UAG

Author: Sylvia Rhor

Director, University Art Gallery

“I refuse to be one of the forgotten women!” Artist Lila Hetzel’s defiant words were published in an editorial letter to The Bulletin Index in 1938. Hetzel was writing in response to a critic’s assessment of the annual exhibition of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP), in which the author omitted the many women included in the organization’s inaugural exhibition in 1910. Among the excluded was a young woman named Mary Ethel McAuley. McAuley, a Pittsburgh native, was not only one of the inaugural members of the AAP, she was also a reporter, author, illustrator, painter and teacher. McAuley’s name was regularly in newspapers and on exhibition rosters, yet, despite exhortations like Hetzel’s, she has been nearly forgotten today. The upcoming exhibition in the UAG, Mary Ethel McAuley: Behind the German Lines sets out to find her again.

Although she has been referred to as an “untrained” or “outsider” artist due to her seemingly simple visual style, the research for this exhibition has shown that McAuley was far from it: She was a trained artist, conversant in modernist styles of her time, and deeply embedded in art networks, here and abroad. The collaborative curatorial team for the show, which includes Emi Finkelstein and Ana Rodríguez, has discovered a wealth of new information about McAuley, her painting process and her career. McAuley studied with Scalp Level artist Martin B. Leisser at the Pittsburgh School of Design, and, as early as 1910, pursued further training in Europe. When in Pittsburgh, McAuley taught weekend drawing classes in a downtown studio and exhibited frequently between 1903 and 1921 in galleries, department stores and museums in Pittsburgh and New York. A prolific writer and illustrator, she contributed regular columns to the Pittsburgh Post-Dispatch and illustrated popular books. McAuley was a modern woman, forging a career as a painter and writer, and travelling the world at a time when women of her background were often expected to marry and raise families.

The set of paintings that form the core of Behind the German Lines, was created around 1919 to illustrate McAuley’s first-hand account of life in Germany during the First World War, while she was a correspondent for the Pittsburgh Post-Dispatch. From ration lines for butter and beer to the building of the railway. McAuley’s paintings depict scenes that she witnessed as an American woman. She captures the nuances of quotidian life at that time, paying special attention to women in wartime. Her paintings depict German soldiers in uniform standing alongside chimney sweeps in town squares, women shoveling coal, mothers and children alone on the streets while fathers and brothers were on the front line. The exhibition includes objects from the collection of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum, including German World War I helmets, to provide a context for McAuley´s work. 

Examination of the paintings by conservator Rikke Foulke revealed more about McAuley’s unique painting process. The works were painted or mounted on materials such as artist’s portfolios and board, and McAuley seems to have used a red linen as a painting surface in other works, heavily building up the layers of paint on the canvas. Ultraviolet light inspection uncovered heavy overpainting in certain areas, raising questions about interventions at a later date.

The ten paintings in the show – the only known extant works by McAuley – were loaned by collectors Rebecca and Tasso Spanos. Mr. Spanos purchased the works in the late 1960s from Harry Eichleay, a local art dealer, who, in turn, had seen McAuley’s works in a gallery window in New York City. Shortly after buying these paintings, Tasso Spanos contacted McAuley, who was living in Squirrel Hill at the time. Though he never had the chance to meet her (McAuley died in 1971), Spanos vowed to exhibit her works and bring more attention to an artist that he feels is on a par with other modernist artists of the early 20th century.

The UAG has also partnered with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) on a companion exhibition: Three Artists (Three Women). This exhibition highlights the work of AAP artists Tina Brewer, Fran Gialamas, and Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer. The exhibition is conceived of as a dialogue – across generations and across media – with McAuley’s works. The artists in this show draw on personal and cultural symbolism to explore issues of migration, identity and history in their works. Together, the two exhibitions allow us to ponder how women artists across generations explore these topics. 

Mary Ethel McAuley: Behind the German Lines and Three Artists (Three Women) will be on view through March 28th. The opening reception for both exhibitions will take place on Thursday, February 13th from 5pm to 7pm. Related programming includes a gallery conversation on March 19th at 5pm, with AAP artists Gialamas, Brewer and Cuellar-Shaffer. We will also offer drop-in maker activities in the “Say Her Name” Feminist Maker Space + Reading Room in the gallery’s historic rotunda throughout March 2020.

