May 2 - 29, 2003

Clarice Smith captures the essence of place, individuality of a subject and mood of the moment in her nineteen paintings on view at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. She has stated, "I paint the world I live in, the things I know," such as the dynamism of a horse in motion and the heavy atmosphere surrounding a particular road in the Scottish Highlands. Smith infuses conventional stylistic approaches to painting and composition with touches of her own invention. Patterning found in nature, people and objects is of paramount interest to Smith, and serves as the springboard for her compositions.

April 10 - 25, 2003

This exhibit features approximately 60 examples of khorjin (two-pouched saddle bags) and mafrash (box-like storage and transport bags). These rare bags represent the epitome of personal Near Eastern textile art in the 19th century. Many objects will be complete with original backs, conveying information rarely seen in any exhibition of like material. Others will be the decorated faces of the bags. The objects will illustrate several structural techniques used in the region: sumak wrapping, kilim and pile, among others. The woolen khorjin and mafrash were woven by nomadic pastoralists and village-based women in Northwest Persia and Transcaucasia and represent some of the oldest bags of their kind to survive.

March 6 - 25, 2003

The Annual Awards Show is the premier show featuring works by undergraduate seniors and graduate fine arts students from The George Washington University's Department of Fine Arts and Art History. The exhibition highlights programs of the department and includes a wide range of media, such as, ceramics, design, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and visual communications. All works on display are eligible for various awards to be granted by a panel of art professionals.

February 22 - April 2, 2003

Organized for George Washington's birthday celebration, Campus Icons highlights select outdoor sculpture on campus and features the dedication of a new George Washington weathervane, created by the late Travis Tuck and donated by Luther W. Brady.ÊIt strives to guide and inform visitors to the University, to offer information on the history and provenance of each sculpture, and to celebrate the process of the artist and donor involvement in the enhancement of the physical environment of the campus.

January 15 - February 22, 2003

"In Illo Tempore" refers to a Latin phrase from the Gospels, and is similar to the English "Once upon a time..." This general sense of being out of the mainstream suggests something eternal, which is the essence of Vicente Pascual's approach to geometric abstraction in his acrylic and ink paintings. Inspired by the rugged Roman walls of his birthplace, the Aragonese city of Zaragoza, Pascual creates paintings that engage the built environment. Architectural texture and form influence Pascual's painted surfaces and are characterized in his color palette, which brings to mind sand, earth and soil. Pascual's work favors centralized arrangements of extremely simple geometric forms on generally monochromatic grounds. His paintings represent a harmonious union between rigor and freedom.

October 21, 2002 - February 20, 2003

Organized by work-study students, Shayna Kulik and Caroline Park, An Eastern and Western Exchange showcases two recent acquisitions to the George Washington University Permanent Collection: Japanese woodblock prints by Toyokuni and printing blocks carved and used by Luigi Rist in the Japanese printmaking tradition.

October 31 - December 6, 2002

Imagine talking candidly with over 50 prominent Americans, asking each of them to describe their vision of an ideal world. Imagine then asking them to paint a picture of the world they just described. Journalist Debra Trione did just that, and compiled the results into her book entitled, A Perfect World: Words and Paintings from Over 50 of America's Most Powerful People. Depictions by such distinguised figures as James Carville, Alan Dershowitz, Candace Gingrich, Patricia Ireland, Knight Kiplinger, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Nancy Pelosi are exhibited at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. For more information on Debra Trione and her book, visit www.perfectworldbook.com.

September 3 - October 18, 2002

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of CBS, which began broadcasting as a radio network in 1927, The George Washington University presents America Through the CBS Eye, a fine art photo exhibition of memorable images taken by CBS photographers.

April 18 - May 3, 2002

This exhibition showcases works by undergraduate and graduate fine arts students in GW's department of Fine Arts and Art History. The exhibition highlights programs of the department and includes a wide range of media, such as, ceramics, design, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and visual communications. All works on display are eligible for various awards to be granted by a panel of art professionals.

