Browse Exhibits (29 total)
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.
Piecing It Together: Danielle Kimzey, Mary Laube & Christopher Reno
March 31 - May 28, 2017
Piecing It Together features works by Danielle Kimzey, Mary Laube, and Christopher Reno. These three painters share an interest in exploring the private world of the 'home' and seek to demystify, through their abstract works, this often insular, domestic space. This collected body of works draws upon the artists' experiences of parenthood and memories of home, and brings to the forefront that which is often considered banal or overly sentimental. All three artists employ a wide range of mediums in their painting practices and rigorously examine diverse modernist and contemporary techniques and ideologies.
Dylan Glynn: After Order, After Disorder
January 27 - March 12, 2017
After Order, After Disorder features animated shorts, digital prints, paintings, and works on paper by Toronto-based artist Dylan Glynn. Glynn, whose practice is rooted in formal life drawing, has developed an ethereal style that captures a fantastical naiveté. Emotive and rich in narration, this body of work explores Glynn’s optimistic projections for the future, in which he envisions humanity’s return to a harmonious relationship with nature. In this exhibition, Glynn’s works are presented alongside historical photographs from DeGolyer Library’s special collections that echo the nuanced relationship between new and traditional media in the artist’s work.
Octaviano Rangel: Was He a Beast If the Music Could Move Him So?
Spring 2017
This exhibition of recent work by Octaviano Rangel is inspired by, and takes its name from, Franz Kakfa's Metamorphosis. On view are a series of cut paper, graphite, and ink collages, as well as a site-specific graphite drawing created directly on the library wall.
Embodied Algorithm: [Re]embracing the Analog - New Works/Ira Greenberg
September 8 - October 9, 2017
An exhibition of new works by Dallas-based artist Ira Greenberg. The show features drawings completed over a two year period exploring the continuum between computational (digital) and human (analog) implemented algorithms. The ultimate pieces confront viewers with large-scale snapshots of intimate moments between Greenberg’s subjects.
Collective Practice: Community Building Through Zines - Works/Puro Chingon Collective
October 20th - December 17, 2017
Collective Practice: Community Building Through Zines features works by PuroChingón Collective, with members James Huizar, Claudia Zapata and Claudia Aparicio-Gamundi. The works on display include prints, short films, and zines largely from the Collective’s own publication, ChingoZine. The Collective created ChingoZine to act as an alternative space for Latinx artists to showcase their work. The booklet format zines use acts as a social equalizer, enabling anyone to publish work otherwise rejected by galleries or publishing houses. It is also an inexpensive medium, allowing individuals to print and distribute zines at little to no cost and reach a wide audience. The Collective’s works seeks to do just that. Their practice is rooted in social practice and engages with people in public spaces through murals, film screenings, or parties. The exhibition’s inclusion of the Collective’s zines, and visual art helps illustrate how the use of text and images act as a means to support, represent, and empower diverse groups.
Clear, Deep, Dark - New Works/Julie Morel
January 6 - March 11, 2018
Clear, Deep, Dark features new works by Julie Morel. Morel’s work examines the intersections between text and visual imagery. She utilizes technology, books, typography and drawings to realize the relationships between text and image. Another important aspect of Morel’s projects is that they are never insular. Most involve collaborations with other artists, writers, and designers. The exhibition will include new works created for the Hawn Gallery as well as pieces previously shown in galleries abroad from her AFK and Electrical Drawings series.
In Morel’s newest body of work, Clear, Deep, Dark, Morel takes inspiration from the darknet, a term referring to the hidden side of the internet that deals with illicit transactions, sharing of sensitive information, and protecting human rights. She builds upon her Electrical Drawings (2015) series, incorporating new terms connected to the darknet in her work and examines what becomes of physical objects when they take on new lives in the digital realm. The redisplay of Morel's work alongside her newest series generates a unique context for the pieces, encouraging new conversations between the objects and viewers.
Chromarray - Works/Constance Lowe
April 6 - May 28, 2018
The Hawn Gallery presents Chromarray, work by San Antonio-based artist Constance Lowe, featuring works from her Garden City (Air to Ground) and FabCom and Chromarray series.Lowe’s work examines the intersection between nature and humans’ built environments, with a special focus on biology, mathematics, psychology and agriculture. Lowe’s most recent series, Garden City (Air to Ground) (2015) takes its inspiration from circular and gridded NASA satellite photos of Midwestern fields. The landscapes contain personal connotations to Lowe as they represent land once owned by her family. Lowe uses a range of materials in her work such as dyed calfskin, wool, felt, translucent drafting film, and photographic reproductions of nature. Lowe’s blending of natural and synthetic materials reveal how nature can be manufactured and our constructed world made to appear naturally occurring. These pieces reveal the social implications of human being’s dissonance from nature.
ARK: An Experimental Film/Mike Morris
August 20 – December 9, 2018
ARK is a cinematic installation featuring a film by Michael A. Morris made from archival 35mm film prints held in the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection. This work is installed on a looping film system devised by the Collection’s Jeremy Spracklen and Scott Martin, and in conjunction with Brad Miller from Film-Tech Cinema Systems. The looping film is a new mosaic of images and sounds created by contact printing and hand processing of short lengths of films selected from the archive. Highlighting the mechanics of projection typically hidden from the viewer, the space of the Hawn Gallery performs as a small cinema. The metaphor of both Noah’s Ark and the Ark of the Covenant serves as a parallel for the archive as it rescues hundreds of films from the deluge of time. These films are reactivated by bringing them back into the light and onto the screen in a new looping film installation. Such assemblage embodies our cinematic heritage.
ARK is a film made from 35mm prints held in the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection’s archive. The film was made from a selection of individual films in the darkroom to create new contact printed strips of film. The process involved experimenting with methods of exposure in response to the visibility of the 35mm projector, normally hidden in a booth behind the audience. The film is based on a rare version of the 1928 silent epic Noah’s Ark, which makes use of optical sound added in the 1950s, along with a number of other films. The Ark depicted in the film is intended as a stand-in for the archive, a holding place to preserve films from the passage of time and a refuge from which to repopulate the world with images.
Information/Object: Late 20th-Early 21st Century Artists' Books
February 1 - March 8, 2019
Almost as old as the codex, the artist’s book has centuries of history. Artists have used the book as medium for exposing their images and concepts, which in turn challenge the form of the book as an information package and loops back to extend the idea of a book qua book. In this ongoing dialog between the artist, the page, and the reader or browser, the parameters of the book are bound; confined within the pages of a quarto or folio; or unbound; stretching and folding out beyond the reaches of a rectangular or square surface. This exhibition draws upon artists’ books from SMU Libraries collections and other institutions to ask questions about the book as an object in the mid-twentieth century, a period of great proliferation of artists’ book, up to our current time.