Museum Studies Intern at the University Art Gallery - Spring 2019

My semester-long internship with the University Art Gallery promised from the start to be an exciting opportunity to expand my passion for audio-visual exhibition. The task was to assist with technological arrangements for an exhibition of Chinese video works being curated by Graduate Student Assistant Ellen Larson and set to open in the fall of 2019. The video technology aspect was mostly familiar territory for me, as I frequently organize pop-up microcinema events, which have afforded me with substantial experience in planning the logistics of presenting moving images in various formats. It was the geographic focus of the exhibition that mostly piqued my interest, as my knowledge of contemporary Chinese cinema was limited. As a cinephile who constantly endeavors to push my understanding of the medium and to foster a diverse knowledge base, this was one particular knowledge gap that I was eager to narrow.

The perspective shift from understanding the world through the art of residents of a country foreign to my own was a welcome aspect of the internship. What I did not anticipate that my work with the UAG would encourage, however, was a different understanding of the gallery settings that were already so familiar and close to home. As the semester progressed, I was delighted to find that, in addition to a steady diet of contemporary Chinese film and video works, I was also offered opportunites to consider gallery exhibition practice beyond my familiar territory of audio-visual needs. It was often precisely in the areas where expectations were not met that I encountered the most enlightening learning experiences.

Early in the semester, I had devised lists of equipment necessary to display each work selected for the exhibition. Moreover, I learned to use SketchUp software to create visualizations of each installation. The setups were generally straightforward -- display and playback devices, speakers, and various connecting cables -- though it was not until Ellen and I had the equipment in hand and completed a dry-run of the first setup that I began to understand some of the minutiae of exhibition planning for the gallery setting. With the installation assembled, I considered aesthetic details as precise as color and positioning of extension cords and other wires. 

Although such elements seemed inconsequential at the SketchUp stage, seeing the installations progress from visualization to realization allowed me to understand the importance of such diminutive details to the overall aesthetic of each piece.  It also allowed me to more fully appreciate the labor that takes place within exhibition spaces. In this way, my internship with the University Art Gallery has provided a new way of seeing not just at the global level through a newfound appreciation for contemporary Chinese audio-visual culture, but also right here in Pittsburgh, since no gallery visit will ever be quite the same for me again.

Authors:

Mrinalini Rajagopalan, Associate Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture

Neepa Majumdar, Associate Professor, Department of English and Film and Media Studies Program

A seventeenth-century painting shows the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) standing on a globe as two angels hover above in the clouds. His bow is stretched taught, about to release an arrow at its target: the decapitated head of an African man. The darkness of this man’s skin, his hollow eyes, and the owls (symbolizing evil) that circle him contrast with the pale almost radiant skin of the Mughal emperor, his stately crimson robes, and his opulent crown. In this painting Jahangir is shown vanquishing his archenemy Malik Ambār—an Abyssinian who arrived in India as a slave, rose to the rank of general and later ruled a principality that challenged Mughal imperial domination and expansion. Like so many court paintings of the time, this representation of Malik Ambar was a fiction, one that reduced him to a powerless African slave at the mercy of an omnipotent Indian emperor.

Compare this image of Malik Ambār to another from the same period that shows him dressed in simple yet stately white clothes. His profile shows his African features clearly—the color of his skin and his full lips. Unlike the above-mentioned painting, however, the regal dignity of Malik Ambār cannot be ignored here. Symbols of nobility—a long sword with an ornate handle and sheath, embroidered cummerbund and belt, and vibrant red shoes are combined with the sartorial effects of a devout Muslim—the plain white tunic and simple turban without ornament. He holds out a finger on his right hand—possibly indicating that he is uttering the two testimonies of the Islamic faith. In this image Malik Ambār is both pious Muslim and nobleman; unmistakably African while also Indian Muslim; simple devotee as well as formidable warrior. 

