Browse Exhibits (74 total)
Aquatic Channels: Waterways, Water Resources, Fluvial Imagination
October 29, 2022 – February 19, 2023
On-n-On: Ciara Elle Bryant in Conversation with Octavia E. Butler
September 1 – October 16, 2022
Opening on Sept. 1, 5 – 7 pm.
In Search of Belonging
April 23 - May 23, 2022
In 2011, the Princeton Review ranked Southern Methodist University as the eleventh worst university for gay students. Then, in a dramatic shift a decade later, Campus Pride listed it among ten religious schools living up to LGBTQ-inclusive values in August 2021. However, the struggle for LGBT campus acceptance has lasted far longer than just one decade. For LGBT students at SMU, there is a wide legacy that has yet to be honored in a multidisciplinary, public-facing project synthesizing the documented history of LGBT students.
Building on the research of the PRIDE@SMU capstone project, In Search of Belonging explores stories of LGBTQ+ student organizing -- struggles for equality and recognition -- through oral history and archival documents. From the eight-year fight to charter the first Gay and Lesbian Student Organization (GLSO), to the founding of SMU’s first ever gay fraternity, to the present-day work and testimonies of queer Mustangs, these past and present queer narratives elevate both the roots of the SMU LGBTQ+ community and the truth of what “Mustang Pride” looks and feels like today. Most of the LGBT student experience does not fit neatly into newspaper headlines; however, by outlining some of the key events, setbacks, and successes of the LGBT rights movement at SMU, this work initiates a conversation about LGBTQ+ acceptance on the Hilltop today, ultimately showing that there’s more work to be done.
In Search of Belonging challenges SMU to reckon with its long and recent history of LGBTQ+ marginalization, to acknowledge the pain and pride of its students, faculty, and alumni, and to live up to its stated values of equity and inclusivity -- both on paper and in practice, so that every student feels like they belo
Susan Barnett: Thought Patterns
July 7 - September 16, 2007
Susan Barnett was a second year Masters of Fine Arts student at the Meadows School of Arts. Her paintings on display in the Hawn Gallery explored systems of the mind. Initially this body of work originated with paintings based upon a specialized type of Latin Square popularized by the Sudoku puzzle. The properties of a Latin Square result in a balanced repetition of all the elements, numbers which she translated into symbols.
Fashion Design Sketches by Nancy B. Hamon
September 24 - December 13, 2015
The exhibition featured fashion design sketches, circa 1933-1942, by Nancy B. Hamon (1918-2011) from the Jake and Nancy Hamon Papers, housed in Jerry Bywaters Special Collections in the Hamon Arts Library, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Romantic Visions of the American Southwest: Works on Paper and Paintings by Edward G. Eisenlohr
March 17 - May 16, 2014
Drawn primarily from the holdings of Jerry Bywaters Special Collections in the Hamon Arts Library, this exhibition of lithographs, drawings, archival materials, and a few paintings documents the career of one of Dallas’ most prominent artists from the first half of the 20th century. Edward Gustav Eisenlohr (1872-1961) was born in Ohio to a family of German immigrants, who moved to Dallas when he was two years old. He showed a strong aptitude for art at an early age, winning a prize in the art competition section of the newly established State Fair of Texas and studying for two years at The Concordia in Zurich as a teenager. In 1903, Eisenlohr was instrumental in establishing the Dallas Art Association, forerunner of the Dallas Museum of Art. He studied art with Texas artists Robert J. Onderdonk and Frank Reaugh as well as at the Art Students’ League summer school in Woodstock, New York; he later took additional art training in Germany before returning to Texas. Eisenlohr drew inspiration for art subjects from the Oak Cliff area of Dallas and his travels to New Mexico, the Texas Hill Country, and the western areas of his adopted state. Eisenlohr exhibited both in the U.S., including at the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, and the National Academy of Design, and in Europe, at the Paris International Exhibition (1932) and the Venice Biennial (1940).
