Mr. Dial at the opening of the exhibition, "Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial." Photo by Tad Fruits.

The first time I learned about Thornton Dial was last fall in my Introduction to Museum Studies course at IUPUI.  As preparatory work for a visit to the IMA, my class watched the documentary Mr. Dial Has Something To Say, which is now continually on view in the Davis Lab.  I highly recommend it!  Knowing all of the work he has accomplished in his life, I was overwhelmed when my boss, Cliff, told me that I was to escort Mr. Dial around the museum the morning that Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial would open.

On Thursday, February 24^th, I stood in the the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion with butterflies in my stomach.  Let me tell you, the anticipation of meeting a person you know to have such strength of spirit is extremely intimidating.  Then I met Mr. Dial, and though his spirit is just as strong as I thought it would be, his personality was amazingly warm and inviting.

As we moved into Hard Truths, Mr. Dial saw, for the first time, his life’s work exhibited in a way that truly represented the emotion and care that exists in each of his pieces.  He released a sigh, as though he had been holding his breath for twenty years.  It was like friends meeting again after a long separation.

Though I was a silent observer, I was able to share an amazing experience with Mr. Dial – both of us seeing, for the first time, the most extensive and complete exhibition of his artwork to date.  “You made it so beautiful,” Mr. Dial kept saying.  Joanne Cubbs, Adjunct Curator of American Art, would continually reply, “You are the one who made it beautiful.”  Walking with Mr. Dial was both amazing and humbling, and it made me appreciate his work and skill all the more.

Something that will stay with me is that when he spoke, though his voice was soft, everyone listened.  People didn’t just stop talking out of courtesy or because Mr. Dial was the man of the hour, although he was that.  People listened to what he said.  They listened because when Mr. Dial spoke, he said things.  His words, filled with stories and emotions, are windows into his artwork, and his artwork acts as windows into life.  His artworks tell stories that really say things. When you walk into Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial, I hope you take the time to discover his stories for yourself, because each piece really does have something to say.

Filed under: Art, Exhibitions, Thornton Dial

The paintings and the dramatic tale of Paul Gauguin’s life draw so much attention that his talents as a sculptor, ceramist, and printmaker are often overshadowed. This spring the IMA adjusts that imbalance by unveiling a rare set of eleven prints by Gauguin, recently added to the museum’s superb collection of works by artists of the Pont-Aven School.

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, about 1890.

In January 1889 Gauguin was back in Paris after two months in Arles with Vincent van Gogh. He wrote to Vincent that he was creating the prints “with the aim of making myself better known.” Gauguin was also organizing an exhibition for summer 1889 to take advantage of the large crowds that would visit the Exposition Universelle in Paris. This world’s fair was designed to flaunt French cultural and industrial might, and its signature attraction was the 300-meter tower of Gustave Eiffel. Gauguin and his friends were not accepted into the official exhibition in the fair’s arts pavilion, so they appealed to Monsieur Volpini, who had opened a café within the fairgrounds. When the mirrors he had ordered to decorate the café failed to arrive, Volpini agreed to display their work.

Gauguin’s album of prints made their debut at that exhibition, and they have come to be known as the Volpini Suite. That occasion also marked the first time that paintings reflecting the progressive ideas of Gauguin and other artists of the Pont-Aven School were publicly displayed. His prints were listed at the end of the small catalogue as “viewable upon request.” This modest citation was the first reference to a body of work that now stands as one of the most important graphic projects of 19^th-century France.

The technical achievement of the Volpinis is even more remarkable given that they were Gauguin’s first attempt at printmaking. The prints are zincographs, a variation of lithography that calls for drawing on zinc plates rather than heavy lithographic stones. The challenges of this medium clearly appealed to Gauguin, and he approached his plunge into printmaking with confidence, daring to work on the zinc surfaces that make it more difficult to keep an image intact. He appreciated the rough, grainy textures of zincographs and intensified the results by printing on brilliant canary yellow paper. Working with a brush or pen, Gauguin applied washes, called lavis or tusche, to add rich tonal variety. These works made him a key contributor to the printmaking revival of late 19^th-century France, when artists, reacting to the proliferation of photo-mechanical reproductive prints, championed the fully original, limited-edition print. Gauguin probably made thirty to forty sets of the eleven-piece suite.

