Henri Lovie (b. Prussia, 1829–1875),(detail) Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee: Left Wing near the Peach Orchard, April 6, 1862 Graphite and gray wash on wove paper

We are now into Obama's already very polarized second term as President and films like Lincoln and Django Unchained are still the major must see films in the theaters, all bringing the the USA's bloody and divisive Civil War era close to our modern consciousness. Thu,s it is timely that the Cooley Gallery's latest show, FIRST HAND: CIVIL WAR ERA DRAWINGS FROM THE BECKER COLLECTION, BOSTON COLLEGE brings us another abstracted but first hand observational account to perhaps the most defining event in our country's history. It is also a coherent follow up to the previous Kara Walker show as well.

Here is the PR: "The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, is proud to present over 140 original Civil War era drawings from the Becker Collection at Boston College. The Becker Collection contains over 600 hitherto un-exhibited and undocumented drawings by American artist Joseph Becker (1841–1910) and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper during the Civil War. Artist-reporters were charged with observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the battles, troop movements, and daily activities of the era. Completed in the field, their drawings were couriered to Leslie's offices where they were transformed into wood engravings, then cast as metal plates and printed. At times, it took as little as three days for drawings to make their way from the battlefield into Leslie's pages.

Civil War Drawings from the Becker Collection is the first opportunity for scholars and the public to study selections from this important and unknown collection, and to appreciate these national treasures for their aesthetic qualities and relationship to contemporary forms of illustrated journalism. The original drawings selected for the exhibition by curators Sheila Gallagher and Judith Bookbinder document key developments in American history in lively and specific forms, as the country struggled to establish its national identity. In addition to Becker, the exhibition includes works by Henri Lovie, Edward F. Mullen, William T. Crane, and Charles E.H. Bonwill, among others."

First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings From The Becker Collection, Boston College
February 5 - April 20
Cooley Gallery | Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock BLVD.
HOURS: Noon to 5 P.M., Tuesday – Sunday, free
Located in the main floor of the Reed Library




Sarah Gilbert (photo Dan Kivitka)

Sarah Gilbert's After Image at Reed's Feldenheimer gallery explores the very popular intersection of science and art (artists like Damien Gilley, Oregon Painting Society, Carl Diehl, MSHR, Laura Hughes, Kyle Thompson, Josh Pavalacky, Zachary Davis and Laura Fritz are all practitioners) though Gilbert's take is more gadget based, dealing with the very real human/cyborg convergence (the other artists tend to dematerialize objects to varying degrees). There is an opening on First Thursday (far from the Pearl District so Ill post it with its campus brethren).

According to the PR, "Sarah Gilbert creates objects, images, and installations that explore changing definitions of the human and posthuman, both in physical form and as conceptual categories. As an artist working in glass, film, and a variety of other materials invested with rich historical craft traditions, she is interested in how objects shape our experiences, and the ways in which we define ourselves through the labor of our bodies. Her projects strive to make visible links between the past and the present, drawing on material memory and the tension between figuration and abstraction as springboards for contemplating our experience of time."

After Image | Sarah Gilbert
January 28 - Feburary 19, 2013
Edith Feldenheimer Gallery, Studio Art Building
Reception with the artist: February 7, 4:30 - 6:30 PM
Gallery Hours: Monday–Saturday, 12:00 - 6:00 PM