DTH Omnibus Page 9
Thursday November 29, 1990
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with re-opening
museum's collection of more than
12,000 paintings, sculptures, prints,
drawings, photographs and pieces of
decorative art, as well as its 18-mem-ber
staff.
"I think the way the museum de
velops depends on how the members
of the staff respond to the expanded
spaces and to their own imagination
and desires for programs," Millard said.
"It is a group effort and the shape the
Ackland takes will be given by the
staff."
Millard said he is interested in
pulling in more of the community
now that there is a building to bring
people to. He even hopes to bring the
power of the exhibition to the state as
a whole.
"I would like us to reach all the
people we can," he said.
Ray Williams, curator of educa
tion, said: "We have always run small
scale exhibitions of the permanent
collections that can be used by the
departments (at the University). We
are interested in having temporary
exhibitions to support teaching
courses.
"If you are involved with a student
organization and wanted a tour, we
could arrange that,"Williamssaid."If
an R A wanted to arrange for a dorm
hall tour, we could arrange that. We
want people to have a greater aware-
m,4 y
Special to Omnibus David Minton
Icklarsd Art Museum. 'Cleopatra and the
see this painting on the cover of the new
ness of the Ackland as a community
resource."
To achieve this, the museum will
expand its educational programs,
promoting activites like a Saturday
morning story hour for children and
their families twice a month.
The story hour will use picture
books and stories to better explain
pieces of the museum's collection,"
Williams said. "For example, the
Ackland has a new dragon sculpture
from Thailand that we might intro
duce with an Asian story about a
dragon."
In addition, the Downtown
Commission's Arts at Lunch series
will be held at the Ackland twice a
month and the museum is organizing
a Young Associates membership
group.
"This group is for people who want
to learn more about art, be sociable
and have fun," said Laura Kreps, an
Ackland volunteer staff member who
is helping to organize the group. "We
should probably call them the
Ackland Young-ish Associates, since
the age range is from 'twenty-something'
to 'forty-something.'"
With the reopening ceremonies
just around the corner, the Ackland
Art Museum is poised to become once
again a force in Chapel Hill's art
world.
Gallery debut breathes life into
-
By ISABEL BARBUK
Staff Writer
The Ackland Art Museum,
located on Columbia Street,
represents the University of
North Carolina at Chapel
Hill's own display of "serious
culture." Closed since 1987 for reno
vation, it re-opens this week as a
facility for students and the commu
nity alike.
It contains a large section devoted
to European art, and in March will
open galleries devoted to Ancient
Greek, Roman, Asian and Oriental
works. Basically, the Ackland's major
premise is to give a broad view of art
through the ages.
The gallery is divided between two
floors. On the upper level is a rotating
exhibition devoted to drawings. Like
the rest of the gallery, the works are
displayed on a chronological time
scale, beginning in the 16th century
and working up to the contemporary.
The pictures incorporate a variety of
media, but utilize primarily pencil and
ink. Of particular interest are the 1 7th
and 18th-century sections, which il
lustrate the influence of the classical
image on artists of these periods.
Unfortunately, the earlier works
tend to be somewhat drowned by the ir
frames. Delicate pencil drawings,
minutely detailed, tend to disappear
Yes, you've seen it, you've driven by it, you've walked past it, but now you can know what it is ... the Ackland Art
Museum. If you've read anything on this page, you might have figured out that it's opening December 2 after
many years of being closed.
when surrounded bv heavy gold.
i Some aspects of the contemporary
section are interesting, in particular
the attempt to get away from precon
ceived notions of modern art. How
ever, one wonders why they chose to
display some of these prints over oth
ers. The pictures vary greatly in qual
ity, yet the gallery has a collection of
more than 10,000 drawings, prints
and photographs from which to draw
excellence.
This section of the gallery relies on
intimacy to draw the viewer in. Un
fortunately, the somewhat close at
mosphere means the pictures lose some
of their power. The impression one
gets is that of entering a library rather
than an art gallery studious rather
than inspiring.
Downstairs, eight galleries are de
voted to painting and sculpture. This
too is ordered chronologically, but is
also divided by country. This is com
mendable, as style in art revolves
around certain schools of thought.
Consequently, 17th-Century Dutch
art has its own distinctive quality, but
hardly resembles 1 7th-Century French
art. Perhaps the Ackland should also
look at subdividing the upper gallery
drawings as well.
The journey of art through time
starts with a short look at the Middle
Ages. These works incorporate largely
religious themes and a lot of gold.
Wisely, the gallery swiftly moves into
the High Renaissance and nth-Century
art. This section is full of wonder
ful Baroque paintings with vibrant
colors and considerable power.
