McMaster Museum of Art proudly presents

Peripheral Vision(s)

Curated by Rhéanne Chartrand and Gerald McMaster
Supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art
Opening Reception: Thursday September 12, 6 – 8 pm
On view until December 20, 2019

A new exhibition at McMaster Museum of Art sparks a visual dialogue between 19th century ledger drawings by Northern Plains warrior-artists and the lithographic prints of 20th century American artists Leonard Baskin and Fritz Scholder.

“Essentially, this exhibition [Peripheral Vision(s)] is a critical rethinking of the origins of the ‘Indian’ image, endeavoring to understand how artists have shaped – and been shaped by – this image,” says Rhéanne Chartrand, Curator of Indigenous Art at the museum of art and co-curator of this exhibition. “It invites visitors to consider how the lens of the present shapes our understanding of the past.”

The exhibition draws together nearly 50 works of art from institutions across North America.

Twenty-one ledger drawings record, in veracious detail, the first-hand experiences of four 19^th century warriors-turned-artists. These include Short Bull / Tȟatȟáŋka Ptéčela (Sičháŋǧu Lakota, c. 1845–1923), Pretty Eagle / Déaxitchish (Apsáalooke, 1846–1903), White Swan / Mee-nah-tsee-us (Apsáalooke, 1851–1904), and Iron Cloud / Mahpiyamaza (Lakota, 1851–?).

Within the exhibition space, these ledger drawings are placed into conversation with twelve of the twenty-seven “Indian portraits,” in McMaster’s collection by Jewish-American artist, Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) and fourteen lithographs by Luiseño/American artist, Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), borrowed from five prominent US institutions.

Individually and collectively, the artists in this exhibition occupied the periphery of mainstream Euro-American society, history, art, and culture during their lifetimes. Though almost a century separates them, they are bound together by their common creative pursuit of reflecting on vision(s) of self, of Other, of place, and on particular moments and events in ways that do not conform to, or uphold, the accepted “truths” of history.

“Together these artworks generate a new critical analysis of history, the politics of representation, image-making, and the overall intent of portraiture,” says Chartrand.

Peripheral Vision(s) is an exhibition that refutes the well-known adage “history is written by the victors,” encouraging visitors to activate their peripheral vision—largest portion of our visual field—in order to see objects, ideas, truths, gestures, and movement outside of their direct line of sight, or histories not at the centre of the dominant worldview.

EVENTS*

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, September 12, 6 – 8 pm
CURATOR’S TOUR by Rhéanne Chartrand: Wednesday, September 25, 12:30 – 1:20 pm

CONCERT | Night of Indigenous Music: Thursday, September 26, 7 – 9 pm
Cris Derksen
A rising star on the Canadian world / classical / folk / electronica scenes, award-winning Indigenous cellist Cris Derksen is known for building layers of sound into captivating performances. Her music braids the traditional and contemporary in multiple dimensions, weaving her traditional classical training and her Indigenous ancestry with new school electronics, creating genre defying music.

nêhiyawak
nêhiyawak hails from amiskwaciy in Treaty 6 Territory. The trio of Indigenous Canadian artists – Kris Harper (vocals, guitars), Marek Tyler (drums), and Matthew Cardinal (synths, bass) – transcends a new intersection of contemporary sound and the traditional storytelling of their ancestry. Their music is a resonant expression of indigeneity in the modern world.

PANEL DISCUSSION

Wednesday, November 20, 6 – 9 pm

– Janet Berlo, professor of art/art history and visual culture, University of Rochester
– Gerald McMaster, curator, artist, author, and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair of Indigenous visual culture and curatorial practice, OCADU
– Jeffrey Thomas, artist and recipient of the 2019 Governor General Award for the Visual & Media Arts
– Rhéanne Chartrand, curator of Indigenous art, McMaster Museum of Art*All events are free and open to the public.

THE SCHOLARSHIP

The exhibition will be accompanied by a significant publication exploring the “Indian” image with scholarly essays by some of the most prominent Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices within the fields of Indigenous art history and art criticism today:

• Janet C. Berlo, Professor of Art/Art History and Visual Culture at University of Rochester;
• Christina E. Burke, Curator of Native American & Non-Western Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK;
• Paul Chaat Smith, Associate Curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC;
• Gerald McMaster, curator, artist, author, and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice, Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto, ON; and
• Jeffrey Thomas, independent photo-based artist and research and recipient of the 2019 Governor General Award for the Visual Arts.
• Rhéanne Chartrand, curator of Indigenous art, McMaster Museum of Art

