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Director’sletter We have an exciting year planned for you in conjunction with the Creation Stories Project, a collaboration among Emory University, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Georgia Humanities Council. The Carlos Museum will play a central role in the Emory programming by mounting a number of exhibitions and presenting a series of lectures and workshops, developing special events, and hosting a symposium. So keep the museum calendar handy, and check our website often for updates on exhibitions and education programs. Speaking of education programs, the museum’s Artful Stories was recently highlighted in aamd’s “Next Practices in Art Museum Education.” The intent of this publication is to “share and spark new ideas and innovation” and we were honored to be included among the many exciting and inspirational programs happening around the country. The museum’s conservation lab has also been forging new educational ground through a partnership with Emory’s Center for Science Education. It’s a collaboration with area teachers that folds art into the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math, expanding the realm of how we address creativity and problem-solving in scientific investigations. Very exciting! There have been a few personnel changes at the museum. A number of folks have recently joined the Carlos team, and profiles of each are on page 13. We are pleased to welcome them, and how wonderful to be able to say… they are already making a difference! This fall is
OnView also a time of transition for one on our curatorial team as Dr. Peter Lacovara, the museum’s long-time curator of Egyptian art, retires September 1. Peter has been an incredible force in building the collections as well as the museum’s national and international presence. You’ll read more about his accomplishments in the pages of this newsletter, and I know all of you join us in wishing him all the best as he begins the next phase of his life. On page 8 you will read about a rare Funerary Chest, recently acquired through a generous grant from the Forward Arts Foundation. I’d like to take a moment to recognize and thank the extraordinary women of the Forward Arts Foundation as they prepare to celebrate the foundation’s 50th anniversary. The Carlos Museum has been a fortunate recipient of many grants, allowing us to acquire significant works of Egyptian and Near Eastern art. And so, to our good friends of the Forward Arts Foundation… thank you for all you do in our community, for your steadfast support of the Carlos Museum, and Happy Anniversary! As always, I look forward to seeing you in the galleries!
B on n ie Speed Director
cover: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). Adam and Eve (The Fall of Man), 1504. Engraving. Gift of Margaret and Charlie Shufeldt. © Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey. 2
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Creation Stories at the Carlos Museum This year, the Carlos Museum will explore one of the most profound and pervasive stories related by history’s mythologists and artists—the story of creation. The Creation Stories Project is a collaboration between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Emory University, and the Georgia Humanities Council. The project will take place during the course of the 2014–15 academic year and will include a variety of activities at Emory, as well as the commissioning of a new work for the Symphony. The Creation Stories collaboration will explore the timeless questions of origin, creation, and intent that have served as a catalyst for human thought and creativity since the beginning of time. Programming, performances, and exhibitions will seek to discover what twenty-first-century learners might gain from an exploration of creation narratives across time and cultures. Emory University will direct significant academic resources to explore the idea of creation and origin from a religious, mythological, scientific, and creative perspective. The Carlos Museum exhibitions and educational programs in conjunction with the Creation Stories Project have been made possible by generous grants from the Thalia N. and Chris M. Carlos Foundation, Inc.; the Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Foundation, Inc.; and the Massey Charitable Trust. Emory University’s Creation Stories collaboration with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has been made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
above: Gavin Jantjes. Untitled, 1989–1990. Acrylic on canvas. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 96-23-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury.