March 25 - April 5, 2002

"Epic Paintings" is the inaugural exhibition for the newly named, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at the George Washington University. The term "epic" is often used to describe art that is "unusually great in size and extent, and heroic." "Epoch" expresses a sense of time, such as the span of an era. The artist is both a healing force in transforming society, and a mirror of his/her times. "Epic Paintings" carries with it a sense of history and tradition, grand style, ambitious, and larger-than-life narratives of the human condition. The six paintings in this exhibition can be deciphered as an organic unfolding or layering, as opposed to the overall gestalt of a color field painting. Collage-like elements and/or a flowing brushstroke may signify imagination, memory, history, and nature. The painters chosen for this exhibition are 'icons' of contemporary art, artists who have established reputations and histories.

February 22, 2002

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president of The George Washington University, unveiled GW's new, unified visual identity program. The new logo and design materials will establish a consistent brand identity that unites GW's diverse campuses, schools, and programs, while reinforcing the University's name and reputation. The new identity is based on the founding father's powerful name and visual recognition.

"We are inaugurating a new branding program that will enable GW to speak in one visual language while maintaining the important individuality of the various entities comprising the institution," said Trachtenberg. "The visual image recognizes GW's strong traditions, along with its reputation as a progressive, world-class university."

December 12, 2001 - February 8, 2002

In cooperation with The Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain, GW's University Art gallery presents the exhibition, "Don Quijote: The Visible and the Invisible," showcasing the works on paper of Francisco Castillo, and featuring sketches and a model of a sculptural project, "Don Quijote Deconstructed" by Juan Romero de Terreros.

Inspired by Post-Impressionist movement, Castillo considered drafting to be the foundation of artistic development. Representations and scenes from Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quijote (1605, 1615) became Castillo's preferred subject matter while he worked in Washington, D.C. As a whole, the works on paper reveal aspects of the human condition - the artist has projected his own image onto the well-studied visage of the famed knight Don Quijote and his sidekick Sancho Panza.

Another poetic interpretation of the theme is envisioned by Juan Romero de Terreros, a sculptor, painter, and printmaker, who received art training in Seville and Madrid, Spain. The maquette for "Don Quijote Deconstructed" is both figural and abstract, in that the form of Don Quijote is actually negative space, insubstantial, yet shaped by a unique configuration of planes, changing with the viewer's orientation to the model in space. Other examples of Terreros' public sculpture exist on the campus of the University of Salamanca, Spain and in the sculpture park of the Polytechnic University in Valencia, Spain. This project is envisioned for The George Washington University campus.

October 10 - November 30, 2001

"Ocean of Ink, River of Fire" speaks to the collective creative spirit, imbued with a tradition that goes back more than a millennium. The exhibition hopes to educate the viewer about the heightened relationship between the painted image and the written word so evident in Asian art. Stephen Addiss' most recent book, Old Taoist, represents collaboration with Jonathan Chaves, professor of Chinese and chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at GW.

Ocean of Ink describes the section of the exhibition devoted to the calligraphy of Stephen Addiss. After studying with Ishikawa Kako and Chiang Chao-sheng, Stephen Addiss has practiced brush painting and calligraphy for thirty-five years. The control of the brush necessary for calligraphy has influenced his paintings, while the freedom of the paining techniques that he has developed influences his calligraphy. Both of these two dimensional arts have also gained from his work in ceramics, where varieties of textures are a feature of his ceramic vessels. He now serves as professor at art and Tucker-Boatwright Professor of Humanities at the University of Richmond in Virginia and his published more than 10 books on Japanese art.

"For many years I have been fascinated by the traditional East Asian idea of the literati scholar-poet-artist, whose creativity is deepened by study of the past, time spent in nature, and the enrichment of other forms of art," said Stephen Addiss.

River of Fire is a group of five ceramists, Randy Edmonson, Scott Meredith, Cricket Edmonsn, John Jessiman, and Stephen Addiss, who work in central Virginia. They fire their pots in an anagama (20-foot long wood-burning tunnel kiln) for four days and nights. This technique was developed many hundreds of years ago in Korea and Japan. It allows the firing to play and important role in the finished product. The path of the flame and the falling of wood ash, while not totally random, are never completely predictable.

