April Events
Noon Time Talk: Art Nouveau 1890-1914 (film) 4/1/2010
Starting our special series devoted to Art & Science, Curator Brian Byrn introduces a film from the National Gallery's educational programs. (32 min.)
DICHROIC GLASS: Ray Howlett 4/1/2010
DICHROIC GLASS: The Electric Light and Space Constructions of RAY HOWLETT
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The Midwest Museum of American Art is pleased to present a selection of works from one of the originators, Ray Howlett, of Dichroism, an original art movement started in the early 1970s that now includes over two thousand artists globally. Dichroic color in glass is not a pigment or dye. It is the interference of light waves passing through ultrathin laters of minerals that have been vaporized onto glass in a vacuum chamber. "Dichro" means "two colors"; one wavelength (of color) passes through the mineral coating while all remaining light (color) reflects off. The colors shift and change as the viewer changes viewing angles to the work.
Ray Howlett was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1940. He earned his BFA degree in art from the University of Nebraska in 1963. Two years later the artist gravitated to California where he would discover the space-age material, dichroic glass, that had been invented by Jet Propulsion Laboratories. By 1973, Howlett was making his first fully realized electric light and space constructions. Today these sculptures appear in the form of boxes and free standing, 3-dimensional, crystal-like forms that emit colorful light patterns.
The Midwest Museum of American Art is pleased to have in the Permanent Collection Ray Howletts "Vortex Slice" since 2002, which is on view on the first floor.
Noon Time Talk: Dichroic Glass & Ray Howlett 4/8/2010
Brian Byrn, Curator, introduces the exhibition featuring the work of Ray Howlett, Dichroic glass sculptor.
FILM: "Tracing the Light" 4/11/2010
We are presenting a special film entitled "Tracing the Light", that was filmed from the play at the Acorn Theatre in Three Oaks, Michigan. The film/play features the actress and playwright, Donna Blue Lachman, who grew up in Skokie, Illinois. Lachman has written, directed, and performed the play with a cast of young actors who bring to life the story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis.
Freidl was a remarkable art teacher who spent her last two years in Terezin, the Czech ghetto where many of the entellectual and artistic elite of Europe were imprisoned durding World War II. It was there she showed children how art could deepen their connections to one another and taught them to see the light in the darkness giving them a true meaning of survival. Lachman spent time in Terezin doing research for the original play and met with survivors who studied with Friedl sixty years ago. Their stories are the heart of the play/film.
Thanks go to Kenneth Brady who arranged with the actress/playwright the free showing of the film at the Midwest Museum. The film will start at 1:30 in the Main Gallery and will last for 90 minutes.
Noon Time Talk: The Futurists & the Art of Tomorrow 4/15/2010
Brian Byrn, Curator, discusses the art from 1900 to mid-century with regard to movements that emphasized science technology and new frontiers of society.
Noon Time Talk: Toward Change-Artists and Technology 4/22/2010
Brian Byrn, Curator, discusses the art from 1960 to present emphasizing artists using new technologies that sensitize or desensitize the human condition.
BUS TRIP TO CHICAGO 4/27/2010
A Day at the Art Institute
Join us on the Midwest Museum's first educational bus excursion of the new year as we venture to the Art Institute of Chicago to see "Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917". The exhibition will include approximately 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints primarily 1913-1917 in order to fully inderstand Matisse's meaning of the 'modern construction'.
In doing so, "Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917, will be the first sustained examination devoted to the work of this important period. In addition there are many superb exhibits in photography including "William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs & Video, 1961-2008", as well as the outstanding permanent collection of American Art.
FEE: $50. includes deluxe motorcoach & admission.
Call for reservations at 293-6660. Seating will be limited and Fees are due immediately after registering by phone.
Noon Time Talk: Agnes Denes 4/29/2010
Stacy Jordan, Assistant Curator, introduces the work of this Ecological Art master who is a pioneer of conceptual art and ecological art.