Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Utopia, Risd Museum, Neal Overstrom

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A provocative artist associated with the YBAs (Young British Artists), Damien Hirst often employs unexpected materials that conflate art, science, and popular culture. The hundreds of butterflies mounted in paint in Utopia—with their intense colors and symmetrical, geometric composition—recall a mandala or kaleidoscope image. Butterflies are among Hirst’s most frequent motifs. With their delicacy and short life cycles, they are a metaphor for the fragility of existence that reflects the artist’s interest in fundamental questions about mortality. 2008

Mies Van Der Rohe Chair, Risd Museum, Dietrich Neumann

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe succeeded Walter Gropius as director of the Bauhaus school in 1930, after Mies had become a pioneer of Modernist metal furniture. The Bauhaus became the seat of the Modernist movement through its efforts to reconcile principles of design with the latest materials in order to mass-produce objects that were handsome, inexpensive, and easy to care for. This MR model chair, designed in 1927, is one of the 20th century’s most influential creations. The bent-steel frame was made to look like one continuous loop of metal tubing, elegantly referring to its manufacture. While Mies van der …

Untitled Film Still, Risd Museum, A. Will Brown

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When making his prints, animations, and light boxes, Ezawa looks for source images on the Internet, manipulates them, and distills them to their essentials. Untitled Film Still belongs to a series of works for which Ezawa appropriated several famous photographs in order to deal with the questions of why some images become icons and how one looks at and interprets imagery. It is a playful appropriation of Cindy Sherman’s photograph with the same title from 1978. Sherman’s seminal Untitled Film Still series was in fact single photographs in which a female character (always played by Sherman herself) is trapped in …

For The Voice, Risd Museum, Doug Scott

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No abstract provided.

Child In A Red Apron (L’Enfant Au Tablier Rouge), Risd Museum, Maureen O'Brien

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This painting depicts Julie Manet, the seven-year-old daughter of the artist Berthe Morisot and her husband, Eugène Manet. She peers at a wintry landscape outside the family’s home in Paris, perhaps holding a prism to her eyes. The setting was Morisot’s bedroom, distinguished by a window whose small panes function as a compositional device that connects interior to exterior space. Across the canvas, a fluid net of slashing and spiraling marks rush through the room and animate Julie’s costume and pose. The vertical glint of a brass knob suggests that the window is ajar, introducing a breeze that lifts the …

Crucifixion, Risd Museum, Susan Ashbrook Harvey

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In this depiction of the Crucifixion, the Roman centurion Longinus is shown lancing Christ’s side as Mary faints in the arms of John the Evangelist. Beside Christ hang two thieves, one repentant, the other offering his soul to a demon. The gilded and punched surface and lavishly costumed figures reflect a late International Gothic style, here dominated by Flemish realism. Although this altar panel once hung in the parish church of El Cubo de Don Sancho in Salamanca, it likely was commissioned by a wealthy donor for a more important setting. Unpainted upper corners indicate that its original frame had …

Saint George, Risd Museum, Sheila Bonde

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Saint George was a soldier of the Roman Emperor Diocletian who accepted martyrdom rather than denounce his Christian faith. This carved and painted sculpture was likely to have been pulled or carried outdoors in religious processions commemorating his feast day, now celebrated on April 23. He was frequently depicted astride a horse, holding a shield and an upraised sword, symbols of both protection and sacrifice. During the Middle Ages, Saint George was the subject of widespread devotion, from Russia and Greece in the east to as far west as the British Isles. Perceived as defender of the Crusades and the …

Biblia Papuperum: The Flight Into Egypt With Jacob Fleeing Esau And David Fleeing Saul, Risd Museum, Emily Peters

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ca. 1460s

Accumulate: Along The Way, Alyssa Colon, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Spill, Jen Berry, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Modern Day Sisyphus, Scarlett Xin Meng, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

2nd PRIZE WINNER

The Cycle Of Life - Circle, Zehua Wu, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Coccinellidae, Nahyeon Juliette Kim, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Material | Adventure, Diana Wagner

Masters Theses

With the generous support of the RISD Grad Studies|Grant I traveled to London, England to deepen my thesis research of material libraries. This opportunity allowed me to visit the resources that inspired my enthusiasm for materials and to challenge the questions I posed in my thesis research, How we, artists and designers, learn from materials in the context of the library? The sources explored within this book highlight a growing community of academic and research based material collections in London, along with some exceptional exhibitions of materials and process in the context of the museum and archive.

Needlecraft Encyclopedia, Kyung Won Moon, Special Collections, Fleet Library

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

Undregraduate student. Year of Graduation: 2016. Major: Sculpture. Class: Drawing All to Itself. Faculty: Simonette Quamina.

Wish You Were Here, Hiroshige (2014), Theory & History Of Art & Design Department, Elena Varshavskaya (H791 Instructor)

Ukiyo-e Prints Course | Exhibition Catalogs

"As if responding to the call of the exhibition title ...(someone in the class sensed the artist’s personal invitation), a group of RISD students undertook a virtual journey through space and time to Edo period Japan. For a duration of a semester the entire class plunged directly into the midst of the Tokaido world, mixing with all kinds of travelers and local residents, learning their customs and manners, trying out various travel modes and road-side services, exploring every bend of the road, in winter and summer, at dawn and dusk, in sunshine and violent storm. ...

“Wish you were here,” …

Manual / Issue 3 / Circus, Amy Pickworth, Editor, Sarah Ganz Blythe, Editor, S. Hollis Mickey, Editor, Gina Borromeo, Alison W. Chang, Michelle Clayton, Jim Drain, Daniel Heyman, Andrew Martinez, Ellen Mcbreen, Thangam Ravindranathan, Rebecca Schneider, Susan Smulyan, Gwen Strahle

Journals

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Circus. The third issue centers on the theme of "Circus." Includes analyses of various pieces in the museum's archive, a fold-out poster by Jim Drain, and a selection of artworks owned by the museum that loosely address said theme.