September 12 - 21, 2001

The exhibit showcases the media's portrayal of the candidates and the events that shaped the closest presidential election in recent history. The exhibit is organized into four sections: "The General Election" featuring bother candidates, "George W. Bush," "Albert Gore," and "The post-Election Coverage," highlighting the ballot controversy and general confusion that continued for 36 days after election day. This exhibit offers the opportunity to revisit the election images presented by the media, to compare those presented by opinion magazines versus news magazines, and to observe the effect of an image paired with a few carefully chosen words which highlights the role of the illustrator and the graphic designer in this process.

May 30 - July 13, 2001

An exhibition featuring original letters and documents of American and Israeli independence comprise a visual celebration of the unique bond between Israel and the United States. It is believed that this is the first time America's and Israel's Declarations of Independence are being shown together.

The exhibitions treat bother the Holocaust and the rebirth of the State of Israel envisioned through original artifacts in two prominent collections. "The Parallel Visions" portion is comprised of historic letters and statements by signatories to Israel's Declaration of Independence (Proclamation) of Independence, and another collection, "The Declaration and Defense of Independence," which includes numerous letters and documents pertaining to the founding of America. The juxtaposition of American and Israeli documents showcases similarities between the two countries in their struggles for independence and demonstrates common threads binding the two countries and their people. Highlights include a rare "Force" copy of America's Declaration of Independence and "the stamp that started a revolution," a two-shilling, six-pence British tax stamp from 1765. There is also a draft autograph letter signed by George Washington in 1775 and John Hancock's signed Journals of Congress.

May 3 - May 20, 2001

The MFA Spring Thesis Show features works by seven graduate students in the GW Department of Fine Arts and Art History. Each student has explored a medium of their choice, be it mixed media, photography, painting, ceramics, or computer graphics. The exhibition includes technical explorations in areas of light, nature, mythology, cultural tradition, and cultural stereotypes.

April 5 - April 25, 2001

The Annual Awards Show features works by seniors and graduate students in GW's Department of Fine Arts and Art History. All works on display are eligible for various awards to be granted by a jury of art professionals. The exhibition may include recent or current students in the Maryland Federation of Art's "Emerging Artists Exhibition." The category of design will be augmented by interior design and fiber arts entries. In the area of ceramics, innovative uses of crystalline glazes, sculptural organize forms, and colored clays are characteristic of the graduate students' works.

March 7 - March 30, 2001

In viewing the outstanding selection of twenty-five works of art from The Picker Art Gallery, we are introduced to a broad and diverse spectrum of contemporary art. There are works, which we can appreciate by acknowledged masters and by artists with markedly regional roots. Although there is a wide range of styles and approaches to the use of media, this group of works demonstrates vitality of line and excitement in the handling of surface textures. We have chosen Jonathan Borofsky's hammering man image for the cover as an emblem of our new University Art Gallery, still a work in progress! Style and content based on tradition characterize the works of Native American artists Jaune Quick-to-see Smith and Fritz Scholder, and in the singularly lonely vision of Paul Pletka's Indian in a Snowstorm. The works of Barbara Hepworth and Lynn Chadwick are expressive of an art form in which visualizing sculpture combines with lyrical line drawing. These artists also represent the strength of English masters in Dr. Brady's collecting interests. "Enlivened space" characterizes the works of Diebenkorn and Hofmann, and landscapes of lyrical and atmospheric power are witnessed in the work of Diane Burko and John Hubbard. The vital harnessing of Primitivism in the works of Appel, Dubuffet and Jorn are in a way balanced by the debt to Picasso's Cubism is acknowledged in Motherwell's pen and ink work and the collage-like lithograph of Jasper Johns.

Truth to traditions, experimentation with diverse media, and quality: these are the features that these works all share, and we are proud to inaugurate the University Art Gallery with such celebrated works which are examples of formalism and contextual art of the twentieth century.

--Lenore Miller, Director