Yale University Art Gallery

06/08/2023

Take a look behind the scenes at the Gallery! Today’s spotlight is on: Museum Technicians

Transporting art—whether for public display or for study and research—involves many moving parts. Essential to this process are museum technicians, who are experts not only in the transport of works of art but also in their proper storage, packing, unpacking, and installation. These colleagues play a pivotal role in actualizing exhibitions such as “Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale,” on view until June 23.

Your gift to the Annual Fund immediately supports this and other essential, behind-the-scenes work at the Gallery.

If you wish to contribute, visit: https://artgallery.yale.edu/support/giving/annual-fund

The Gallery is grateful for your support!


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📷: Museum technicians David Marshall and Mark Geist install Hale Woodruff’s “Card Players” (1958).

06/05/2023

Behind the Scenes

Come behind the scenes with our studio photographers as they walk you through how they tackled one of the trickiest things to photograph: all-black, highly-reflective objects.


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Edmundo Lopez, "Bowl," ca. 2005. Earthenware. Gift of the Patti Skigen, LL.B. 1968, Collection. © Artist

06/02/2023

Yale University is excited to launch LUX: Yale Collections Discovery, a digital platform that enables users to search across Yale’s museums, archives, and library collections. This free tool is all about discovery, empowering anyone to uncover new relationships and touchpoints within our collections anytime, anywhere.

To explore , visit: https://lux.collections.yale.edu

To view the full YouTube video, visit: https://youtu.be/tCVx3pDZT4M

05/31/2023

Yale University Art Gallery Newsletter: June at the Gallery

Lots to see and do at the Gallery in June! We hope to see you soon.

The Gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday.

Lots of programs to enjoy at the Gallery this month.

05/31/2023

In honor of artist Ellsworth Kelly’s 100th birthday today, we invite you to come see one of his works currently on view in the Gallery’s “Minimalism” installation. This screenprint, “Blue (For Leo),” from the “Leo Castelli 90th Birthday Portfolio,” is emblematic of Kelly’s colorful and commanding imagery. It was produced for a collaborative portfolio in honor of the ninetieth birthday of Leo Castelli, a renowned gallerist who represented many of the Minimalist artists on view in this installation.

To create his strong visual effects, Kelly sought to strike a dynamic balance between the printed image and the surrounding blank paper—at once a source of tension and harmony. Here, the off-kilter rectangle bisects the paper’s edge on three sides but not four, leaving the right side of the composition unmoored.

The Gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday-Sunday.

Ellsworth Kelly
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Image 1: Ellsworth Kelly, “Blue (For Leo),” from the “Leo Castelli 90th Birthday Portfolio,” 1997. Screenprint on Somerset velvet paper, edition 49 of 90. Printed and published by Noblet Serigraphie, Inc., New York. Gift of Jean-Christophe Castelli and tribute by the artists in honor of Leo Castelli. © Ellsworth Kelly

Image 2: Ellsworth Kelly's “Blue (For Leo)” on view in “Minimalism.”

05/30/2023

“What’s up doc?”

Referred to as "The Man of a Thousand Voices," Mel Blanc, born on this day in 1908, is regarded as one of the greatest voice actors of all time. Some of his most notable character voices included that of Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Tweety Bird, but one of his most iconic roles was that of Bugs Bunny.

This delightful, silver-plated pitcher is from a series based on Bugs Bunny produced by Swid Powell. Founded in 1982, the New York-based company produced some of the most distinctive housewares of the 1980s. In the mid-1990s they began producing lines for other companies, including Warner Bros. Swid Powell worked with designers to manufacture a range of goods that Warner Bros. would sell in their own stores, including this silver-plated pitcher.

Simple yet elegant in design, the outline of the handle is fairly subtle, but once you notice that it is Bugs Bunny, it's impossible not to see. It isn't cartoonish. Rather, it relies on the fact that Bugs Bunny’s outline is seared into the memories of many Americans. It is nostalgia in an unexpected format.

You won’t need to bring any carrots to the Gallery to find this rabbit. The Swid Powell pitcher is currently on view in the American Decorative Arts gallery. We hope to see you soon!

That’s all, folks!


