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Lecture on 1950s American sculpture by prominent UD alumna
More than sixty-five UD alumni attended a June 18 program at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum featuring the prominent art historian, Joan Marter, a UD graduate and Distinguished Professor of Art History at Rutgers University. Dr. Marter delivered a talk, "The Perils of Progress: Artists and the Atomic Age," in which she described 1950s American sculpture as a rich, authoritative, and vibrant art that engaged with the eras concerns about the Cold War. Just as Abstract Expressionist painting is now viewed in the context of the chaos and destructive forces of the atomic era, sculpture of this period shares a similar vision of the world in conflict.
The program was followed by a reception and the opportunity to view the related exhibition, Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949-1960. This exhibition presented pioneering artists of the post-World War II era who embraced alternatively artistic freedom and gesture-based styles, nontraditional materials and counter-cultural references. Nearly 100 works by Louise Bourgeois, Alberto Burri, Asger Jorn, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Pierre Soulages, Antoni TÃ pies, and Zao Wou-Ki, among others, were selected for this collection-based exhibition exploring the affinities and differences between artists working continents apart in a period of great transition and rapid creative development.
We were delighted by the vibrant UD presence at the program, said Rachel Schwartz Sirota, Art History alumna (M.A. 2008) and currently Manager of Public Programs at the Guggenheim. Sirota was instrumental in making the museum accessible to the UD community and will continue to work with the Friends of Art History on future offerings.
