“A look at the reverse of a painting can reveal a lot about its structure and stability; it’s a bit like examining the foundation of a house.”
A Suite Semester
My time with Picasso’s Vollard Suite
“In my seminar on the Vollard Suite, I learned how to look closely and how to help others look—for details, technique and style, visual connections to other works of art, and evidence of philosophical and symbolic influences.”
A Bittersweet Goodbye
Saying Farewell to Patricia King
“The Museum was a staff of four—and we all wore multiple hats to say the least…I distinctly remember sweeping the gallery floors and installing exhibition labels right before each exhibition opening!”
What Happened to Kitty James?
The Art Doctor
“How is it possible to be sure of an artist’s intent when examining evidence that is almost two hundred years old?”
Loose Threads
Reflections on Teresa Margolles
“At the core of Margolles’s recent work are questions about the insufficiencies of traditional modes of representation. Must a work of art embody or internalize brutality in order to address it?”
New Acquisition
Asher Durand’s Catskill Mountains Near Shandaken
“For Durand, though, painting in nature wasn’t just a mode of practice; it was a way of living and working in communion with the very subject matter he put on canvas.”
Intern Insights
Eastman Johnson's The Party in the Maple Sugar Camp
“The Party in the Maple Sugar Camp is fascinating because it represents a work that never was, a project Johnson had great ambitions for that never came to fruition.”
Meet and Greet
Jordia Benjamin, Mirken Coordinator of Academic and Public Programs
“I immediately sensed that there is a genuine commitment by everyone to build the Museum as an open place for learning and engaging—not only for the college but for the entire community. That attitude is a recipe for success and I am thrilled to be a part of such an enthusiastic team.”
The Art Doctor
The Language of Art Conservation
The first post in a new series looking at the conservation of objects at the Colby Museum.
First Impressions
Van Gogh & Gachet at Auvers
In his doctor, Vincent Van Gogh found a partner and a brother, but also a fellow patient.