Department of Art History  |  Sweet Briar College

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EXHIBITION CATEGORIES Decorated Pottery Illustration Prints Drawing Photography Sculpture Painting About the Exhibition and Website The Pieces in the Exhibition CONTRIBUTORS.... and Acknowledgments... BIBLIOGRAPHY Listing of Pages at this Website © 1997, Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College

About the Exhibition and Website

               Most of the objects in this exhibition were gathered together, researched and largely written about by students in the seminar "Art and Artists" (ARTH 201) conducted in the Fall semester, 1997, by me, Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe. I'm a Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, 24595 USA.

               The intention behind the seminar and this exhibition is to examine the notion of "art" together with the identity, nature, role, and myths of the "artist" from the earliest times to the present. Historical concepts of art (in theory and practice) are analyzed, together with accounts of the lives and activities of artists. The seminar also discusses such notions as genius, inspiration, and creativity, with a view to constructing a history of the perceptions of art and artists. On this occasion, I decided to involve the students in mounting a physical and a virtual exhibitions to illustrate issues raised in course.

               The exhibition was organized, and the website was designed and constructed, by me. I also wrote the Introductory Discussion. The seven students in the seminar worked in pairs on the seven categories into which the exhibition is divided (one pair of students per category). The students also assisted in the final selection of objects.

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.

               The website is intended to serve not only as the "catalogue" for the exhibition (a computer with Internet access is located in Pannell Gallery alongside the objects) but also as open-ended resource which will remain online after the physical exhibition has closed.

Viewing the Exhibition in Pannell Gallery, Sweet Briar College

               The majority of the objects in the exhibition were selected from the Sweet Briar College Art Collection. Besides the objects in the exhibition, the collection also contains numerous other works, including some noteworthy paintings by the Hudson River School. Many of the objects have been acquired through college's wonderfully supportive Friends of Art.

               Additional objects were kindly loaned by Joe Monk, Laura Pharis, and David Johnson who are all members of Sweet Briar's Studio Art Department.

Viewing Joe Monk's pot

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Laura Pharis showing us her prints

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Talking with David Johnson in his studio

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A photograph was loaned by Tara Hartnett '99, one of the students participating in the seminar.

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Feedback...? email your comments here!

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Some Technical Stuff about the website for those interested in such things

               All the web pages were written "by hand" (I learned html back in the days before HTML Editors and the like existed). Most of the writing was done on my new Macintosh PowerBook 3400c.

               Slides were taken of the objects in the exhibition and scanned using a Nikon scanner in Sweet Briar's Woody Computer Lab. Use was also made of a flatbed scanner when only print photographs of the objects were available. The scanning resolution was set at 300 dpi, which is the resolution maintained for the largest images on this website. The smaller images have a resolution of 100 dpi, and the tiny thumbnails on the sidebar are at 72 dpi. Image manipulation was accomplished using Adobe Photoshop.

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