LENDING INSTITUTIONS

Harwood Museum of Art at the University of New Mexico (Taos, NM)
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (Santa Fe, NM)
Minneapolis Museum of Art (Minneapolis, MN)
Tucson Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ).
the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, ON)
Simcoe County Museum (Minesing, ON)

For more information about the exhibition, please contact:
Rhéanne Chartrand, Curator of Indigenous Art, McMaster Museum of Art
905-525-9140 ext. 27573   chartrr@mcmaster.ca

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Museum of Art Closing for Environmental System Updates

The McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) will be temporarily closed from March 19 – August 23, 2019 for major updates to its environmental systems. The shutdown is necessary to ensure the highest standard of care and preservation for the more than 6,000 objects in the University’s significant art collection. The MMA is a Category “A” cultural institution as designated by the Government of Canada. more info

We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to reopening in time for the Fall Semester with exciting new exhibitions. In the meantime, Museum staff will be taking programming ‘to the streets’ with a series of free education programs, including In-School Art Programs (Fully Booked), Mini-University activities, public art projects, campus art tours, and much more. Further details below.

We will be sharing updates and additional programming on this page and on social media channels throughout the closure.

MMA Public Programmes during Spring/Summer include…

GUIDED TOURS & LUNCHTIME ART ACTIVITIES

Presented by the N. Gillian Cooper Education Program
Free. No registration required.
In the event of rain, outdoor activities will be cancelled. Please follow our social media channels for updates.

• Walking Tours of Selected Campus Architecture
  Thursday, May 9 at 12 noon | length: 1 hour
  Meet in front of the McMaster Museum of Art for a guided tour of buildings in the central campus area from Hamilton Hall to Divinity College.
  Thursday, May 23 at 12 noon | length: 1 hour  Cancelled due to inclement weather
  Meet in front of JHE by the clock for a guided tour that will cover buildings in the south area of campus from the Reactor to the Health Sciences Centre.
  Wednesday, June 19 at 12 noon | length: 1 hour
  Meet in front of the McMaster Museum of Art for a guided tour of buildings in the central campus area. Hamilton Arts Week Event
• Walking Tour of Selected Campus Sculpture
  Tuesday, June 18 at 12 noon | length: 1 hour
  Guided tour begins in front of the Museum of Art. Hamilton Arts Week Event
• Outdoor Sketching
  Thursday, June 20 at 12 noon | length: 1 hour
  Art supplies provided in front of the Museum of Art. Hamilton Arts Week Event

PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS
This summer, McMaster Museum of Art will be commissioning three separate public artworks for the exterior of the building.

Must See Exhibitions Off Campus…

McMaster’s Monet in AGO Blockbuster
McMaster’s Claude Monet painting of Waterloo Bridge has been borrowed by the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto for their spring exhibition Impressionism in the Age of Industry: Monet, Pissarro and more from February 16 to May 5, 2019. We are delighted that the work was selected and that we were able to accommodate the request. The painting has just returned from the nationally touring exhibition A Cultivating Journey: The Herman H. Levy Legacy, and following the Museum’s spring/summer closure, it will be hung once again and on permanent display at McMaster Museum of Art (MMA). More info

Counterpoint: SUMMA 2019
Annual McMaster University BFA Exhibition
Guest Curator: Hitoko Okada
LOCATION: The Cotton Factory
270 Sherman Ave N, Hamilton, ON L8L 6N4
April 6 – 19, 2019
Due to the Museum shutdown, the 2019 McMaster University BFA Graduation exhibition (aka SUMMA) will be hosted off campus at The Cotton Factory. Please join us at the Cotton Factory on Saturday, April 6, 11 am – 3 pm for the Opening Celebration and MMA sponsored student awards. Until then, follow the graduating class on Instagram @mcmastersumma2019 for a sneak preview of the artists’ work.

The post Museum News: Spring/Summer 2019 appeared first on McMaster Museum of Art.

For those who missed it, or would like to review it, we recorded the formal portion of his presentation. Watch it now:

Michael Allgoewer’s exhibition 1514  includes nine recent sculptural and mixed media works. It is on view at the McMaster Museum of Art until March 16, 2019.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Michael Allgoewer is a Hamilton-based artist. He was born in Montreal in 1954 and studied briefly at the Ontario College of Art in the mid 1980s. He has shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions, in both public and private galleries. His work ranges from installation, emphasizing a connection with history and myth, often incorporating re-contextualized found material; to paintings which are abstract and rigorous in concept and execution.

Michael Allgoewer is represented by b contemporary gallery in Hamilton, Ontario.

The post Video: Michael Allgoewer’s Talk appeared first on McMaster Museum of Art.