These paintings are only two examples of the rich corpus of images that make up the Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers exhibition. Between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, many Africans came to India as military slaves and some, like Malik Ambār, rose to become generals and rulers. Yet others were musicians, architects, wives, and traders and became an integral part of India’s courtly culture.The rich and long-standing contributions of Africans to Indian history, however, have been marginalized and woefully understudied. An initiative of the Schomburg Center at the New York Public Library, Africans in India showed at the UAG from February 15th to March 21st. The exhibition loan and related programming were organized by Pitt professors Mrinalini Rajagopalan (History of Art and Architecture) and Neepa Majumdar (English and Film and Media Studies). Their goals with this exhibition were to bring attention to the long histories of connection and exchange between Africa and India; to highlight the contributions of the African diaspora beyond the Americas and the Atlantic world; and to raise discussions around racial difference, migration, borders, and asylum—exigent topics in the contemporary world.

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Author: Ellen Larson

PhD Student in History of Art and Architecture and University Art Gallery graduate fellow

As University Art Gallery (UAG) graduate fellow, I am collaborating with HAA Professor Michelle McCoy, along with five undergraduate students on a pop-up exhibition to take place in the UAG mid-March. This exhibition supplements Professor McCoy’s HAA 1010: Approaches to Art History undergraduate course, focusing on Chinese art objects within the UAG collection. Students selected Chinese work, as a means of initiating in-depth original research on themes and ideas related to the art objects themselves or broadly connected to socio-cultural contexts from which these materials emerge. 

In my role as a curator and mentor to undergraduate students, I am working with the class to conceive a short-term exhibition that presents these objects as portable agents of culture, whose value lies not only within the realm of connoisseurship and museum collecting, but also as transient catalysts of new knowledge activated through their physical positions within an exhibition-setting. Rather than uncovering specific temporal histories, the exhibition seeks to extend spatial and thematic connections between works centered upon mobility and exchange. 

Selected artworks include ink paintings by Chinese master painter, modern nomad, and notorious forger Zhang Daqian (1899-1983). Following the Communist takeover and subsequent establishment of the People’s Republic of China on the Mainland in 1949, Zhang Daqian traveled to Macau, Argentina, Brazil, and Carmel, California, before settling in Taipei in 1978. Other featured works include rubbings depicting seventh-century Buddhist monk Xuanzang, whose travels led him to regions throughout central Asia including parts of modern India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Xuanzang’s writings inspired the sixteenth-century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West. Additional objects include a selection of Chinese snuff bottles, whose aesthetic utilitarianism is juxtaposed with the non-utilitarianism of a ritual ceramic vessel displaying the abstracted character Fú, meaning “good fortune.” This object references a common practice of pasting the upside-down character Fú in one’s doorway, allowing good fortune to descend upon the dwelling, as the words for “upside-down” and “to arrive” are homophonous. This is further suggested by the same Chinese term, which indicates the performative action of pouring liquid from a vessel. While the selection of snuff bottles and Fú ritual vessel are commodity objects, the latter serves as a striking example of totality found within the context of written language, material objects, and ritual practice. 

Echoing the words of Susan Stewart, this particular presentation of objects replaces the notion of origin with classification, presenting “temporality as a spatial and material phenomenon.” [1] In addition to displacing one’s understanding of time, the collection’s relational organization highlights the exhibition’s function as a three-dimensional map into which gallery visitors are invited to physically enter. These objects represent points of exchange and connection; concealed and revealed only through their spatial relationships to each other. Thus, new knowledge is produced through space, and is further activated through the creation of multiple networks that traverse and transition from Pittsburgh to China, and beyond. 

[1] Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1984), 153. 

Learn more about the Collecting Knowledge Pittsburgh initiative here

*You can read this text in English below the Spanish version 

Autora: Adriana Miramontes, estudiante de doctorado en HAA

¿Cómo puede la Galería de Arte de la Universidad (UAG) relacionarse con más audiencias e incrementar su presencia y visibilidad en la universidad y en la comunidad? Este semestre de otoño y como parte de una iniciativa de alcance y de programas educativos, más de 110 estudiantes del Departamento de Lingüísticas y Literaturas Hispanas de Pitt visitaron la Galería de Arte de la universidad. De estos estudiantes, el noventa y dos por ciento declaró en encuestas que esta había sido su primera visita. Uno de estos estudiantes escribió: “fue una experiencia que probablemente yo no hubiera recibido si no estuviera en esta clase. Fui sacado de mi zona de confort.”

