NEWS RELEASE
February 14, 2011
FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA - NORMAN
CONTACT MICHAEL BENDURE, Director of Communication, 405-325-3178, [email protected]
FAX: 405-325-7696
www.ou.edu/fjjma
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WITH PHOTO
FJJMA Visits 19th-Century Mediterranean Culture With
New Exhibition
NORMAN, OKLA. – A new exhibition at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art looks
at Mediterranean culture through the eyes of 19th-century American painters.
Mediterranea: American Art from the Graham D. Williford Collection opens with a
free reception at 7 p.m. Friday, March 4, at the FJJMA at the University of
Oklahoma. A special guest lecture by Charles C. Eldredge will accompany the
exhibition’s opening reception at 6 p.m. Association members and the public are
invited.
Mark White, Eugene B. Adkins Curator
at the museum and curator of the
exhibition, said Mediterranea explores the
major cultures and monuments of the
Mediterranean region through the art
works of American artists of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
“American tourism of Europe before the
Civil War usually followed that of the
Grand Tour, which included all the
important cultural centers of France,
Italy and Germany,” White said. “But in
the late 19th century, American artists
showed increasing interest in points
abroad, including Spain, the Holy Land,
Egypt and much of northern Africa.
Mediterranea provides contemporary
viewers with an exploration of the ways
American artists understood, interpreted
and portrayed Mediterranean culture in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
Made possible through a generous loan from the Jean and Graham Devoe
Williford Charitable Trust, the exhibition features several dozen works depicting
landscapes, seascapes and iconic topography.
“The mystery of Egypt, the warmth of Italy, the exoticism of Lebannon – these
images and others of Mediterranean culture help us understand this part of the
world,” said Ghislain d’Humières, director of the FJJMA. “By visually diving
into the region’s history, visitors to Mediterranea also gain insight into 21st-century
political situations in these countries.”
American artists became interested in the aspects of nature and culture that they
believed to define the Mediterranean: its distinctive flora, the legacy of the
Greco-Roman past and the influence of Christianity and Islam.
The results rarely depicted a homogenous image of the Mediterranean, but often
focused on the visual signs of cross-sea warfare, trade and religious influence.
Popular travel writers such as George William Curtis, Bayard Taylor and Mark
Twain attracted American attention to North Africa and the Middle East. Some
American artists were encouraged to visit Spain, the Middle East and Africa by
their European teachers. Wealthy collectors also drew artists to popular vacation
spots such as Venice and the Nile River. Finally, religious faith prompted some
Americans to visit the Holy Land and other sites important to their beliefs.
“While the respective reasons for Mediterranean travel differed among American
artists, the visual records of their travels demonstrate a growing awareness of a
palpable unity in the region,” White said.
Guest opening reception speaker Eldredge is the Hall Distinguished Professor of
American Art and Culture at the University of Kansas’ History of Art
department. Eldredge is the former director of the National Museum of
American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and the Spencer Museum of Art at
the University of Kansas. His research and teaching focus on painting, sculpture
and allied arts of the United States, especially from the mid-19th to the mid-20th
centuries.
The exhibition opening triples as a Museum Association party and a retirement
party for Mary Jane Rutherford, community relations officer at the museum, who
has served the museum for 40 years in the Museum Association and Museum
Store.
At 8 p.m., graduate students from the OU School of Dance will give a special
presentation of “Frame by Frame,” a new piece choreographed specifically for
the Mediterranea exhibition. Under the direction of Mary Margaret Holt, director
of the OU School of Dance, the piece is inspired by works from the Williford
Collection displayed in the exhibition.
Mediterranea: American Art from the Graham D. Williford Collection remains on
display through May 15. Interdisciplinary programs, including films, lectures
and a symposium, are scheduled throughout the duration of the exhibition. The
symposium, titled Social and Political Issues in the Mediterranean, is scheduled for
April 7 and features OU faculty from multiple areas of study discussing past and
current issues affecting the Mediterranean. The symposium is coordinated with
assistance from professor Robert Cox of the European Union Center. Each event
is free and open to the public.
An exhibition catalog is available in the Museum Store.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is located in the OU Arts District on the corner
of Elm Avenue and Boyd Street, at 555 Elm Ave., on the OU Norman campus.
Admission to the museum is free to all OU students with a current student ID
and all museum association members, $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for
children 6 to 17 years of age, $2 for OU faculty/staff and free for military
veterans with proof and children 5 and under. The museum is closed on
Mondays and admission is free on Tuesdays. The museum’s website is
www.ou.edu/fjjma. Information and accommodations on the basis of disability
are available by calling (405) 325-4938.
Construction on a new wing is under way, but the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
is open and fully functional with exhibitions and programming throughout the
entire construction process.
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PHOTO CUTLINE
Mediterranea, a new exhibition opening at 7 p.m. Friday, March 4, at the Fred
Jones Jr. Museum of Art, reveals landscapes, seascapes and views of iconic
topography in 19th- and 20th-century Mediterranean Europe, Middle East and
Africa. This painting by American artist George Peter Alexander Healy (19131894) illustrates the Arch of Titus in Rome. Courtesy of the Jean and Graham
Devoe Williford Charitable Trust.
George Peter Alexander Healy (U.S., 1913-1894)
Arch of Titus, 1871
Oil on canvas, 40 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.
Courtesy of the Jean and Graham Devoe Williford Charitable Trust