Agents of Change: Works by Arthur Koch
January 13 - February 16, 2014
Comment on the Agents of Change Series
Questions about the relationships of the words "natural" and "artificial" led me to realize that while wood is a natural material, unlike plastic and glass which I have also used; the process I applied to wood was a process that could be considered artificial.
Asking myself what process might be thought of as natural led to further questions, and the Agents of Change series. I attempted to allow the rhythms of growth and energy of wood to reveal themselves. That sense of energy remained even when masked by alterations by man or natural forces, which I named the Agents of Change.
This turned the making of art into a more passive activity, which I call "found processes."
All this name making is an attempt to keep myself from losing myself in this sea of questions. Nothing is as expressive as the wood itself.
— Arthur Koch
Post Chiaroscuro: Prints in Color After the Renaissanc
September 16 - December 13, 2013
Drawing on the resources of the Hamon Library's Jerry Bywaters Special Collections and loans from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, this exhibition explores how color prints were made after the 16th century, when the technique known as chiaroscuro woodcut had been developed. Print matrices, such as metal plates and linoleum blocks, assorted proof impressions, and finished prints by James Gillray (c. 1756-1815), Janet Turner (1914-1988) and Octavio Medellin (1907-1999) demonstrate the steps in producing multicolor prints. The prints on view also provide examples of the three main printing techniques: intaglio, in which the design is incised into the matrix; relief, in which the negative space around the design is cut away from the matrix surface; and planographic, a chemical process in which the matrix remains perfectly flat. Post Chiaroscuro is offered in conjunction with two art history courses taught by Associate Professor Lisa Pon: the History of Western Printmaking, 1400-1750, and Early Modern Print. Members of the general viewing public are invited to try answering questions from the class assignments, made available on gallery handouts. Responses from students in the class will be added while the exhibition is on view. Samantha Robinson, a second year M.A. student in art history, is the exhibition's student curator.
Companion Exhibit
Are You Close Enough? SMU Libraries as Learning Spaces
November 12 - December 13, 2013
Year of the Library
2013 was the Year of the Library at SMU. To celebrate, SMU Libraries highlighted collections, resources, and places that are unique to our campus. As part of that, the Year of the Library Committee put together a meta-exhibition examining the creation of the Post Chiaroscuro: Prints in Color after the Renaissance exhibition in the Hawn Gallery at the Hamon Arts Library.
View the full exhibit online.
Linda Darnell: From Dallas to Hollywood – Selections from the Jeff Gordon Collection
February 3 - June 7, 2013
Film historian Jeff Gordon (Foxy Lady: The Authorized Biography of Lynn Bari) bequeathed his extensive collection of posters, lobby cards, scrapbooks, and other film-related items to SMU. He curated this exhibition drawn from its holdings as a "sneak preview," with special attention being paid to the acting career of Dallas native Linda Darnell, who was born and raised in Oak Cliff.
Philip Van Keuren: Printed Matter, 1988-2012
October 29-December 16, 2012
This exhibition brought together for the first time a selection of the exhibition graphic design projects of Philip Van Keuren. The examples shown included yearly exhibition calendars, cards, and publications dating from his first independent graphic design project for the Dallas Museum of Art in 1988. The vast bulk of the work came from Van Keuren's directorship of the Pollock Gallery at Southern Methodist University from 1991 to 2012. At the time a Professor of Art in the Division of Art at Southern Methodist University and Director Emeritus of the Pollock Gallery, Van Keuren designed these projects without any formal training in graphic design. With careful proportions and simple straightforward layout Van Keuren's graphic design accomplishments provide an insightful corollary to his work as a poet, visual artist, and gallery curator/director for twenty-two years. The exhibition was guest curated by Ben Bascombe, Deputy Director, Pollock Gallery.
