Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 13-20, 1999

Volume 28, Number 4

"Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Bartholomew" by Giovanni di Paolo

Celebration marks reopening
of remodeled gallery

It's not unusual to hear visitors to the Yale University Art Gallery exclaim in marvel as they examine early Italian paintings depicting the Madonna or famous works by Monet.

Now, those who visit the gallery's famous collections of European and contemporary paintings and sculpture can take a trip through time of sorts, as they explore, chronologically, the history of art from the ninth century onward.

Furthermore, the masterpieces they now marvel over will be bathed in a more natural light.

The gallery was closed during most of July and the month of August for the major remodeling and refurbishing of its second and third floors. It will celebrate the reopening of its European and contemporary art and sculpture collections on those floors on Friday, Sept. 17, with a museum-wide open house, to which all are invited. It will take place 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The following day, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the gallery will continue its celebration with "Festa dell'Arte," an afternoon of family activities. This event is also free and open to the public.

As part of the gallery's remodeling project, interior walls and structures were removed to reveal the distinctive architectural features of the gallery building, which was designed by the late Louis Kahn, and to let in natural light. Art works were reinstalled to provide a more coherent vision of Yale's holdings from the ninth century to the present, and sculptures -- many of which are on public view for the first time in decades -- have been more harmoniously mingled in with the paintings, according to Joanna Weber, the acting curator of European and contemporary art, who was in charge of the renovation project.

Weber was mindful of the chronological history of art in planning the installation, but was also keen to make the visitor's experience both aesthetically pleasing and enlightening, she says.

"We have installed a millennium of art," the acting curator explains. "Our hope is that the visitor's progression from the earliest object, an Italian choir screen relief from the ninth to 11th century, on the second floor, to the final work on the third floor, a Jasper Johns painting, will be one of fresh discoveries and new insights."

To that end, the gallery has put up extensive interpretive labels to accompany the works of art. These address a range of issues, with information from, among others, Carl Strehlke, the gallery's consulting curator on its renowned collection of early Italian paintings.

The reopening celebration will also draw attention to the gallery's current exhibitions, "Postmodern Transgressions: Artists Working Beyond the Frame," which includes 90 works of art that deliberately blur accepted limits of artistic expression; "Alfred Stieglitz and the Equivalent: Reinventing the Nature of Photography," which looks at how Stieglitz and photographers since him have explored the camera's representation of nature as an abstract vocabulary of personal experience; and "Figures and Landscapes in Asian Art," which features ceramics, paintings and sculpture exploring the themes of figure and landscape in Chinese and Japanese art from the third millennium B.C. to the 17^th century.

Special entertainment for "Festa dell'Arte" includes the puppet show "Roxi's Art Adventure" and a performance of "Comedia dell'Arte" by the Yale Children's Theater Workshop. Music will be provided in the early afternoon by Al Harary on mandolin and Michael Proscino on accordion; later, Stacy Phillips will play the violin and dobro. A variety of other art-related and Italian-inspired attractions and refreshments will also be offered.

The Yale University Art Gallery, located at 1111 Chapel St., is open to the public without charge Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, 1-6 p.m. It is closed Mondays and major holidays. A wheelchair-accessible entrance is at 201 York St., with a reserved parking space nearby. For information on wheelchair access, call 432-0606. For taped general and program information, call 432-0600 or check the gallery's website at www.yale.edu/artgallery.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

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Celebration marks reopening of remodeled gallery

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Yale Rep opens season with tale of humorous antics of hypochondriac

Deborah Thomas is named to new posts in Woodbridge Hall

Bjong 'Wolf' Yeigh is appointed as assistant provost

Memorial service will be held for Joseph Coleman

'Europe Beyond 2000' marks inauguration of new YCIAS council

Conference at the School of Forestry to assess health of the Quinnipiac River

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