Los estudiantes registrados en Español Intermedio 3, Español Intermedio 4 y Conversación participaron en visitas guiadas en la galería de arte y las exhibiciones Desempacado: exposición de ex-alumnos del 50 aniversario y Esto no es lo ideal: mitos de género y su transformación. Todas las visitas guiadas fueron llevadas a cabo en español e incluyeron un breve recorrido del claustro y un análisis más profundo del arte contemporáneo y de las exposiciones temporales. Además de incluir la discusión de temas vigentes relacionados con el cuerpo, la cultura popular, el tiempo, la identidad de género y violencia de género, el objetivo de estos recorridos es crear espacios alternativos en donde se pueda practicar la diferencia y donde la diversidad pueda ser celebrada. Como mujer mexicana que aspira a ser profesora en los Estados Unidos, afirmar el valor de la diferencia cultural en las aulas en un asunto de gran importancia para mí.    

En los trece años que llevo estudiando y trabajando en los Estados Unidos esta es la primera vez que interactúo con estudiantes con conversaciones en español dentro de un espacio académico. Antes de mudarme a Pittsburgh yo vivía en Texas en donde el español es comúnmente hablado y es un factor importante de la vida local cultural; sin embargo, aquí en Pensilvania, en donde la población Hispana o Latina es mucho menor, el comunicarse en español ya no es parte de mi vida diaria. [1] Regularmente mis conversaciones en español ocurren únicamente con mis colegas del Departamento de Historia del Arte y Arquitectura. Esto es especialmente cierto ahora, en esta época en la que los mexicanos somos frecuentemente difamados por el presidente Trump. En el clima político presente, debo admitir que ha sido tanto desafiante como intimidante el expresar mi lengua y cultura. En este contexto, la galería y las visitas guiadas me han provisto del valor y el espacio necesarios para interactuar en mi idioma natal con gente que proviene de una gran variedad de ambientes y de diferentes disciplinas académicas dentro de la universidad. La UAG me ha proporcionado un “espacio seguro” en donde puedo interactuar con otros y orgullosamente presentar mi idioma. Por consiguiente, mis interacciones con estudiantes del Departamento de Lingüísticas y Literaturas Hispanas han sido no solamente revitalizantes e instructivas, sino también personalmente gratificantes.   

En estas visitas guiadas de 50 minutos los estudiantes participan en conversaciones, contestan preguntas y completan una hoja de trabajo sobre las obras en exposición. Asimismo, al hablar, leer, y escribir en español practican sus habilidades y conocimientos. Mientras que las dinámicas de aprendizaje se vuelven más interactivas con el estudio basado en objetos y fuera del salón de clase tradicional, los estudiantes han manifestado su entusiasmo acerca de sus visitas a la galería. Así se expresó un estudiante al respecto: “aprendí mucho sobre el arte y algunas ideas artísticas. Mejoró mi habilidad de interpretar el arte. [La visita guiada] mejoró mi habilidad de escuchar, [era] más complicado escuchar a alguien que nunca antes había conocido. [Yo] tenía que pensar en español ideas complicadas sobre el arte.”

Con la variedad de temas desafiantes presentados en la Galería de Arte de la Universidad, las visitas guiadas en español, y las estrategias de aprendizaje basadas en objetos, la diversidad y el entendimiento están siendo promovidos y practicados. Debido al continuo llamamiento al cierre de fronteras entre Estados Unidos y México por parte de la administración, creop que ahora más que nunca la necesidad de que otras culturas y lenguajes permanezcan activos y presentes en nuestras comunidades es crucial. La oportunidad de poderse comunicar en un idioma extranjero no es solamente una habilidad necesaria en el contexto de un mundo globalizado, sino una habilidad que creo es esencial para combatir el racismo. Estas visitas son un importante primer paso, pero es necesario hacer mucho más aquí en el campus. En nuestros esfuerzos por alcanzar una audiencia más grande y crear una universidad y una comunidad más diversa y compasiva, nos seguimos preguntando, ¿qué más se puede hacer para promover un campus inclusivo y una mayor pluralidad de voces, culturas, e idiomas en nuestra sociedad?