Paul Gauguin, "Martinique Pastorale," 1889.

The Volpini Suite draws upon Gauguin’s travels to Martinique, Brittany, and Arles. He had, as yet, not ventured to Tahiti. Many motifs were adapted from his paintings inspired by those locales, and they provide stunning examples of how cleverly the artist transferred images from one medium to another. While on one level the prints depict scenes from everyday life, their underlying themes are often ironic references to guilt and pleasure, fear, hope, sexuality and doubt.

Acquisition of the Volpini Suite fulfills a long-term goal for the IMA, where the prints enjoy a uniquely appropriate context. They are the ideal complement to the paintings in the museum’s Pont-Aven School Collection, recognized as the finest in America. Gauguin’s bold experiment in printmaking also provides a basis for thematic, stylistic, and technical links to the IMA’s extensive collection of graphics by other members of the School. As a group, the Volpini prints offer a vivid survey of Gauguin’s work at a critical juncture in his career, and they point us toward themes and motifs that will inspire the next fourteen years of his creative life.

Gauguin as Printmaker: The Volpini Suite opens this Friday, March 11, in the Golden Gallery on the second floor.  Tonight at 7pm join Dr. Heather Lemonedes, Curator of Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art, for a revealing talk on the connections in his work.

Filed under: Exhibitions, Public Programs, The Collection, The Volpini Suite

Around the IMA, we’re full steam ahead for the February 25 opening of our next exhibition, Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial. Installation is underway in the galleries, catalogues have arrived in the shop, final preparations are being made for the opening reception, the exhibition website has launched, and finishing touches are being put on the TAP mobile tour.

Thornton Dial presents his perspective on the big issues of our time – from current events that speak to him from a constant stream of news television to the resulting impact of social issues in our nation’s history – through his incredibly layered and symbol-rich work.  The lack of abandon he demonstrates with his choices of materials builds upon traditions found in African American yard art, re-purposing salvaged items while still mindful of their previous incarnations.  As he stated, “I only want materials that have been used by people, the works of the United States, that have did people some good but once they got the service out of them they throwed them away. So I pick it up and make something new out of it.”

Throughout the course of the exhibition, we’ll be featuring a series of blog posts inspired by Thornton Dial – not only discussing his art, but also exploring the larger topics he references in his work.  We’ll also look at the many ways that staffers at the museum work on the exhibition, and how these behind-the-scenes stories contribute to the whole. Stay tuned!

Filed under: Exhibitions, Thornton Dial

You’ve probably heard that Andy Warhol Enterprises will be on display at the IMA from October 10th through January 2, 2011. Organized by IMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Sarah Urist Green and former Assistant Curator Allison Unruh, this retrospective includes works by Warhol that relate to his business as well as studio practices spanning from 1946 until his death in 1987. Andy Warhol Enterprises encompasses Warhol’s beginnings as a commercial artist upon his move to New York in 1949, as well as works that are more familiar, such as his Brillo box sculptures or his portraits of Marilyn Monroe. Archival materials included in the show provide insight into the many different areas of Warhol’s career. For example, record covers and contracts chronicle his time spent as the band manager for the Velvet Underground and Nico, and episodes of Andy Warhol’s T.V. and copies of Interview magazine serve as evidence for Warhol’s explorations into mass media.

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Filed under: Art, Current Events, Exhibitions

Most museum staff live at least 6 months in the future. Life at the IMA is no different- we are always looking ahead to the next exciting things happening in the Museum or on our grounds. So, what’s up next? Right now, we are preparing to open the highly anticipated Andy Warhol Enterprises with much fanfare on 10.10.10, and the crisp weather always means lots of new programming in the Toby.

Have you checked out our fall calendar? Schedule your cultural adventure now. Here are the trailers to whet your appetite:

Filed under: Current Events, The Toby