The Museum reopens, after a summer closure for a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning construction project, with an exhibition that focuses on the essence of our role on campus: to support the academic mission of Bates. As an academic museum at a liberal arts college, the Museum of Art and its exhibitions, collections, stewardship, and interpretation bring a world of ideas to campus that enhance the vitality of the intellectual and cultural life of Bates, the surrounding communities, and beyond.
For this exhibition, the staff selected art from the collection for its potential to be integrated into courses across academic disciplines by faculty and students. An array of subjects including astronomy, civil rights, domestic violence, the environment, mythology, physics, popular culture, sports, war, and many more, are represented.
Ashley Bryan (American, 1932-2022), I Cannot Reach It Yet, n.d., acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Henry Isaacs and Donna Bartnoff Isaacs, 2020.2.6Enrique Chagoya (American/Mexican, b. 1953), Illegal Alien’s Guide to the Concept of Relative Surplus Value, 2009, lithograph on amate paper, 15 x 80 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase, 2011.13.3, (detail image)Lalla Essaydi (Moroccan, b. 1956), Grand Odalisque, 2008, C-4 print on mounted aluminum, 33 3/4 x 40 1/4 x 1 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase with support from the Davis Family Foundation, 2011.20.1Larry Fink, Harlem Youth, New York, NY, February, 1964, archival pigment print, 22 x 17 inches, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Abby Bluestone, 2020Robert Gendler, M42, The Great Nebula in Orion, 2005, inkjet print, 60 x 44 inches, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of the Artist, 2022Max Greis, Desert Storm, 2012, edition 1 of 3, video projection and acrylic on panel, 24 x 20 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase with and the Olivia and Ellwood Straub Endowment and the Dr. Robert A. and Minna F. Johnson ’36 Art Acquisition Fund, 2015.11.1Laurie Hogin (American, b. 1963), Water Hole (Social Species in the Late Anthropocene), 2017, oil on canvas, 26 1/2 x 32 inches, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of the Virginia and Hack Pine Memorial Trust, 2019.7.1Walter Iooss (American, b. 1943), Ali vs. Terrell – Houston Astrodome, 2/6/1967, n.d., archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Lev Pukin, 2017Brad Kahlhamer (American, b. 1956), Mesa Mesa, 2019, ink and gouache on paper, 14 x 10 3/4 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase with the Alumni Collector’s Society Fund, 2020.4.1Isabella Kirkland (American, b. 1954), Back, 2008, digital print, 41 1/2 x 32 3/4 inches, Bates College Museum of Art purchase with the Dr. Robert A. and Minna F. Johnson ’36 Art Acquisition Fund, and the Abraham and Bella Margolis Art Fund, 2013.2.1Bernard Langlais (American, 1921-1977), Untitled [Eagle], ca. 1974, found wood with paint, 28 x 48 3/4 x 6 inches, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Colby College and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2013.19.2Eve Andree Laramee (American, b. 1956), NukeNOtes: Maine Yankee Nuclear Reactor Site, 2011-12, digital print, Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of the Artist, 2022Thomas Nozkowski (American, b. 1944), Untitled #2, 2002, etching with aquatint on paper, 22 3/4 x 29 1/4 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase, 2021Alison Saar (American, b. 1956), Sweeping Beauty, 1997, woodcut print on paper, 76 x 33 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase, 2011.23.1Shoji Miyamoto, Sashimi, 2011, woodblock print on paper, 9 X 14 inches, Bates College Museum of Art Purchase, 2016.6.6