[1] “Fast Facts: Pittsburgh Campus,” Office of Institutional Research, University of Pittsburgh, consultado 28 de November 2018, https://ir.pitt.edu/facts-publications/fast-facts/

Crossing the borders of language at the UAG

Author: Adriana Miramontes, HAA graduate student

How can the University Art Gallery (UAG) reach different audiences and increase its presence and visibility on campus and in the community? As part of an outreach initiative and education programming this Fall semester more than 110 students from the Department of Linguistics and Literatures at Pitt visited the University Art Gallery. Of these students, ninety-two per cent declared in survey forms that it was their first visit. As one student wrote: “It was a new experience that I probably wouldn’t have received if I wasn’t in the class. I was taken out of my comfort zone.”

The students enrolled in Intermediate Spanish 3, Intermediate Spanish 4, and Conversation were introduced to the art gallery and to the exhibits Unboxed: 50^thAnniversary Alumni Exhibition and This is Not Ideal: Gender Myths and their Transformation. All the different tours were conducted in Spanish and they included a brief tour of the cloister and a more in-depth discussion of contemporary art and the temporary exhibits on view. The tours have been highly interactive, prompting questions, discussion, and close looking. In addition to discussing relevant topics related to the body, popular culture, time, gender identity, and gender violence, the goal of these tours is to create additional spaces where difference can be experienced and diversity is celebrated. As a Mexican woman who aspires to be a professor in the United States, asserting the value of cultural difference in our classrooms is a matter of great personal significance for me.

In the thirteen years I have been studying and working in the United States this is the first time that I engage with students in Spanish conversations within an academic space. Before moving to Pittsburgh I lived in Texas where Spanish is often spoken and is an important part of local culture; but here in Pennsylvania, where the Hispanic or Latino population is much smaller, speaking Spanish is no longer a part of my daily life. [1] Regularly my conversations in Spanish occur only with my colleagues in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. This is especially true now when Mexicans are frequently maligned by President Trump. In this political climate, I must admit, it has been both challenging and frightening to embrace my language and culture. Against this backdrop, the gallery tours have given me the necessary courage and space to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines across the university in my first language. The UAG itself has provided me with a “safe space” where I can interact with others and proudly embrace my language. Thus, my interactions with the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures have been not only refreshing and instructive but also personally rewarding.

In these 50-minute tours the students engage in conversation, answer questions, and complete a worksheet on the artworks exhibited. Their speaking, reading, and writing abilities are all practiced in these sessions. The tour dynamics are more interactive than the traditional classroom, offering object-based study and as a result the students often express their enthusiasm for visiting the gallery. As one student commented, “I learned a lot about art and some artistic ideas. It improved my ability to interpret art. [The tour] improved my listening ability, [it was] more difficult to listen to someone I’ve never met before. [I] had to think about complicated art ideas in Spanish.”

Through the challenging topics presented by the University Art Gallery, the Spanish tours, and object-based learning strategies, diversity and understanding are being encouraged and practiced. Due to the the current administration’s continued call for the closure of the US-Mexican borders, now more than ever, it seems, the need for other cultures and languages to remain active and present in our communities cannot be overemphasized. The opportunity to communicate in a foreign language is not only a necessary skill in the context of a globalizing world, but one I believe is increasingly crucial for combating racism. These tours represent an important first step, but there is still more that can be done here on campus. In our efforts to reach larger audiences and continue creating a more diverse and compassionate university and community, we continue to ask ourselves how we can foster a more inclusive campus that promotes a plurality of voices, cultures, and languages in our society?

[1] “Fast Facts: Pittsburgh Campus,” Office of Institutional Research, University of Pittsburgh, accessed November 28, 2018, https://ir.pitt.edu/facts-publications/fast-facts/

Learn more about the Collecting Knowledge Pittsburgh initiative here