In art history, as in most academic disciplines, we divide ourselves into a dizzying array of subfields, from experts in ancient Greek pottery to Qing-era Chinese painting to Mayan architecture and far beyond. My own expertise is in nineteenth century…
One of the particular strengths of the CFAM collection I have been delighted to discover is in the medium of etching, one of the primary modes of printmaking used by artists since the Renaissance. To make an etching, a very…
For me, one of the great pleasures of museum work is getting to know an individual collection. At institutions like CFAM, which are tied to specific communities of alumni, donors, students, faculty, and local visitors, collections grow organically, reflecting the…
“Change is coming, whether you like it or not.” – Greta Thunberg What change is coming? Climate change and the movements centered around it. As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd, an annual event dedicated to environmental protection, here’s…
I would like to begin this week’s post on a bit of a personal note. I live in Southwest Virginia, on the edge of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Since March 30, however, Virginia has been under a stay-at-home order,…
Part 2: A Case of Artistic Friendship: A.F. Tait and J.M. Hart So often we consider artists and their work in a kind of vacuum, seeing them as exemplars of individual genius rather than members of communities. Sure, we might…
Forward written by: Ena Heller, Bruce A. Beal Director, CFAM We are happy to introduce new insights into the museum’s American Art Collection. In our latest blog series, American Art Research Fellow Grant Hamming will share the results of his ongoing…
In January 2020, we included Aquarium, a 3D video animation work by Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, in our museum’s collection installation, The Place as Metaphor: Collection Conversations. The narrative crafted by Ramos responded to the theme on multiple levels: it…
In the second episode of our podcast, “Art Encounters,” Guest Curators Dr. Mackenzie Moon Ryan, associate professor of Art History at Rollins College, and two of her students Morgan Snoap ’20 and Cristina Toppin ’21, share insights on the new…
A special three-part presentation of The Major Scale with Rollins Museum of Art’s exhibit, African American Art in the 20th Century, on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With a bounty of bold and brilliant masterworks from the likes…
In recent years, museum professionals have been focusing on how to decolonize museum practice. Colonialism is deeply embedded in museums through the way collections are formed and how museums categorize, exhibit, and disseminate the history of their collections. Decolonizing, though…
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Deborah Prosser’s essay included in the booklet that accompanies the Ut Pictura Poesis: Walt Whitman and the Poetry of Art exhibition on view at the Cornell Fine Art Museum from September 20 through…
Three times a year, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum (CFAM) hosts special seasonal exhibitions from both national and international lenders that connect to the museum’s mission and collection. This fall, the museum features the exhibition African-American Art in the 20th…
As the area’s only teaching museum, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum hosts a range of educational programs and visits for K–12 students throughout the year. Of those visits, the museum welcomes AP Art History high school students to test their…
A small work by Frida Kahlo (Mexico, July 6, 1907–July 13, 1954) in the exhibition Mexican Modernity: 20th Century Paintings from the Zapanta Collection encapsulates so much meaning, and yet it looks so simple that it is easy to understate its historical significance. The two-sided drawing Por la Paz (For Peace) created in 1952…