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Swid Powell for Warner Bros. Pitcher, 1996. Silver plate. Yale University Art Gallery, Swid Powell Collection, Gift of Nan Swid

05/25/2023

On view in the Gallery's current exhibition, “Crafting Worldviews: Art and Science in Europe, 1500-1800,” is this spectacular object on loan from the Yale Center for British Art.

Nearly indistinguishable from an actual floral arrangement, this shellwork recreates nature. Its maker, Sarah Dennis, of an Irish Quaker family, meticulously assembled different types of shells she had collected from nearby shores, producing an assortment of flowers with flying insects. The result is encased in a wooden cabinet, the surface of which imitates the coveted Asian lacquerware that had been imported into Europe through maritime trade networks since the mid-sixteenth century. Shellworks were created largely by women, who learned about the natural world by engaging closely with specimens they gathered.

Yale University Yale Center for British Art
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Sarah Dennis (née Newenham), "Shellwork Flower Arrangement," ca. 1730. Shell, silk, fish scales, wood, glass, and limewood (modern replacement); case: wood with pigmented spirit-resin varnish and gilded and metal powder ornament. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund

05/23/2023

In this short video, Molleen Theodore, Jane and Gerald Katcher Curator of Programs, Education Department, addresses the Sidewalk Studio series.

Come join our first Sidewalk Studio program of the season this Thursday, May 25, at 2:00 pm, weather permitting.

This video may also be viewed on the Gallery’s YouTube channel, where closed captions are available in English. To explore all of the Gallery’s video content, including artist talks, lectures, and more, visit: https://www.youtube.com/yaleartgallery

05/22/2023

On behalf of all my colleagues at the Yale University Art Gallery, this Commencement Day I wish to congratulate students in the class of 2023 on all you have achieved.

Your support and engagement with the museum have enriched the work we do in so many ways. We hope that you will always consider yourself a part of the Gallery and will return often. It has been an honor to be part of your Yale experience, and I wish you all the best as you embark on new endeavors.

Congratulations!

—Stephanie Wiles, the Henry J. Heinz II Director


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📷 1: Director Stephanie Wiles in the modern and contemporary art galleries

📷 2: View of Street Hall, one of three architecturally distinct buildings that connect to form the Yale University Art Gallery

05/18/2023

E-Gallery Talk

In this short video, Ekaterina Koposova, Ph.D. student in the History of Art and one of the student curators of the exhibition “Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale,” addresses Willem van de Velde the Elder’s “Brederode off Vlieland” (1645).

Visit the Gallery's YouTube channel to explore all of our video content, including artist talks, lectures, and more. Closed captions are available in English. https://www.youtube.com/yaleartgallery

05/16/2023

Take a look behind the scenes at the Gallery! Today’s spotlight is on: Photographers

The Gallery’s studio photographers help bring our collection to life. Their images serve as vital resources not only for members of the public—such as students, faculty members, researchers, and visitors to the museum’s website—but also for internal staff as they collaborate on projects including exhibitions, publications, and conservation treatments.

Currently, images of over 156,000 objects are made available via our online catalogue, and this number increases daily. Your gift to the Annual Fund has an immediate impact, enabling us to invest in the behind-the-scenes work that underpins our educational mission.

If you wish to contribute, click the link our bio and select “Annual Fund.” The Gallery is grateful for your support!


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📷 : Senior photographer Richard House photographs a 19th- to mid-20th century mask by a Yoruba artist from Nigeria.

05/15/2023

We’re thrilled to join the Richard Avedon Foundation in celebrating the 100th birthday of American fashion and portrait photographer Richard Avedon (1923-2004). This photograph, taken by Avedon in 1955, features the great contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993), who, among having many other accolades, was the first Black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Invited at the behest of then director Rudolf Bing, she sang the part of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Un ballo in Maschera” (“A Masked Ball”). Here, Avedon crops the subject, so that our attention is fixed directly on Anderson’s face as she sings the same Verdi piece she had performed earlier in the year, emphasizing her vocal artistry, power, and passion as she appears to leap forward from the frame, eyes closed and focused on the music.

