Drawings of Lambaréné: An Exhibition by Dr. Frederick Franck
September 11- October 19, 2000

To be presented in conjunction with Symposium 2000: World Peace Through Reverence for Life, this exhibition features pen-and-ink drawings by Dr. Frederick Franck, who served on the medical staff of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, Africa, from 1958 until 1961. Characterized by their direct, spontaneous line, and by Franck's compassion and humanity, the thirty-two works illustrate life at this progressive hospital.

Frederick Franck (b. 1909) American On the Ogowe Riverbank, 1959 Ink and wash 16” x 20” Collection of Albert Schweitzer Institute Courtesy Frederick Franck

[Organized and sponsored by the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities]

Face Value: The Portrait and the Formulation of Identity in Art
October 26- December 8, 2000

Drawn primarily from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection, this exhibition will examine the multiple "uses" of portraiture in the history of Western art. As the most popular genre of art, portraiture has been crucial to the formulation and depiction of the individual. From an ancient Egyptian stone fragment depicting a portrait in profile to a Greco-Roman bust of a goddess, and from formal "state" portraits of the Renaissance nobility to the birth of the modern portrait characterized by a fascination with the inner psyche, Face Value will highlight major themes in portraiture while providing biographical “portraits” of the artists that created them.

Erich Heckel (1883-1970) German Junges Mädchen (Young Girl) From Genius, no. 1, 1920 Woodcut 10-3/16” x 6-11/16” Vanderbilt Art Association Acquisition Fund 1976.030

[Organized by Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery]

Photo Nomad: Following the Faces of Western China. Photographs by Stacey Irvin, the 1999 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award Winner Exhibition
January 11-February 1, 2001

This exhibit features works by Stacey Irvin, the winner of the 1999 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award. The Hamblet Award winner is selected by a panel of outside jurors from an open invitational for graduating seniors held each spring. The award, a $16,000 grant to be used for travel and study during the year following graduation, culminates in this exhibition. Traveling through western China and along the Friendship Highway between Kathmandu and Lhasa, Irvin visited many areas that she considers blind spots of the West. This exhibition is her photographic record of the peoples she encountered.

Stacey Irvin (b. 1976) American Kashgar Strings, 2000 Chromogenic print 11” x 14” Courtesy the artist

[Organized by Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery]

Disturbing Allegories: Graphics by Kara Walker
February 8-March 2, 2002

The first in a series of one-person exhibitions focusing on significant contemporary American women artists, Disturbing Allegories features a new suite of large-scale prints by Kara Walker. An African American artist, Walker is known for using the black-paper silhouette to caricature the lives of slaves and masters in the ante-bellum American South, often with disturbing and racially challenging results. This exhibition will feature her newly published suite of prints entitled The Emancipation Approximation, and is based on her installation at the Carnegie International 1999/2000, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This exhibition is being held to coincide with Black History Month.

Kara Walker (b. 1969) American Installation view from Emancipation Approximation, 2000 Carnegie International, 1999/2000 Courtesy Brent Sikima, New York

[Organized by Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery]

Robert Frost & J. J. Lankes: A Shared Vision of America
March 31- June 15, 2001

Drawn primarily from the extensive private collection of Pat Alger, with additional material provided by Welford D. Taylor, this exhibition will present original woodcut prints by J. J. Lankes, who was an important illustrator for the American poet Robert Frost. Also included will be rare first editions of poetry by Frost, each containing illustrations by Lankes, as well as a selection of supplemental materials including photographs, letters, handwritten versions of Frost’s poetry, original woodblocks, and the artist’s personal woodworking tools. Lankes’ role as an illustrator for other authors will also be explored through woodblock prints, both working proofs and final editions, and first edition books. Exhibited for the first time, this remarkable collection will reveal to the viewer a vignette of a rural America that is both simple yet eloquent.

[Organized by Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery]