WALLS is a special collection of 127 original works of art that go out on loan to Williams College students every semester. This summer, a group of 40 works in the collection by artists including Louise Nevelson, Francisco de Goya, Titus Kaphar, Margaret Bourke-White, Kiki Smith, Wifredo Lam, and Marc Chagall are on view for visitors to enjoy.

On August 9, hear from Alexa Walkovitz and Javier Robelo.

Alexa will focus on three works: Alison Saar, Washtub Blues, Bob Gomel, Malcolm X, and Toyin Odultola, If she doesn’t say anything then it never happened. With a focus on works that depict a black body, invoke and witness history, as well as give and take voice/narrative to and from a Black subject, Alexa will trace her own identity through these pieces that all have a different lens of blackness: one with identity and skin, one with loneliness and weathering, and one with ancestry and celebration. She will discuss how they work into her own experience having a voice that is always existing as black, a point of impossible subjectivity. 

Javier will look at three works: Alexander Calder’s Acrobats, Claes Oldenburg, Equitable Building as a Pencil Sharpener; and Jim Dine’s Tool Box 3. His spark talk will look at the insights these works provide into the life, interests, and practices of the artists who made them, while considering the potential for artists to create new perspectives and redefine the world around us.

Bob Gomel (American, b. 1933), Malcolm X photographing Cassius Clay, Miami, 1964. Gelatin silver print, 17 x 22 in. Student Art Loan Program, Museum Purchase, Fulkerson Fund for Leadership in the Arts, SL.2013.9.3.

Alexander Calder, (American, 1898-1976), Acrobats. Lithograph on Arches, 77 x 55.7 cm. Student Art Loan Program, Museum Purchase, Fulkerson Fund for Leadership in the Arts, SL.2013.31.4.