UVa Art Museum opens four new exhibits

The dawn of abstract art in the early 20th century didn’t mean sunset for traditional forms of art. Four new exhibitions opening today at the University of Virginia Art Museum show that there’s room for plenty of different forms of self-expression under the sun.

“Every twenty years, people declare the death of painting — and yet there’s more painting,” said Jennifer Farrell, the museum’s curator of exhibitions.

The four exhibits explore the interplay between innovation and tradition and remind viewers that there’s always room for a fresh perspective — and even a sense of fun.

“Master Printmakers: The Italian Renaissance and Its Modern Legacy” is curated by Paul Barolsky, UVa’s Commonwealth Professor of Italian Renaissance Art and Literature and can be seen until May 20.

Art history professor Matthew Affron, the museum’s curator of modern art, is curator of “100 Years of Photography,” which reaches from early daguerreotypes and tintypes to more modern images. It can be viewed until May 13.

Farrell, who joined the museum in August, is the force behind “Curator’s Choice: People, Places and Things,” on view through May 20, and “Tom Burckhardt: Paintings,” which will be up through June 3.

The “Master Printmakers” exhibit dives into works on paper by Jacopo de’Barbari, Marcantonio Raimondi, Domenico Beccafumi and other 16th-century artists from a remarkable period in Italian art history — the High Renaissance. The woodcuts, etchings and engravings reflect the important role that printmaking played in capturing and disseminating cultural information and beliefs.

“There were also people who excelled at it, and it became a separate art,” Farrell said. “It really challenges the idea of a single artist.”

“100 Years of Photography,” which starts its chronological path in the 1850s, is a visual companion to “The History of Photography,” Affron’s spring course. It covers plenty of artistic ground, from landscapes and cityscapes to portraits to social documentary.

Photographers featured in the show include Thomas Annan, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Florence Henri, Karl Blossfeld, Eugene Atget, Anne W. Brigman, Frank Eugene, Walker Evans and Alfred Stieglitz, to name a few.

“It’s a great opportunity to see daguerreotypes and other early photographs,” Farrell said.

“Curator’s Choice” gave Farrell a chance to illustrate the different ways in which abstraction energized art instead of signing its death warrant. Representation of people (portraits), places (landscapes) and things (still lifes) didn’t have to rely anymore on realistic depictions drawn from the natural world to be effective at conveying emotion and meaning.

To a rapidly changing world rattled by wars, industrialization, consumerism and morphing mores, abstract art brought its own new language — and permission for imagination to express what customary realistic responses simply couldn’t. Cubism, Surrealism and Pop offered new ways to approach enduring ideas.

Farrell brings together works that show the progression from the humble still life to the iconic Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup can. The works, drawn from the museum’s collection, include pieces by Pablo Picasso, Sally Mann, Joseph Cornell, Robert Indiana, Lyonel Feininger, Nancy Graves, Robert Indiana and many other artists.

Along the way, Farrell was delighted to see unexpected connections emerge among the works as she placed them near each other. Visitors who linger over the artworks might find good arguments for placing several of them in more than one of the exhibit’s categories.

“It’s nice to see the works almost have a dialogue with each other,” Farrell said. “I’m hoping that people will pick up on a sense of play.”

Farrell will lead a Saturday Special Tour of the exhibit at 2 p.m. Jan. 28. It’s free.

“Tom Burckhardt: Paintings,” which Farrell also curated, offers a glimpse at the ways in which the contemporary artist’s work can make the line between abstract and representational work less clear — and more intriguing.

“He’s also, in a very smart way, investigating what painting is and how we encounter it, “Farrell said. “He really plays up the idea of ‘What is painting? What do we expect from painting?’ ’’

Many of his works use traditional oil paints on a decidedly nontraditional surface — fabricated cast plastic, which has a vastly different texture from customary canvas and paper. The uneven underlying surfaces add a different layer of energy to the works.

The oil paint takes longer to dry and “has kind of a heft to it,” Farrell said. “Tom gives it this incredible texture, and the paint sits up in a way that’s slightly off.”

Burckhardt has been working with UVa studio art students to evoke the Brooks Natural History Museum, which was in UVa’s Brooks Hall from 1877 through the 1940s. An exhibit of their results can be seen in UVa’s Ruffin Gallery from Feb. 24 to April 6. (Keep an eye out for a cardboard reconstruction of the Brooks museum’s mammoth.)

The museum’s Family Art JAM series will explore Burckhardt’s art this weekend. Children ages 5 to 7, accompanied by adults, can attend “Color, Pattern, Texture: Interpreting Burckhardt’s Paintings” from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, while ages 8 to 12 and their adult companions get their turn from 3 to 5 p.m.

After taking a tour of Burckhardt’s exhibit, young artists will create their own patterned and textured papers using tempera paint and then create abstract collages with them.

The event is $20 for one adult with one to two children; museum members pay $15. Bring additional family members for $5 each. Register ahead of time by calling 243-2050.

Don’t come to the UVa Art Museum’s new shows worrying that there’s something you’re supposed to get. Feel free to linger over the works that catch your eye and draw your own conclusions. And check in periodically with the museum’s website, www.virginia.edu/artmuseum, for upcoming talks and other events that can add new insights.

“People can start with any exhibition they like, but they all go together,” Farrell said. “People can enter them however they like. I thought that people could wander through the exhibitions at their leisure.”