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.
Alexa Walkovitz: “The Voice Of Blackness”
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 my own experience having a voice that is always existing as black, a point of impossible subjectivity.
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.
Meadhbh Gianne: “History + Tension”
Meadhbh will focus on three works: Bill Eppridge, Apollo 11 Roll-Out, Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 20, 2969, David Hockney, Two Lemons and Four Limes, Santa Monica, 1976, and Goya, Quien mas rendido. Her Talk will discuss ideas of history and tension in art, and how these themes are present throughout time, medium, and space. Meadhbh will also talk about her own unconventional experience with WALLS, and how working at WCMA this summer has allowed her to find a connection with these works outside of the semester.
Bill Eppridge, Apollo 11 Roll-out, Cape Canaveral