Richard Avedon Foundation

📷: Richard Avedon, “Marian Anderson, Contralto, New York,” June 30, 1955; printed 1959. Gelatin silver print. Gift of George Hopper Fitch, B.A. 1932. © The Richard Avedon Foundation

05/12/2023

Last week, Gallery Objects Conservators Cathy Silverman and Anne Gunnison along with Associate Curator of African Art James Green returned from Lagos, Nigeria, where they held another workshop in wood conservation for 12 professionals as part of a partnership with Nigeria's National Commission for Museums & Monuments (NCMM) and made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of State Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The workshop concluded with a closing ceremony where certificates of completion were awarded.

National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria U.S. Mission Nigeria

05/11/2023

Reflection by security guard Tom Grim.

“Growing up in Connecticut, I have always been fond of the incredible restaurants and various entertainment spots all around Yale University. During a visit to the Yale Art Gallery in the early 2000s, I was awestruck by the sheer volume of amazing art. I was particularly drawn to the paintings of Claude Monet and other world-famous impressionist artists.

In this beautiful Monet painting of his garden at Giverny, I witness the thick intense colors. They are lavish, but up close, the details of the painting appear vague to me. As I step back several steps, I see a path adorned with gorgeous thick flowers and foliage. The sunlight is vivid, and the shadows are natural and present. As I squint my eyes for only a moment, I am transcended to another magical place.”

🖼️ Monet's “The Artist's Garden in Giverny” (1900) is on view in the European collection on the 2nd floor of the Gallery.

05/08/2023

Teens! Join us Wednesday afternoons!

Teens from around New Haven come to the Gallery on Wednesday afternoons from 3:00-4:30 throughout the year for the drop-in Teen Program. Shown here are works made by teens in April sessions. Anyone 13-19 is welcome to come. Teens have access to art materials to make their own artworks and can spend time in the galleries. The program is free, and no registration is required. Art supplies, bus passes, and snacks are provided. 🖍️🎨🍪🫶🌈🖼️

05/06/2023

Louis Kahn’s triangle motif, repeated throughout the Gallery, reaches its apex in the four-story stairwell. Kahn further ordered the space by encasing the stairs within a concrete drum, a detail possibly influenced by Philip Johnson’s Glass House, completed in 1949 and located in nearby New Canaan, CT.

You can learn more about this iconic space as well as the two other buildings that make up the Gallery by downloading Smartify, the Gallery’s new visitor engagement platform. Available in the App Store or Google Play, Smartify offers an engaging guide to the Gallery’s collection and architecture. Click the link in our bio and select “Smartify Mobile App” to learn more; download Smartify and take a tour of the museum with Gallery educators and curators.


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Image 1: View of the top of the Louis Kahn-designed stairwell in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2006. Photo: Elizabeth Felicella

Image 2: View of the Louis Kahn-designed cylindrical stairwell in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2006. Photo: Harold Shapiro

Image 3: Louis I Kahn, “Plan of circular stairwell, Yale University Art Gallery addition,” 1953. Graphite on tracing paper. Yale University Art Gallery

05/03/2023

Take a look behind the scenes at the Gallery! Today’s spotlight is on: Conservators

Before works of art can be transported and put on display, conservators must assess their condition, often through the use of advanced technology. If needed, treatments to prevent deterioration or harm are undertaken in dialogue with curatorial staff.

Your gift to the Annual Fund immediately supports these essential, behind-the-scenes activities to prepare works of art for exhibition. If you wish to contribute, visit: https://artgallery.yale.edu/support/giving/annual-fund

The Gallery is grateful for your support!

Read more about the technical examination of Hale Woodruff’s “Card Players” (1958), shown here, and what it revealed about the artist’s process in making this painting: https://artgallery.yale.edu/research-and-learning/conservation/conservation-projects/technical-examination-hale-woodruffs-card


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📷 : Anna Vesaluoma, Postgraduate Associate in Paintings Conservation, works on Hale Woodruff’s “Card Players” (1958).

📷 : Photomicrograph of the eye of one of the sitters in Hale Woodruff’s “Card Players” (1958).

05/01/2023

Yale University Art Gallery Newsletter: May at the Gallery

Lots to see and do at the Gallery this month!

Lots of programs to enjoy at the Gallery this month.

05/01/2023

Hi, I’m George Hagerty, and I am thrilled to be the new Director of Facilities at the Gallery.

