Lynchburg Living

Art

By Suzanne Ramsey

When one thinks about famous artists, names like Rembrandt, Georgia O’Keefe, Francisco Goya and Mary Cassatt may come to mind–artists whose work hangs in galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C. and Lynchburg.

Yes, Lynchburg. You don’t have to travel to D.C. to see a Goya, or all the way to Santa Fe to see an O’Keefe. You don’t have to take the train to the Big Apple or Philly to see paintings by artists you may only know from glossy coffee-table books. You can see work by these and other well-known and lesser-known artists at area colleges. And you can see it for free.

The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College

Randolph College, which specializes in American art, started its collection in 1907 as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. Today, it boasts about 4,000 pieces, 600 of which are part of its Maier Museum of Art. At any given time, about 200 pieces are on display at the Maier, including, among others, O’Keefe’s “Yellow Cactus,” Edward Hopper’s “Mrs. Scott’s House,” Cassatt’s “Sketch of Mother and Daughter Looking at Baby” and the gallery’s oldest piece of American art, Gilbert Stuart’s 19th-century portrait of Mrs. Polly Hooper.

The collection also includes “A County Girl,” by Albert Pinkham Ryder. The tiny, cracked oil painting is a favorite of Martha Johnson, the Maier’s interim director.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s so intimate and mysterious, and I love his work, period.”

Since the early years of the college, which was founded in 1891, Randolph has exposed its students to fine, original works of art. Today, while the more high-profile items are at the Maier, original artwork hangs all over campus.

“There are some beautiful works of original art in the spaces where people live, work and play,” Johnson said. “That mission, which was set forth at the very beginning, is still carried out today.”

Since 1911, the college has hosted an annual exhibition of contemporary art. This year’s show–its 100th–runs from September 2 through December 10 at the Maier.

Sweet Briar College’s art collection was started in the mid-1930s when Meta Glass, a Randolph-Macon Woman’s College graduate, was president.

“I’m sure that’s where she got the idea,” Karol Lawson, galleries director, said. “It’s kind of an interesting illustration of how people carry ideas from one place to the next.”

Sweet Briar’s permanent collection now includes more than 3,600 pieces. Artwork is displayed in Babcock Fine Arts Center, Benedict Hall and Anne Gary Pannell Gallery. Most items in the collection are works on paper–drawings, prints, etchings, lithographs, engravings, watercolors and collages. Emphasis is placed on contemporary women artists. Other highlights include prints by Rembrandt and Durer, Whistler engravings and Hudson River landscapes.

Since taking over as director in 2008, Lawson has curated several exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection. One reason for this has been budgetary; the other was because, when she came onboard, she didn’t know what treasures she might find lurking in the gallery’s flat files.

So, sort of like pulling all of your clothes out of the closet and throwing them on the bed to see what kind of outfits you can make, Lawson presented a series of exhibits made up of in-house artwork.

Sweet Briar’s next show is a continuation of this. “Gods and Monsters: Images of Faith and Horror from the Permanent Collection,” opens September 16 in Pannell Gallery.

“One side of Pannell will be [images of] monstrous, terrible things like Death coming to get you, bad people and stuff like that,” Lawson said. “The other side will be images that are more encouraging and uplifting, more heavenly and munificent.”

The Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College

The Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College is named for Pierre Daura, who once taught at the college and chaired its art program, and his wife, Louise. Its holdings include about 250 pieces by the Catalan-American artist, everything from abstracts and self-portraits to landscapes and engravings.

The permanent collection, about 1,000 pieces, also includes “Totin’ Water from the Spring,” by Amherst County folk artist, Queena Stovall. Stovall was a student of Daura’s and painted country scenes, such as farm auctions and hog killings. Three other Stovall paintings are on permanent loan to the gallery. Gallery director, Barbara Rothermel, called Stovall’s work “a very significant component of our collection.”

The Daura also has works by Rembrandt, Goya, Chagall and Picasso.

From October 17 through December 9, the Daura Gallery will host a traveling exhibit that celebrates 75 years of collecting by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Visitors will see work by Andy Warhol, Goya, Salvador Dali and others.

The Collection at Central Virginia Community College

Central Virginia Community College takes pride in its student artwork, displaying it all over campus, especially in the library.

“[There is] a tremendous amount of art in there, beautiful stuff,” said Jill Markwood, photographer and instructional assistant in CVCC’s Communication Design Department.

CVCC’s collection includes several hundred pieces of artwork, about 100 of which are displayed at any given time. Much of it is purchased from students at the annual student art show.

“There’s one in the library that was done in the 1960s, I think,” Markwood said. “He’s a local artist and he owns a sign shop here. It’s a beautiful painting he did of the old library.”

The college regularly hosts exhibits in Merritt Hall. The shows open every other month on the first Thursday of the month, so as not to conflict with downtown Lynchburg’s “First Fridays” art openings. The exhibits, often by local artists with a connection to the college, stay up for two months.

In November and December, CVCC will host an exhibit in Merritt Hall of artwork inspired by a spring study-abroad trip to Italy. The exhibit will include paintings, drawings and photography by students, staff, faculty and alumni.

Liberty University Art Gallery

Two years ago, Liberty University started hosting exhibits in a 900-square-foot space that shares a hallway with the Helms School of Government. Todd Smith, chair of the Department of Studio and Digital Arts, said the gallery was born out of a desire to exhibit student artwork somewhere other than in the hallways.

“That is a very common practice for most schools, but at that time that was our only exhibition space,” he said. “A couple of years ago there was a major reconstruction done at the university and the [studio and digital arts] program was one of the programs that was given more space. As a part of that, we were able to get a full-fledged gallery.”

Since then, in addition to student shows, Liberty has hosted exhibits by landscape artist, David Heath, and the Blue Ridge Plein Air Artists. This fall, from September 22 through November 7, the gallery will feature work by landscape artist, Diane Johnson.

Smith looks forward to building a permanent collection at Liberty, perhaps modeling it after the Maier’s.

“At the Maier, they have a variety of different time periods of American history and all that,” he said. “That’s the kind of thing we would like to do.”

He would also like to schedule more traveling exhibits and invite artists to not only display their work but spend time with students.

“Our visiting artists will actually be involved in classes and show them techniques,” Smith said. “To me, you can’t beat that kind of education.”