ART HAPPENINGS
Humanities American Lecture Series:
Conversations with a Conservator
Lecture:
The Revolution of Pop Art
Tuesday, March 9
5:30 p.m. wine reception
6:00 p.m. lecture / $7 / members free
Sunday, April 25 | 3:00 p.m.
FREE courtesy of BlueCross
BlueShield of SC
Conservator Ginny Newell gives a PowerPoint lecture geared to the
lay-person explaining what causes art to deteriorate and how to
prevent such damage. Newell established ReNewell, Inc. Fine Art
Conservation in 1983 after graduating from Davidson College with a
B.A. in art history and was bench-trained in art conservation in both
America and Europe. Her lab specializes in works of art on paper and
18th- and 19th-century oil paintings. She does work for private
collectors and museums along the east coast and most recently
was hired by the Florence Museum (SC) to conserve their
two-dimensional art prior to their move to a new facility. Newell
stays up to date with conservation refresher courses to stay abreast
of new approaches and technology in the field of art conservation.
Pop Art was a watershed
movement in the history of art
because its practitioners, by
using the materials of popular culture like movies and comic
books, appeared to be embracing and thus celebrating popular
culture. The artists who preceded them, such as the Abstract
Expressionists, had all used their art to combat or transcend that
culture, which they viewed with disgust. This lecture, based on
Dr. Brad Collins’ forthcoming book, “The History of Pop Art,
1947-1990,” demonstrates that most Pop artists were not
celebrating comics and movies – they were using those
materials as a vocabulary in order to express themselves.
Community Gallery: Columbia Post-Graffiti
Dr. Brad Collins is an associate professor of art history at the
University of South Carolina. Collins received his B.A. in American
Studies from Amherst College (1964) and his Ph. D. in art history
from Yale University (1980). Since the late 1980s Dr. Collins has
focused on contemporary art, particularly American art of the
1950s and 1960s, and he has written scholarly articles on Abstract
Expressionism, Clement Greenberg, Robert Motherwell, Roy
Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. On the subject of Warhol, he has
written seven articles in preparation for a monograph that he
plans to write after the completion of his present project, a history
of Pop Art for Phaidon Press.
March 31 – April 25
Tuesday, April 20 opening reception 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Columbia street artists display artwork in the Museum’s
David Wallace Robinson, Jr. Community Gallery.
Street art is any art developed in public spaces, though the term
usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government
sponsored initiatives. The term can include stencil art, sticker art,
wheatpasting, street poster art, video projection, art intervention,
guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Typically, the
term street art or the more specific post graffiti is used to distinguish
contemporary public space artwork from territorial graffiti,
vandalism and corporate art.
Image above: Gerald Laing, American (born England), 1936, Deceleration I (from the Dragster series), 1968
screenprint in colors on smooth white paper, 99/150, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter G. Scotese
This show highlights the growing popularity of the Post Graffiti
movement in the southeast.
@ 701 Whaley
5
columbiamuseum.org