Greetings exhibit-philes! I hope you have enjoyed your summer as much as I did. Once again it is time for me to ramble on about another great exhibit, and this time I will once again, be discussing an exhibit of my own that is currently open at my home museum Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal.
Housed in the lower level of the Cincinnati History Museum’s South Gallery is The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography is an essay by Dr. Cynthia Goodman in life as told through images – some staged and some naturally occurring that provide the viewer an interpretation of different life stages. As an exhibit after my own heart, I had a social media sign created encouraging people to dialogue about the exhibit through Twitter and check into the exhibit on Foursquare! This is just one of my experiments in fusing an exhibition experience with an online experience.
WORLD
The exhibition is separated into seven themes and each has a plethora of images that compliment each theme. There are literally hundreds of images in the exhibition. Upon entry into the exhibit you are greeted with photographs from one of the most well-known, world-renowned photographers of all time, Annie Leibovitz. Three pieces from her WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Diseases) series are the first things one notices. These large, brightly colored photographs depicting women with certain ailments are bold, and colorful.
As I said there are seven themes so I will discuss my favorite photograph from each theme in the exhibit. The first stop is the Children and Family section. All of the photographs deal with a variety of different family settings and situations from homosexuality to many familiar celebrations. Tina Barney’s “Children’s Party” is a chromogenic print depicting three main groups during a child’s birthday party. The first group, the young boys, aren’t paying any attention to the second group – the young girls – who outnumber the boys. The third group, the responsible adults, aren’t paying attention to either of the first two groups!
One of the most influential and most recognized photographs of the 20th Century begins our look at the
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s VJ Day
Love gallery. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic “V-J Day” photo shot on Times Square shows a lucky sailor kissing a similarly lucky nurse to celebrate the end of World War II. Also ensure you check out “My Cousin Candi’s Wedding” by Chris Verene with the caption “My cousin Candi with her two favorite customers from her job at the Sirloin Stockade.” Classy; Mostly for those of you familiar with the Sirloin Stockade.
This brings us to the Wellness gallery of the exhibit where if you aren’t paying attention you may miss the best photo in the gallery. It is “Muhammad Ali, Hyde Park, London” taken in 1970 by Gordon Parks. The best part of it is if you see this and go to America I AM: The African American Imprint exhibit, you can actually also see Muhammad Ali’s robe from the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.” Of course being from North Central Indiana, I have to mention Catherine Opie’s “Dusty” – a football player wearing a Notre Dame jersey. Now, it is a high school player, but it’s still Notre Dame.
(Insert catchy segue here) CareGiving and Healing looks at multiple methods and ways of caring for others, but the most eye catching is the entire wall dedicated to Tatsumi Orimoto’s “Breadman Son + Alzheimer Mama.” Orimoto is a performance artist and uses his mother in this series as the subject and performance partner. He provides 21 comical photographs of varying poses with his mother.
Sylvia Plachy’s “Grandpa and Grandma” put a new, fresh, and fun spin on the concept of Aging in the gallery of the same name. While the couple is elderly, they are amused in the backseat of a car while bubbles float pass them as blown by their grandchild. Directly to the right is a couple crowned “The King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance” in 1970. Diane Arbus captures the faces of the couple and conveys the idea that they’re not as excited as one would think to have earned such a title. An empty nest story is told in Larry Sultan’s “Moving Out.” A couple is spending their last moments in the home that they undoubtedly owned for a considerable amount of time and have countless memories tied to.
In Disaster there a photographs from many moments in history that have been captured on film including the Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp from WWII Germany, to 9/11, the Indonesian Tsunami, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hurricane Katrina.
The final gallery, Remembering, reminds us what photography is all about. It is photography that allows us to have an image to remember a person or an event. The most touching photograph is Edward Clark’s “Navy CPO Graham Jackson.” Jackson fights back tears running as he plays the accordion during a funeral procession for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Next to him is the familiar veiled face of “Jacqueline Kennedy at Funeral” by Elliot Erwitt.
My Professional Opinion-
Of course, I don’t get to host art exhibitions often, but when I do they are generally very good exhibits. This one is no different. The simplicity of the exhibit’s themes is balanced by the complexity of the photographs chosen to represent each theme. With over 200 photographs in the exhibit there is definitely something to make you smile, cry, and smile again all within 5000 square feet! See the exhibition today at Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal! It closes Sunday, September 19.
Website:
http://www.cincymuseum.org/explore_our_sites/special_exhibits_events/current_exhibits/ArtCaring.asp
Follow:
@CincyMuseum
Take the exhibit home! Purchase the exhibit catalogue in the Duke Energy Children’s Lobby Gift Shop!
The Art of Caring Catalogue
Special ExhiBITs 