"Modern Gothic," the next show at the Yale University Art Gallery, is more than an exhibition -- it's also a guidebook to local sights.
Subtitled "The Revival of Medieval Art," the exhibit both places Gothic Revival art within the social and intellectual history of Britain and America, and offers information about Gothic Revival architecture in Connecticut, New England and the Northeast region.
The show, which will be on view April 4-July 30, was organized by Susan B. Matheson, the Molly and Walter Bareiss Curator of Ancient Art, and Derek D. Churchill, a doctoral candidate in the history of art.
"It is not our intention," says Matheson, "that this exhibition should aspire to be a definitive scholarly work on the Gothic Revival movement, nor a survey of the art and architecture of this field. Our goals are more localized, more focused on the immediate built environment and the reason Gothic Revival is so prominent in it."
The exhibit includes about 100 works, from paintings to sculpture, architectural drawings, furniture and decorative objects, many on public view for the first time. The buildings represented are by such major 19th-century architects as Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin of Britain, and Alexander Jackson Davis and Richard Upjohn of America.
The show focuses on how the Gothic Revival style was used in houses, churches, civic buildings and universities in Britain and America from 1830 to 1875, a time when some scholars, artists and clergy looked back to the centuries before the Renaissance for moral, spiritual and aesthetic inspiration, notes Matheson. To reveal the social values that drove these choices, the exhibit and accompanying catalogue quote documents written by the patrons who commissioned the buildings. These sources suggest that American patrons were influenced by a love of British institutions and buildings, as well as the novels and castle-like residence of Sir Walter Scott, says Matheson. This appreciation for medieval architecture and love of the picturesque are reflected the paintings, drawings and photographs featured in the exhibit.
"Modern Gothic" juxtaposes architects' drawings for major monuments with modern photographs of surviving buildings. A CD-ROM in the exhibit takes visitors on a virtual driving tour of Gothic Revival buildings on the Yale campus, in New Haven and surrounding towns, and elsewhere in New England, as well as in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. These intineraries are also included in the exhibition catalogue.
"Our hope," says Matheson, "is that by reminding visitors of the prominence of Gothic Revival architecture in this region, we will underscore the urgent need to preserve these historic buidlings."
To celebrate the opening of the exhibit, there will be a lecture on "Nature and Architectural Imagery in Gothic Revival America" at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4. The featured speaker will be William H. Pierson Jr., professor emeritus of art at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. The following day at 12:20 p.m., Matheson will present an Art à la Carte talk titled "Lyndhurst and the American Gothic Revival." Both talks are free and open to the public. Several other events have been planned in conjunction with the exhibit; watch future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar for information.
"Modern Gothic: The Revival of Medieval Art" is supported by a grant from the Connecticut Humanities Council and The Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund. Objects in the exhibit are on loan from the Yale Center for British Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, the New Haven Colony Historical Society, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Lewis Walpole Library and Sterling Memorial Library, as well as several private collections.
The Yale University Art Gallery, located at Chapel and York streets, is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday. An entrance for persons using wheelchairs is at 201 York St., with an unmetered parking space nearby. For information about access, call (203) 432-0606. General information is available at (203) 432-0600 or www.yale.edu/artgallery.
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