Fernand Léger: Fétes de la faim or Feast of Hunger lithograph
Life-long learners, students and art lovers flocked to Oglethorpe University Museum of Art’s three exhibitions during fall 2013:
Picasso, Braque, and Léger: 20th CENTURY MODERN MASTERS
VICTOR HUGO: Selections from the Schlossberg Collection
HADDON SUNDBLOM: Santa Paintings
The 20th Century Modern Masters exhibition featured more than 80 works by three of the 20th century’s modernist leaders. The lithographs, etchings and aquatints on display were inspired by collaborations or interpretations of major literary works by post WWII writers and poets. Each work on display introduced visitors to rhythmic beauty in function and form and gives insight into the artist’s thought process concerning life and literature.
An artist’s rendition of Victor Hugo.
The French political activist Victor Hugo is best known for his books Les Miserables and Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). His literature and discourse has since inspired many an artist to celebrate the life and abilities of this literary master. This exhibition featured drawings, prints and sculptures by a variety of artists. Most notable among them are Jean-François Raffaëlli and Frederick Hendrik Kaemmerer, who were both students of Jean-Léon Gerôme.
Christmas came early this year at OUMA with Haddon Sundblom’s Santa Paintings. Sundblom is responsible for the quintessential look of The Coca-Cola Company‘s seasonal Santa style, inspired by Clement Clarke Moore 1822 poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas“. His paintings of the jolly and plump Santa we know today were created between the 1930s and 1950s. Sundblom also is known for creating the “Quaker Man” for Quaker Oats and did work for Maxwell House, Colgate, Palmolive and Nabisco.
Haddon Sundblom’s Santa, courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company.
A Wednesday Lecture Series also accompanied the exhibitions:
- September 25, 7 p.m. “’Crommelynck’s Le Cocu Magnifique (The Magnificent Cuckold)’ illustrated by Picasso and Robert Andrew Parker,” by Dr. Jay Lutz, Professor of French, Oglethorpe University
- October 2, 7 p.m. “Victor Hugo and French Romanticism” by Mr. John Daniel Tilford, Collections Manager, OU Museum of Art.
- October 16, 7 p.m. “Léger, Le Corbusier, Italian Futurists, Machines, and the Dynamic City” by Dr. Jeffrey Collins, Assistant Professor of Art History, Oglethorpe University.
- November 6, 7 p.m. “Léger’s Modernist Take on Rimbaud’s Illuminations” by Dr. Jay Lutz, Professor of French, Oglethorpe University.
- November 20, 7 p.m. “Georges Braque Paintings and Prints” by Ms. Renée Maurer, Assistant Curator, The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
- December 4, 7 p.m. “Keeping Christmas: From Pagan to Puritan to Popular Culture” by Ms. Elizabeth Peterson, Director, OU Museum of Art.
The Oglethorpe University Museum of Art is open Tuesday-Sunday, 12 noon to 5 p.m. and closed Mondays and university holidays. General admission is $5; free admission for OUMA members, children under 12 and with a Petrel Pass. For more information, visit museum.oglethorpe.edu or call 404-364-8555.
