This weekend, the museum will play host to events including a lecture titled “Art-Work in China,” a one-hour exhibition called “More Works by Robert and Nancy Barnes,” and the Art and a Movie event features a focus on the Chicago Imagists.
Judy Stubbs, curator of Asian art at the museum, is in charge of one of these events, which takes place at 2 p.m. Friday in Fine Arts 102. The lecture deals with the Themester topic “@ Work: The Nature of Labor on a Changing Planet,” she said.
“The IU Art Museum’s mission is to preserve, exhibit, collect, research, publish and interpret original works of art, to advance the academic goals of Indiana University and to enrich the cultural lives and spiritual well-being of society,” Stubbs said. “Presenting or supporting lectures and discussions of works of art is one of the ways in which we fulfill our mission.”
Phillip Bloom, assistant professor in the art history department, will deliver the talk.
Stubbs said she is interested to hear his insights.
“I always enjoy lectures by Professor Bloom and am looking forward to hearing what he has to say and learning something new about Asian art,” Stubbs said.
After a Noon Concert also on Friday, Nan Brewer, curator of works on paper, will lead the one-hour exhibition on the works of Robert and Nancy Barnes. Robert’s later work is up in the special exhibitions gallery this semester.
Brewer said this event will be intimate and informal, and taking part is first come, first serve. It begins at 3 p.m.
“The works for the one-hour exhibition are chosen from objects in the museum’s collection that are not currently on display,” Brewer said. “This one has a link to one of the current special exhibitions, but they can also be based on a specific artist, theme, medium, style or time period.”
According to Abraham Morris, manager of public relations at the museum, there will be a guided general collection tour of the museum starting at 2 p.m.
The Art and a Movie screening takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday in the IU Cinema. The film’s topic, the artists of the Chicago School, is also loosely related to Barnes’ exhibition. The relationship to a larger work is rare for these smaller events, Brewer said.
This sort of event is further reaching and includes a short talk beforehand, Brewer said.
“The gallery talk allows the movie’s audience to have an introduction to the artist and their work prior to the screening,” Brewer said. “These events are popular and generally reach a larger and more diverse audience.”
Brewer said she looks forward to seeing the associations between Barnes’ work and the work of similar artists.
“I’m excited to see the broader connections to the ideas and styles explored by the artist Robert Barnes throughout his long career beyond what is possible to explain in depth in the museum’s late career retrospective,” Brewer said.
Each of these events lends something different in terms of reaching the goals of the museum, Brewer said. The first is a celebration of works not seen in routine museum cycles.
“For the one-hour exhibition, the goal is to enable the students and community to experience artworks that are not on display and get a peek behind the scenes and into our wonderful collection in storage,” Brewer said.
Incorporating the IU Cinema is an important part of the second event, Brewer said.
“For the Art and a Movie, the goal is to offer a meaningful connection to the artists and their artworks that will give the movie’s viewers a richer understanding and experience of the film’s content, as well as to make a connection to the IU Cinema’s broader outreach to a potentially new audience,” Brewer said.
