Campus museums cultivate the arts

By Anitha Chalam
and Anna Kovalszki
Daily Arts Writers

FILE PHOTO/Daily Kevin Canze, an employee at the University's Museum of Art, searches for a particular vase in the museum's permanent collection.

Art.

Three letters, a thousand possibilities. And here in Ann Arbor, those who choose can experience every diverse possibility known to the art world.

The first thought that may come to mind when pondering art might be art museums. Good thought, since the University of Michigan Museum of Art is the second-largest art museum in the state, and boasts one of the most impressive collegiate collections in the nation.

The art museum houses permanent collections, as well as a number of special exhibitions throughout the year. Currently on display are two shows, "The Museum Collects: 20th-Century Works on Paper II," a small but interesting show, and "Through the Looking Glass: Sculpture by Fred Sandback," a work in string, affectionately dubbed "the invisible installation." True enough, the thin yarn used by Sandback creates a subtle effect as he outlines delicate geometric shapes, and his concept of defining space is noteworthy.

Both the Sandback installation and the 20th-century works on paper shows are on display through September.

Special exhibitions run for approximately two months at a time, and there are 13 temporary shows each calendar year. Next year's exhibitions have already been planned.

Of particular interest is a Monet exhibition planned for January, 1998.

The exhibition will center around the painting "The Breaking Up of the Ice, Vetheuil." Painted by impressionist Claude Monet, the work is displayed on the museum's ground floor.

This painting was composed at a critical time in the artist's life, one plagued by depression over the death of his wife, as well as his lack of success in the art world. It is also the period when Monet began to paint in series. This show will include 12 paintings from the Museum's permanent collection, with 11 more that will come from museums around the world.

Temporary exhibitions are only a small part of the University's Museum of Art, however. The permanent collection is enormous, with only about 2-3 percent on display at any one time. The first floor is devoted to periodic exhibits and permanent galleries of European and American painting and sculpture, from 1300-1900 AD. Well known artists and sculptors like Delacroix, Guercino, Rodin and Whistler represent their respective artistic movements. The 20th century gallery is located on the museum's upper level, as well as Chinese and Japanese galleries. Indian art resides in the apse area located above Sandback's "invisible installation."

But for those who enter the Museum and wonder where the ancient Greek and Roman art resides, the answer lies down the street, at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Since many of these pieces have been recovered from site excavations, they are better suited to a museum of archaeology than one of art.

Though much smaller than the Museum of Art, the Kelsey Museum also boasts an impressive collection. Currently on display are the permanent Egyptian and ancient Western collections. The Egyptian display, aptly titled "Death in Ancient Egypt - Preserving Eternity," provides intriguing visual experiences from this ancient civilization. A smaller exhibit titled "A Taste of the Ancient World," shows everyday food production and consumption tools from the small agricultural community of Karanis in Roman Egypt, dating back to 100-500 AD.

"A Taste of the Ancient World," was organized by undergraduate students in the spirit of a fall 1996 LSA theme semester revolving around concepts of food. The Karanis excavation was particularly significant for the Kelsey Museum, as it was headed by Latin Prof. Francis Kelsey in 1924-35, the person for whom the museum is named.

The upcoming exhibition for the Kelsey is the "Sepphoris in Galilee: Crosscurrents of Culture" show, which opens in early September and runs through the fall semester. The exhibition will be jointly run with the art museum, and will highlight works discovered at the Zippori archaeological site in Israel, which was once a prosperous city where people of varied religious backgrounds lived together peacefully. The display includes a number of artifacts, including a large mosaic, and comes complete with maps and models, as well as a video and interactive computer program.

Of course, art isn't limited to museums. There are a thousand other possibilities, and Ann Arbor has explored every one of them.

By taking a walk around campus on a nice day, one can see the large amount of public sculpture owned by the University, like the Holocaust memorial near Rackham.

North Campus in particular is very rich, with a large variety of interesting sculpture, including a work, "Wave Field," the brainchild of Vietnam Memorial artist Maya Lin. In addition, there are a number of galleries and cafés around town that display the work of local artists.

And who can ignore the Ann Arbor art fair, held this year from July 16-19? The art fair is more about crafts than art, and many students remark that it is one of the most annoying times of the year, since it usually coincides with summer midterms. But these same students are also forced to admit that there is always something interesting to see, and that there are usually good sales at campus-area stores.

And in the spirit of technology, art can also be accessed online. Both the Museum of Art and the Kelsey museum have their own web sites (www.umich.edu/~umma and www.umich.edu/~kelseydb, respectively) and a little surfing yields a number of other art-abundant sites.

For those with cars, or those who can con their friends into driving them, nearby Detroit offers its Institute of Art, the fifth-largest art museum in the country, with an amazing collection and a lot of space to display it. The museum is bigger than anything on campus, and thus its shows, like its upcoming "Splendors of Ancient Egypt," are larger. The Egyptian show is the first display of its kind to come to a Midwestern venue since the King Tut exhibition in the 1970s. The show will take place in 18 galleries, over 19,000 square feet of gallery space, and will include mummy cases, jewelry, wall carvings and ceramics.

09-03-97