Before joining the staff here, I held a number of positions working with museum collections and works of art. I trained in the department of Objects Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, working with statues similar to “Athena,” the one seen behind me here. I later worked for over a decade with contemporary sculptor Richard Rosenblum, molding and casting his large-scale sculptures using the traditional lost-wax method of bronze casting, as well as in polyester resin and plaster in his traditional atelier.

I next joined the staff at U.S. Art, working as the National Special Projects Manager and managing whole museum collection moves and installations. I spent years traveling the country to work with riggers and crane companies moving, packing, and shipping monumental artworks of all types. I fondly remember working alongside Mitch Didier of Marshall Fine Arts to rig, pack, and transport this very “Athena” for a copy to be made in fiberglass for Yale's Art and Architecture Building.

My team at U.S. Art collaborated with the Gallery's Exhibitions Department in 2012 to assist in the museum's reinstallation. I am excited to now join the staff myself. I have worked in many museums around the world, and this is my favorite place due to the expertise and energy of the staff, the built environment, and the artworks.

My personal interests involve caring for and enjoying my 50-year-old transportation devices pictured here: a 1965 wooden Friendship Sloop from Maine and a 1942 motorcycle sidecar by way of China.

I am happily married to my wonderful wife of 23 years, and we have one daughter who is graduating from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts this May. We also enjoy our 90 lb. crazy female Akita pup named Kumako (“Little Girl Bear”) who keeps us running and laughing.

04/28/2023

Take a look behind the scenes at the Gallery! Today’s spotlight is on: Registrars

Transporting art—whether for public display or for study and research—involves many moving parts. Registrars begin the process by keeping object records. In dialogue with conservators, these professionals inventory and report on whether works of art are in suitable condition to be put on display or made available for study and research.

The end result—exceptional special exhibitions, permanent-collection installations, and object-based educational programming that are free and open to all—is made possible thanks to your contribution.

If you wish to donate, click the link in our bio and select "Annual Fund." The Gallery is grateful for your support!


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📷 : Bethany Day, Assistant Registrar, assesses “Still Life with Daffodils” (ca. 1885–95) by John Singer Sargent.

04/25/2023

In this short video, Joyce Yusi Zhou, Ph.D. student in the History of Art and one of the student curators of the exhibition “Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale,” examines a 17th-century “screw thaler,” a coin that twists open to reveal remarkable miniature portraits of a Dutch couple.

Explore all of the Gallery’s video content, including artist talks, lectures, and more on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/yaleartgallery

04/22/2023

Perhaps in celebration of Earth Day today, you will decide to get outside and explore the nearby landscape. A recently opened installation at the Gallery, developed in consultation with Yale School of the Environment faculty, marks the bicentennial of the birth of landscape architect and reformer Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), who recognized the importance of environmental protection during the age of rapacious development that coincided with the rise of landscape painting in America.

In this painting of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York by Asher Brown Durand, a dry creek bed in late summer reveals the roots of sycamore and yellow birch trees grasping the hillside. Durand was one of many American landscape artists at midcentury who valued the strict adherence to observed nature championed by the British art critic John Ruskin. Here, the mottled tones of both sycamore and birch bark—interspersed with patches of rich green moss—complement the dappled light filtering through the leaves. Eroded by the spring snow melt, the hillside in Durand’s scene reflects the naturally abrasive effects of water and weather on mountain and plant alike.

Yale University Yale School of the Environment

Asher Brown Durand, "A Sycamore Tree, Plaaterkill Clove (The Sycamore, Kaaterskill Clove)." ca. 1858. Oil on canvas. Gift of Mrs. Frederic F. Durand

04/20/2023

Kyler Brahmer, the Ian McClure Pre-Program Fellow in the Conservation Department, is learning about egg tempera paintings by copying a detail of Sano di Pietro's “Saint Anthony Abbot Tormented by Demons.” Here, he uses a thin squirrel hair brush to apply the very delicate gold leaf to a layer of red bole.


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📷: Kyler applying gold leaf to the surface of his panel.

🖼️: Sano di Pietro, “Saint Anthony Abbot Tormented by Demons,” ca. 1435–40. Tempera on panel. University Purchase from James Jackson Jarves