A divided gallery continues the
journey. One wall is devoted to Dutch
17th-Century art, the other to the
French and Italian 18th Century. This
mixture works surprisingly well, with
the puritanical and sober aspects of
the flemish works juxtaposed with
the overly-romantic 18th-Century
pictures. Works like "Venus Disarm
ing Cupid," by Jacopo Anigani,
demonstrate the neo-classical learn
ings in art of this period. The picture's
soft lines and muted colors are ro
manticized, idealistic and pleasing to
the eye.
The 19th-century RobertL. Myers
gallery more flaunts than simply il
lustrates the Ackland's ablilty to
purchase major works of art. Among
its artifacts, it counts two superb
samples "Cleopatra and the Peas
ant" by Eugene Delacroix and "The
Call to Arms" by French sculptor
Auguste Rodin.
The Delacroix is a fine example of
his work, excessively vivid in imagery
and lurid in color, a powerful picture
of an intimate scene. The Rodin
an early work commemorating the
art scene
W-V W W J
Franco-Prussian War demonstrates
his superlative ability to. convey
emotion through bronze. This section
of the museum also includes works by
Pisarro and a delightful picture by F.
Barrias.
Lastly, the twentieth-century
Charles and Isabel Eaton gallery is
dominated by a Morris Louis picture
called "Theta Beta." This largely
white canvas daubed with six stripes
of colored acrylic paint finds its
strength in its simplicity. It is both
calming and disconcerting. The other
works, although not on par with this,
are interesting in their variety.
The Ackland is trying very hard to
achieve the standard of a serious gal
lery. Its work is well-displayed and
effectively lit. Unfortunately, it is still
based in the 19th-century interpre
tation of museums. The serious and
conventional displays in the Ackland
continue many existing notions about
the elitism of art.
Art should be accessable to a wider
audience and the overly intellectual
approach here seems to narrow that
possibility. However, the museum's
eclectic approach is commendable for
trying to reverse this. Chapel Hill
desperately needs the infusion of
culture and view of the world outside
the Triangle that the Ackland can
provide.
Symposium
By MONDY LAMB
Staff Writer
The long-anticipated open
ing of the Ackland Art
Museum , following a three
year, $3 million renovation,
will take place at 1 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 2, accompanied by re
' opening festivities.
The re-opening celebration be
gins Saturday, Dec. 1 with a sympo
sium co-hosted by the Ackland and
the UNC Institute for the Arts and
Humanities. The Beatrice
Cummings Mayer Symposium, "Does
Art Work in Museums?" will last all
day and is open to the public. This
series of talks and panel discussions
will debate the academic aspects of
renovating museums and re-installing
art collections.
"We thought the symposium
would be an occasion to assemble art
scholars, architects, and curators who
normally don't talk to each other
about the construction of a museum,"
said Ruel W. Tyson Jr., Director of
the Institute for the Arts and Hu
manities. Opening public ceremonies will
be at 1 p.m., Dec. 2 and will feature
comments from UNC PresidentCD.
Spangler, UNC-CH Chancellor Paul
Hardin and Ackland Director, Dr.
Charles Millard.
In the first six months the mu
seum will only display works of art
from its own collection, which in
cludes paintings, sculptures, prints,
drawings, photographs and pieces of
decorative art. A number of new
works have been acquired since the
TJL
C r A : ' V i
f f - Ju l
Dr. Charles Millard Is the director of the Ackland Art Museum
opens doors
museum was closed, and the re
opening will be their first public dis
play. Several of Ackland's best
known paintings were restored while
the museum was closed.
Although the outside appearance
of the 32-year-old museum is the
same, three years of construction
have entirely remodeled the interior.
The architect worked closely with
the Ackland staff to create a new
museum without harming the origi
nal building.
Dr. Charles Millard said that in
the new space, the works acquired by
the museum will seem different.
"Exhibited in new space, the en
tire collection really comes alive,"
Millard said. "The Ackland now has
an up-to-date, airy, well-proportioned
interior the perfect setting
for its broadly representative collec
tion, one of the finest in the South
east." The main floor of the museum
features eight galleries with European
and American paintings and sculp
ture from the past six centuries. Five
more galleries with art from ancient
Greece, Rome, China, Japan, India
and native North Carolinian crafts
will open in March 1991.
The Beatrice Cummings Mayer
Symposium "Does Art Work in Muse'
urns?" will be held from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m.onDec. I intheHanesArtCenter
auditorium. After the re-opening,
AckhndwiUrernainopenfrom 10a.m.
to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Admission is free.