The Art Scene

Exhibitions, Installations, and Unveilings

Architecture as Icon

At The Princeton University Art Museum, Through June 6
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land by Demetrios, Pilgrim, 1793 Oil on oilcloth, 85 x 86 cm. Athens, Greece: Byzantine and Christian Museum
photo courtesy of The Byzantine and Christian Museum

Journey of the Imagination

From coins and rings to monumental icons

by Stuart Mitchner

The first curatorial signpost you see as you enter the Princeton University Art Museum’s major international loan exhibition Architecture as Icon: Perception and Representation of Architecture in Byzantine Art, promises a “journey of the imagination” into the spiritual world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. One temporal fact of life to recognize at the outset is that June 6 is the exhibit’s last day and that what you’re experiencing is the culmination of many years of research by guest curator Slobodan Curcic, professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton.

The journey takes on another dimension when you hear a choir singing in the video presentation “Church in Hands,” and feel as if you’ve entered one of the Armenian or Russian or Romanian churches displayed on pedestals in the sparsely lit main gallery. Objects range in size from small coins and delicate rings to immense paintings such as a large proskynetarion (translated as “guidebook”) or monumental icon of the Holy Land, from the National Museum in Warsaw. According to Curcic, “the variation among the objects on view underscores one of the main tenets of the exhibition—that the meaning of symbols is not affected by their medium or physical size.”

“Teaching Byzantine art at Princeton has given me many opportunities to reflect on how little is broadly known about the ways in which great Byzantine icons work visually and the absence of any serious consideration of the representation of architecture in Byzantine art,” says Curcic. “This exhibition aims to demonstrate that architecture was not merely background ‘wall paper,’ but an active symbolic ingredient of the scenes in which it is depicted.”

The exhibition opened last fall in the European Center for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments in Thessaloniki. Princeton is its only venue in the United States.

The museum is open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

LOCAL MUSEUMS

Firestone Library on the Princeton University campus is presenting The Author’s Portrait: ‘O, Could He But Have Drawne His Wit,’ an exhibit of 100 portraits of poets, novelists and essayists, pulled from the holdings of the University’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. The exhibit will be on through July 5. Envisioning the World: The First Printed Maps, 1472-1700 is in the Leonard L. Milberg Gallery through August 1. Hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends 12 noon to 5 p.m.

The Historical Society of Princeton, located in Bainbridge House at 158 Nassau Street, is presenting Stony Brook: Gateway to Princeton through July 4. The exhibition examines the history of the Princeton Battlefield/Stony Brook Village Historic District, particularly how the use of the land has changed over time. Properties within the boundaries of the district include the HSP’s own Updike Farmstead at 354 Quaker Road, the Quaker Meeting House, and several private residences along Mercer and Stockton Streets.

The James A. Michener Art Museum at 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown. Icons of Costume: Hollywood’s Golden Era and Beyond presents over 50 items selected from an extensive collection of movie memorabilia. On display are Hollywood fashions worn by Loretta Young, Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn and James Dean, as well as costumes and accessories used in more recent films featuring Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. From Marlene Dietrich’s black velvet evening gown from Shanghai Express (1932) to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s black leather jacket from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Rare studio publicity stills, lobby cards and film props augment the experience, and an interactive “Screen Test” area allows visitors to act out their favorite scenes to be uploaded to the Museum’s channel on YouTube.com. The exhibition is on view in the Museum’s Paton / Smith / Della Penna-Fernberger Galleries through September 5, 2010. Also on view, Contemporary Folklore: Sculpture by Ann Chahbandour, Ryan Kelly, Lisa Naples and Kukuli Velarde, through June 13 in the Museum’s Fred Beans Gallery. Stone sculptures by artist Ayami Aoyama will be in the Outdoor Sculpture Garden through June 20.

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum is staying open from 6 to 9 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month. The newest exhibition, Lalla Essaydi: Les Femmes de Maroc, is comprised of 17 large scale photographs selected from the artist’s most recent series and will be on view through June 6. How We Live Now: Picturing Everyday Life in Children’s Book Illustrations is in The Roger Duvoisin Gallery through May 23. The Zimmerli is located at 71 Hamilton Street on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Mabel Smith Douglass Library Galleries, Rutgers University 8 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick. The current Mary H. Dana Women Artist Series exhibition features four artists selected by a jury of visual arts professionals. Lisa Pressman and Debra Ramsay work primarily in encaustic; Marsha Goldberg and Nicole Ianuzelli paint with oil and acrylic. The show runs through June 7. Gallery Hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; weekends by appointment.

Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library on the Princeton University campus. Princetonians in Print: 175 Years of Student Publications at Princeton, an exhibition that chronicles the history of student publications at Princeton University from the earliest known student papers to the broad range of present-day online publications. The exhibition runs through Friday, July 30. It will be on view 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. weekdays. For more information e-mail mudd@princeton.edu, call (609) 258-6345, or visit www.princeton.edu/mudd/

Morven Museum & Garden, 55 Stockton Street in Princeton. The current exhibit, Rocks & Dinos! showcases a series of paintings by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins depicting different geological eras that were installed in Princeton University’s Nassau Hall in the late 1870s. The exhibition will run through spring 2010. Other events include a Friends of Morven Plant Sale Preview Day from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on May 7 and from 5 to 7 p.m. a Morven in May Garden Party with cocktails and a silent auction; and on May 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the annual Heirloom Plant Sale, Birds, Bees & Butterflies. Museum hours are Wednesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The admission fee is $4 for seniors and students, and $5 for adults. Onsite parking is free. For more information about the Garden Party, call (609) 924-8144, ext. 106, or visit www.morven.org.

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