With the onset of reading period and the all-too-menacing threat of finals looming on the horizon, study breaks often come few and far between. But some time spent alone with artwork can often do more to calm the nerves than the most relaxing massage, and with the opening of the Tufts University Gallery's April shows, students will have the opportunity to step inside and relax in between exams.
The gallery is ending its semester in a big way this month with the opening of its three last shows: a collection of works created by invited artist Marshall Carbee, an MFA thesis exhibition, and a small exhibit that was organized by students in the Tufts University Museum Studies Certificate program. The opening receptions for all three exhibits will take place this Thursday, May 6, from 6 to 8 p.m.
As the latest artist to be featured at the gallery, Carbee's resume is as varied as they come. The New England-born artist has illustrated a children's book, produced documentaries on foreign relations between the United States and Japan, worked on music videos and motion pictures, designed artwork for shows for musicians like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, and created the prototype for the original Mutant Toyland in "Pee Wee's Playhouse." In 1996, his first short film, "I'll Be Yours Forever," won the New Hampshire Humanity Council's Discovery award.
Carbee's eclectic background shows through in his artwork. The subjects of his work range from landscapes to swirling hurricanes, a single leaf, to a spider resting against a vividly surreal backdrop.
The exhibit in the Slater Concourse Gallery will showcase the full expanse of this modern-day Renaissance man's talents, and will include everything from handmade jewelry to a paper placemat that the artist created for Burger King. Carbee's works vary visually between onslaughts of color and simple black and white, and his sense of humor often leaks through onto his metaphorical canvass, no matter what medium he is using.
"Life Was Different Then" is the last of the gallery's thesis exhibitions for the school year, held in conjunction with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The works that will be displayed in the Tisch Gallery are those of six different artists, all of whom were enrolled in the SMFA's degree program.
In the past, the thesis exhibitions have brought a wide range of artwork to the gallery, and the upcoming collection will be no different. Still photographs, simple landscapes, illustrations from children's books, and a combination of video, drawings, and hydroponics will all reflect back on days long past and project each artist's ideas about the future.
Visitors to the gallery can also take a much more literal return to the past with the new exhibit that is opening in the Koppelman Gallery. Entitled "Enlisting a Nation: The Art of Persuasion in World War I Posters," the collection will allow guests to investigate how propaganda was used during World War I to increase support for troops back home in the United States.
The posters included in the exhibit show how the war was made personal for those still on the home front. They offer an example of how nationalistic propaganda has evolved from a time when there were fewer means for disseminating a message, especially when taken in comparison to today's instant communication provided by radio, television, and the internet. Also on display will be a collection of artifacts from World War I, designed to complement the posters and provide another look back on a distant period in our nation's history.
The propaganda show was organized by students in Tufts' Museum Studies Certificate Program with the help of Ken Turino, the Exhibitions Manager at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. The Museum Studies program trains graduate students and professionals in the skills needed to organize and provide administration duties for museum and other historical sites. "Enlisting a Nation" represents the culmination of their study over the course of the semester.
All three shows offer visitors the opportunity to step back and take another look at the world, whether it's through the lenses of eclectic artwork, a look at times long past, or early 20th century propaganda. With such a varied collection on display, the Tufts University Gallery is sure to have something to calm the nerves of even the most harried exam-taking student.
