As an artist and activist, Ringgold’s career has been dedicated to exploring themes of race and gender equality. She grew up in the creatively fertile Harlem Renaissance, a time and place where perceptions of black culture and identity were redefined. Her work incorporates the narrative traditions of quiltmaking and African American history with great resonance, serving as platform to share her story and that of those before her.
Travieso’s work is ripe with environmental concerns and a call for action. The jarring effect ofhis spliced paintings serves as commentary regarding the negative impact of humaninterference in natural ecosystems, frequently referencing species’ endangerment andextinction. These themes reflect a compassion for the vulnerable and under resourced, alikely byproduct of growing up in communist Cuba. He also credits his use of bright andexpansive color palettes to the lack of art materials available to him on the island at the startof his artistic career. Lonesome George raises important questions regarding the ties between man and nature, asking for careful consideration as we inch closer to the pointwhere humans become victims of their own circumstances and reflecting on the ripple effectsof even the smallest actions.
F. Holland Day, the creator of this work, would be considered something of an eccentric today. In fact, he was considered something of an eccentric in his own day, as well. Day was the son of a successful businessman in Norwood, Massachusetts, and early on showed an interest—nurtured by his parents—in art and literature. Though he did not attend college, Day quickly fell in with a crowd of bohemians in Cambridge and Boston, with whom he carried out wide-ranging discussions on art, beauty, and life, often over beers in one of a number of out-of-the-way taverns on either side of the Charles River (which divides the cities of Cambridge and Boston). During this period Day became fascinated by the work of British artist and social reformer William Morris, whose Kelmscott Press produced lavish editions of works by Romantic poets and copies of illuminated Medieval manuscripts, among other delights. Determined to follow in Morris’s footsteps, Day established the firm of Copeland and Day with a friend. They quickly made an impact on the American art book market, producing the first American editions of such important works as Oscar Wilde’s Salomé and the periodical The Yellow Book, both illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley.
Grosz lived in Europe during the First World War and experienced chaos and political upheaval before he emigrated to the United States in 1933. His work is characterized by bold criticism of the political class and military officials, and a pessimistic view of society; he had joined the rebellious Dada movement in Berlin in 1918 and later, together with artists Otto Dix (1891-1969) and Max Beckmann (1884-1950), they became known as Neue Sachlichkeit or New Objectivity. During the Second World War Grosz lived in New York where he taught at the Art Students League. His encounter with the metropolis is documented in numerous works from the 1940s, which focus on various aspects of the city. The war altered life in New York with many institutions temporarily transforming their facilities to accommodate production for the war effort and implementing the dimming of neon signs and lights to avoid potential enemy attacks.
Danh Vo’s We The People sheds light on the fragility and malleability of the concepts of freedom and democracy. Created as a series of 250 pieces, it recreates a full-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, originally constructed by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. Vo intentionally broke up the replica, its many pieces entering the permanent collections of museums worldwide. The fragments’ diasporic trajectory recall the multiplicity of individual journeys that made their way at the foot of Lady Liberty as they reached Ellis Island. Inherently woven into its many segments is the lingering symbolism of the immigrant dream. But the stakes of that dream have changed, revealing the intricate power systems controlling the arm of democracy.
Marcus Jansen (American, b. 1968) Plot #2, 2018, oil, enamels, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 in. Given by Barbara and Theodore Alfond in honor of Anca Giurescu, Ena Giurescu Heller, and Eliane Heller – three generations of courageous…
James McDougal Hart (American, 1828-1901), Summer Landscape, 1857, Oil on canvas, 12 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. Purchased with funds from the Michel Roux Acquisitions Fund 2007.7 (This was originally published in Spring of 2021) Like Dr. Grant Hamming describes…
David Hilliard(American, b. 1964), Wiser Than Despair, 2012, C-print, 24 in. x 80 in. The AlfondCollection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, Gift of Barbara ’68 and Theodore ’68Alfond, 2013.34.12. Image courtesy of the artist and Carroll and Sons, Boston.…
Sanchez was born in Cuba, to a wealthy family that was involved in the sugar trade. Like other members of Cuba’s pre-Revolutionary upper class, he was mostly educated in the United
States. After a few years in Florida, he made his was to the Northeast, where he overlapped at Choate with future President John F. Kennedy. After college (Yale followed by the University of Virginia), he studied at the Art Students League, splitting his time between his father’s estate in Cuba, his mother’s residence in Mexico, and New York. He also traveled throughout the Caribbean, gathering subject material for his prints and paintings depicting the bright sunshine and vernacular architecture of the region.
Caitlin Keogh (American, b. 1982), Renaissance Painting, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 63 in., The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, Gift of Barbara ’68 and Theodore ’68 Alfond, 2016.3.15., Image courtesy of the artist and Bortolami, New York. If…