Renaissance Technology in Print
August 20-October 14, 2012
This exhibition resulted from a seminar in Renaissance Technology for the Art History graduate students in the Rhetorics of Art, Space and Culture (RASC/a) program, and has evolved into a collaborative effort between RASC/a, DeGolyer Library, and the Blaffer Foundation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition examined the dissemination of ideas and knowledge through the advancement of print and book production, and included six fifteenth- and sixteenth-century books as well as the eighteen plates of Stradanus's Nova Reperta (New Discoveries). These important engravings feature important discoveries and inventions made before 1600. In conjunction with this event, Dr. James Clifton of the Blaffer Foundation gave a lecture the first week of October on the Nova Reperta series. This exhibition was co-curated by two second-year RASC/a graduate students, Emily Anderson and Sarah Foltz.
Drawn from Nature: Sketchbooks by Scott Winterrowd
February 20- May 13, 2012
From February 20 through May 13, the Mildred Hawn Gallery of Southern Methodist University's Hamon Arts Library hosted "Drawn from Nature: Sketchbooks by Scott Winterrowd." For the previous fifteen years, Dallas artist and museum educator Scott Winterrowd had sketched a wide variety of the landscapes in the American West, including California, New Mexico, Colorado, and the Big Bend region of Texas, working primarily in watercolor. The work of 19th Century American artist explorers, particularly Thomas Moran and Frederic Church, and their photographic contemporaries, Carleton Watkins, and Edweard Muybridge, along with that of contemporary photographers working in the Rephotographic Survey Project, sparked Winterrowd's interest in visiting sites documented over a century ago and considering their history and change in his own work. His interest in distilling the essence of the forms of the overwhelming scenery of the Big Bend was prompted by exposure to the artistic legacy of 20th century Dallas painters Jerry Bywaters and Otis Dozier, and Alexander Hogue.
Archive of Shadows by Andrew Douglas Underwood
November 14, 2011 – February 4, 2012
Dallas-based artist Andrew Douglas Underwood presented his second solo exhibition, Archive of Shadows. His research-based artistic practice explores historic vignettes, examines the notion of perfection, and questions the possibility of objectivity. The museum-esque presentation of the work intrinsically implies, "The mementos collected here are of historic significance." Also, like a museum, the act of collecting naturally integrates with a practice of creating archives of information. Where this collection diverges from the institutional and the quantitative is in the emotional reaction to the vignettes. For those willing to slow down and engage with the work, the reward is an involvement with a romantic moment from history.
Camilla Cowan: "Paintings and Prints"
August 26 - October 30, 2011
This show featured Camilla Cowan's prints and paintings, many inspired by molas and other folk art.
Ms. Cowan holds a journalism degree from SMU. After working in that field for many years, she returned to SMU in 2001 to study art. She works in both painting and printmaking and is interested in the contemplation and accumulation of pattern, working with line, contrasts of light and dark and complex curves.
Her previous show was in spring 2011 at the Mercantile Coffee House downtown.
Hidden Treasures of the Mary McCord/Edyth Renshaw Collection on the Performing Arts: A Second Century Celebration Event Commemorating SMU's First 100 Years
January 31–July 1, 2011
Hidden Treasures of the Mary McCord/Edyth Renshaw Collection on the Performing Arts drew from this extensive collection, housed in the Jerry Bywaters Special Collections Wing of the Hamon Arts Library, that included significant holdings in the history of theatre, film, music and dance. The McCord/Renshaw Collection originally began as the McCord Theatre Museum at Southern Methodist University in 1933 and was first located in Dallas Hall. It was founded by Department of Speech faculty members, including David Russell and Edyth Renshaw, and named in honor of Mary McCord, the first speech professor at SMU. While the museum succeeded in acquiring wonderful items throughout its 57 years as a separate entity on campus, a lack of funds and adequate staffing prevented a complete inventory from ever being completed. The collection was being processed at the time of the exhibit and many rare and important items had been discovered, the majority of which had never been exhibited. A number of these items were featured in the exhibition and concentrate on the collection’s noteworthy resources in the history of SMU and Dallas, as well as the performing arts. The exhibition was intended to showcase the holdings of the McCord/Renshaw Collection rather than attempt to document the full scope of the history of the performing arts.
