Back to Introduction EXHIBITION CATEGORIES Decorated Pottery Illustration Prints Drawing PHOTOGRAPHY Sculpture Painting

What is Art .... ?                      .... What is an Artist ? An exhibition exploring the perception of ART      and the identity of the ARTIST      through HISTORY      and in CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY      PHOTOGRAPHY.... essays by Hobby Holmes and Emily Busse Anonymous Feeding the Swans on Lake Day, 1915 photograph Collection of Sweet Briar College, Alumnae Scrapbook click here for a LARGE image                A photograph such as the one exhibited here, taken originally as a "snapshot" record of an event at Sweet Briar in 1915, can sometimes become over time appreciated a work of art. As we become less distracted by its original meaning, purpose, identity, and context, the eye and the mind find delight instead in the composition, texture, and detail, and the mysterious and evocative nature of the moment caught by the camera. Photography

The objects and material in this exhibition were gathered together, researched and largely written about by students in the seminar "Art and Artists" conducted in the Fall semester, 1997, by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, 24595 USA. Invaluable assistance was provided by Rebecca Massie Lane, Director of Galleries and the Arts Management Program, who in turn was assisted by Dana Lee Bordvick '98.