Cleveland Museum of Art. Assistant director since
1976, Shoemaker became director in May at a time
in the Ackland's history that Turner described as
"clearly a turning point."
With former curator Katherine Lee's departure
last year to become assistant director of the Art In
stitute of Chicago, Shoemaker must appoint a
curator as well as an assistant director. And with the
Art Department's move out of the Ackland into its
own building last spring, the museum has more
space by early planning estimates, some 140 per
cent more space leaving renovation of the old
building imminent.
With these challenges facing the museum, and an
exhibition schedule worthy of the 25th anniversary,
it promises to be a good year at Ackland.
1983-1984 Exhibition Schedule
Sept. 20-Nov. 6 25th ANNIVERSARY EX
HIBITION Nov. 3-Dec. 4 Hagia Sophia Through Byzan
tine Eyes (in the small gallery)
Nov. 12-Dec. 4 UNC Faculty Exhibition
Dec. 10-Jan. 8 Winter Scenes and Illustrations
of the Christmas Story
(small gallery)
Dec. 17-Jan. 29 Master Drawings from the
National Gallery of Ireland
Feb. 11 -March 25 American Graphics:
1860-1940
Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10
a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sunday, 2-6 p.m. The
museum is closed Monday.
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Photo courtesy of the Ackland Art Museum
Photo courtesy of the Ackland Art Museum
An 1867 portrait of Thomas Carlyle by Julia Margaret Cameron shows photography's infancy.
But after the sexual desire is fulfilled,
then what happens? "
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Andre Kertesz' "Homing Ship" was donated in honor of former Ackland director Evan Turner.
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