Mark Williams: Small Drawings and Studio Notebooks
September 13 - December 4, 2010
This exhibit in the Mildred Hawn Gallery of the Hamon Arts Library was held in conjunction with “Exquisitely Calibrated: Recent Paintings by Mark Williams” at SMU’s Pollock Gallery. Williams’ small drawings and studio sketchbooks illuminate his working process of construction and variation of color, shape and line in a simpler, more intimate manner than seen in the paintings exhibited in the Pollock. None of the books exhibited had ever been out of Williams’ New York studio.
Mexico: Books and Portfolios from the Stanley Marcus Collection
June 21 - August 29, 2010
In celebration of the Mexican centennial in 2010, the Mildred Hawn Gallery in SMU’s Hamon Arts Library featured an exhibit of historic books and portfolios from Mexico, on view June 21 through August 29. The items are part of the Stanley Marcus Collection at SMU’s DeGolyer Library. Marcus, from the family of the founders of the exclusive Neiman Marcus store, was a passionate book collector who assembled a truly remarkable private library, numbering about 8,000 volumes and ranging across the centuries.
Books by Peter Koch
February 8 - May 16, 2010
The Hawn Gallery was the venue for "Books by Peter Koch." Koch, a printer based in Berkeley, California, is founder and director of the Codex, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the art and craft of the book. Since 1974, Koch has designed, printed and published fine books and ephemera ranging from limited editions of classical Greek literature to conference posters and keepsakes. This exhibition drew from the collections of SMU's Bridwell, DeGolyer, and Hamon Libraries to showcase examples of Koch's work as a master printer.
Loli Kantor: There Was a Forest
August 24 - November 15, 2009
Jewish Life In Eastern Europe Today
The photographs in this series document the parallel stories of the lives and rituals of the disappearing population of Jews still living in small enclaves in Eastern Europe and the simultaneous, slow reemergence of Jewish life that is gradually transforming some of the larger communities there today.
David Dreyer: Southwestern Landscapes
April 13 - May 31, 2009
The Hawn Gallery of the Hamon Arts Library exhibit “David Dreyer: Landscapes from the American Southwest,” paintings and works on paper by David Dreyer, technical advisor and adjunct professor in SMU’s Division of Studio Art. Most of these works focus on Chimney Rock, Colorado and the surrounding area; the remaining works depict sites in West Texas and New Mexico. While forging his own artistic vision, Dreyer has drawn inspiration from earlier Dallas artists such as Jerry Bywaters, Otis Dozier, Josephine Oliver and Olin Travis as well as from his SMU instructors John Alexander, David Bates, and Stephen Wilder.
Photographs from DeGolyer Library
February 2 - March 31, 2009
This exhibition, which was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of The Society for Photographic Education in Dallas March 26-29, featured highlights from the exceptional collection of more than 500,000 photographs at SMU’s DeGolyer Library. While the focused of the photography collection at the DeGolyer is the U.S. West and Mexico, there were surprises, too. Included among the 80 images in the exhibit were Civil War pictures by Timothy O’Sullivan, Western landscapes by Carleton Watkins, Andrew J. Russell, Charles Roscoe Savage, William Henry Jackson and John K. Hillers, Indian portraits by Edward Curtis, photographs of Mexico by Abel Briquet and Hugo Brehme, as well as 19th century views of India, Jamaica, Russia, Italy and Trinidad, and works by contemporary photographers: Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, Craig Varjabedian, and June Van Cleef. In addition, there was an entire case devoted to the newly acquired Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photography Collection of 5,000 rare Texas images including portraits of Santa Anna, Sam Houston, Mexican American War and Civil War soldiers, frontier towns and views from throughout the state from the 1840s on and the only known portrait of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was captured as a girl by the Comanches and went on the become the mother of Comanche leader Quanah Parker.