Softcover, 62 pages. Published 2014 by the RISD Museum. Manual 3 (Circus) contributors include Gina Borromeo, Alison W. Chang, Michelle Clayton, Jim Drain, Daniel Heyman, Andrew Martinez, Ellen McBreen, Thangam Ravindranathan, Rebecca Schneider, Susan Smulyan, and Gwen Strahle.

Color System For Eagles, Lee Pivnik, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Needlecraft Encyclopedia, Kyung Won Moon, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Chestnut Trees And Farm At Jas De Bouffan, Risd Museum, Deborah Bright, Eric Kramer

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The Cézanne family’s country home outside Aix-en-Provence appeared often in the artist’s work. Called Jas de Bouffan (“sheepfold of the winds”), the property consisted of an 18th-century manor house with surrounding gardens and a farm. Just out of sight of this view, beyond the farm buildings at right, loomed another favorite motif: the shimmering Montagne Sainte-Victoire. In 1881 Paul Cézanne built a studio at Jas de Bouffan and for the next eighteen years spent much of his time painting nearby landscapes. This composition features an allée of chestnut trees seen from the garden behind the house. Cézanne massed the trees …

Lucent, Risd Museum, Sebastian Ruth, Toots Zynsky

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Toots Zynsky is internationally regarded as one of the most innovative figures in studio glass. Lucente is a vibrant example of her signature ‘filet de verre’ (net of glass) technique, in which she fuses thousands of intensely colored hair-thin threads of glass together on a flat surface and then allows them to slump into a bowl-shaped mold. The colors undulate and evoke feathers, flames, or woven textile designs. Zynsky’s glass-layering technique has a painterly quality unique for the medium. In Lucente, the exterior wash of green and yellow threads gives a misty appearance to the oranges and reds seen through …

Maternity Dress, Risd Museum, Deborah Johnson, Hilary Treadwell, Judith Tannenbaum

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1966

Rock Head, Risd Museum, James Montford

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One of contemporary art’s most compelling and elusive figures, David Hammons draws upon his identity as an African American for his sculptures, performances, and installations. He was also inspired by the 1960s Italian Arte Povera (Poor Art) movement with its use of everyday materials to create metaphorical imagery. Rock Head embodies a strikingly elegant human form with remarkable simplicity, roughness, and asymmetry. Reminiscent of both archeological remains and Brancusi’s Modernist ovoid heads, the smooth boulder is thatched with hair swept up from the floor of a Harlem barbershop. Hammons began using human hair from barbershops in the 1970s for installations …

Under The Willow Tree, Talia Connelly, Fleet Library, Special Collections

1st Student Artists' Book Contest 2015

No abstract provided.

Sugar Bowl, Risd Museum, Caroline Frank

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ca. 1800

Lady’S Writing Table And Chair, Risd Museum, Ben Blanc, Elizabeth Williams

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Commanding as much attention now as when they debuted at the 1904 World’s Fair, this writing table and chair were conceived as showstoppers in a crowd of stunning objects made by Gorham’s competitors. More than 10,000 hours of labor, 47.5 pounds of silver, and a panoply of exotic materials make up this unique set, which deftly melds sinuous European Art Nouveau floral and figural motifs, 18th-century French Rococo forms, and traditional Hispano-Moresque designs. Intricately wrought symbolism—seen in the daytime poppies and the night owl below the mirror and the decoration of the legs, each representing one of the four seasons, …

Saucer, Risd Museum, Andrew Raftery

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ca. 1840

Elastic Armchair, Risd Museum, Alicia Valencia, Matthias Pliessnig, Rosanne Somerson

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Based on the ancient Greek klismos form, this chair incorporates bentwood lamination, a technique using steam to shape wood into graceful curves. Patented in 1808, Gragg’s design and construction process benefitted from his experience using this technique to make Windsor chairs, an example of which is on the right. Inspired by the proportions and lightweight construction of the Windsor chair, Gragg fused the classical past with the industrialized future. The chair is adorned with motifs that date to antiquity, such as the painted peacock feathers along the chair back, the acanthus leaves on the seat rail, and the carved hoof …

Goddess Maat, Risd Museum, Gina Borromeo, Ingrid Neuman

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This depiction of Maat appears to be cast in three pieces: the altar, the figure, and the feather. Smooth, highly polished surfaces contrast with the concentrated detailing of the feather, wig, broad collar, and openwork altar. The goddess embodying truth, balance, and proper action, Maat pervaded all aspects of Egyptian culture. Traditionally represented as a woman with an ostrich feather headdress, Maat here sits in a characteristic pose. Similar bronze figures of Maat suggest that this piece is incomplete, and was most likely part of a group composition in which the goddess was juxtaposed with a larger figure of the …

Valentine Portable Typewriter And Case, Risd Museum, Perry A. King, Khipra Nichols, Kate Schapira

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Introduced on Valentine’s Day with a flurry of advertising, the Olivetti Company’s bright-red portable typewriter was an instant sensation of the Pop Art movement. Ettore Sottsass and Perry King designed valentine to be the “anti-machine machine,” meaning that it functioned as a typewriter but also had a humanized quality lacking in most office equipment. Sottsass noted that his seductive red typewriter was for use “in any place except an office … rather to keep amateur poets company on quiet Sundays.” To further differentiate valentine from workaday equipment, Sottsass’s early designs lacked both uppercase type and the bell signaling the end …