The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art explores artistic vision across two-dimensional and three-dimensional media in “Between Planes: Exploring Sculpture Through Print,” Nov. 13-Dec. 20.
There will be a free, public opening reception, 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13 at the museum.
“A sculpture and a print exist in two different planes; each expresses something the other cannot,” said Chris Rupp, interim museum director.
“Viewing a sculpture and print together illuminates the full exploration of a theme, with each medium informing the other to create a fuller picture,” Rupp said.
The exhibit is also a tribute to the generosity of Westmont alumni Dewayne (’62) and Faith Perry (’62), whose gifts over the years helped create a special print acquisition fund for the museum, Westmont said.
In 2009, the museum purchased Jacques Lipchitz’s “Bellerophon Taming Pegasus,” the first print by a sculptor purchased through the Perry Print Acquisition Fund.
The museum has now purchased more than 475 works on paper through the fund.
Numerous works from the Perry’s private collection have been featured in exhibits on Westmont’s campus over the years, with a set of prints by Giovanni Pitteri on permanent display in the foyer of Kerrwood Hall.
“The Perry’s keen eyes and many years of thoughtful acquisitions led to a collection of more than 4,000 old master prints, including household names such as Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Whistler, Turner and hundreds more lesser-known printmakers,” Rupp said.
One unique area of print collecting in which the museum has focused is prints made by sculptors.
“Often, printmaking becomes a place to experiment, functioning as a sketchbook or laboratory for working through artistic thought prior to a sculpture,” Rupp said. “Prints created post-sculpture can also serve as a means of reflection or expansion on a concept.”
The exhibit features a kinetic sculpture by renowned artist Alexander Calder, loaned from local collectors. The abstract work titled “The Smile and the Eye” (1974) was created by the American sculptor whose innovative moving sculptures inspired a critic to coin the term “mobile” in 1931.
“It’s a coup that we are able to exhibit this work,” Rupp said. “In the donors’ own words, ‘of course we will lend it, we love Westmont!’”
Admission is free to the museum, which is open weekdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Sundays and college holidays.
To learn more about the museum, upcoming museum events, or becoming a museum member visit www.westmont.edu/museum.
David Gilhooly’s 1978 ceramic frog ship, “Untitled (‘Old Vic’)”
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