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OnView
Carlos Museum to host the Smithsonian’s African Cosmos: Stellar Arts JANUARY 31 though May 17, 2015
God Spoke the Earth: Stories of Genesis in Prints and Drawings September 12 through December 7, 2014
the carlos museum will host a major exhibition from the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian titled African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, the first major exhibition exploring the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with traditional and contemporary African arts. Featuring more than seventy outstanding works of art from throughout the African continent, African Cosmos considers how the sun, moon, stars, and celestial phenomena such as lightning and rainbows have served as sources of inspiration in the creation of African art from ancient times to the present. The African Cosmos exhibition will demonstrate that observations of the heavens are part of the knowledge that informs origin stories, artistic expression, and ritual practice in African cultures. Standing at the core of creation myths and the foundation of moral values, celestial bodies are often accorded sacred capacities and are part of the “cosmological map” that allows humans to chart their course through life. African Cosmos will showcase outstanding works of art that illuminate Africa’s contributions to the science and practice of astronomy. African interest in and observation of the cosmos date back as far as the stone circle and megaliths of Nabta Playa, a site in southern Egypt dating to the 5th millennium bc that has been interpreted as one of the world’s earliest archeoastronomical devices marking star alignments
this exhibition focuses on the enduring narratives of the book of Genesis and highlights the breadth of Emory’s holdings in this genre. Drawn from the permanent collections of the Carlos Museum, Pitts Theology Library, and marbl (The Manuscript, Archive, and Rare Books Library), God Spoke the Earth includes extraordinary works of art from Albrecht Dürer’s famed 1504 engraving Adam and Eve (The Fall of Man) to Marc Chagall’s lithograph Bible II-Creation. Genesis, the first book of the Torah and the Old Testament, recounts the origin and beginning of all things. It introduces the Judeo-Christian understanding of a monotheistic God who created and controls the world, and revolves around the sequential themes of creation, sin, re-creation, and redemption. These themes can be traced through the various stories of Genesis, from Creation through the Fall of Man, the Flood, God’s Call and Promise to Abraham, and others. The works of art in this exhibition bridge the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, and offer insight into how artists and communities throughout time depicted Genesis narratives and contemplated God’s relationship with mankind. For example, a leaf from a twelfth-century French Bible, the earliest work in the exhibition, depicts a small scene of the Creation of Adam followed by an image of Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, both in exquisite hand-painted detail. This same leaf also features an image of Christ’s crucifixion, reminding the medieval Christian viewer of God’s ultimate redemptive act for the salvation of mankind. Alternately, the Liber chronicarum (commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle) offers a sixteenth-century German perspective on the history of the world from its creation in Genesis up through 1493, the year of its publication. The Chronicle was compiled by German doctor and humanist Hartmann Schedell, and features woodcuts from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut, with whom the young Albrecht Dürer apprenticed.
and the summer solstice. In African Cosmos, selected ancient Egyptian and Nubian works of art will frame the topic historically, demonstrating Africa’s early engagement with celestial observations and its foundational place in visual arts and religion. The exhibition will also include nineteenth- and twentiethcentury works of traditional African art that illustrate the enduring legacy of astronomical knowledge and its use by artists as a rich source of metaphor. Examples include Dogon (Mali) sculptures and masks that connect earth and sky in ritual reenactments of creation; a Yoruba (Nigeria) sculpture honoring Shango, the thunder deity; a Bamana (Mali) antelope crestpiece with an open-work mane that suggests the sun’s path through the sky each day as metaphor for the mythic origins of agriculture; and the drawing of a Kongo cosmogram in Haiti, depicting the four moments of the sun, a symbol for the cycle of human life. The exhibition will also include works by African contemporary artists who draw on the cosmos for inspiration. Major sponsorship for African Cosmos: Stellar Arts is provided by the government of the Republic of South Africa and South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology. Additional support is from BET Networks, Stuart Bohart and family, Credit Suisse, South African Airways, the Embassy of South Africa in Washington, D.C., and the Smithsonian Institution, Consortia for Valuing World Cultures and for the Understanding of the American Experience. Z
A fantastical series of Joan Waddell-Barnes’ illustrations for Thomas Mann’s 1943 novel Joseph and His Brothers expands the exhibition into the twentieth century. To prepare for his imaginative retelling of the Genesis stories of Jacob and Joseph, Mann drew inspiration from a multitude of sources, including Jewish scriptural exegesis and the history of ancient Egypt. Waddell-Barnes’ drawings, given to the museum by the artist herself, beautifully capture Mann’s Amarna Period setting and what he terms a narrative of “love and hate, blessing and curse, fraternal strife and paternal grief, pride and penance, fall and rise, a humorous song of mankind.” The title of the exhibition derives from the creation story recounted in the second chapter of Genesis, in which God speaks the creation of Earth and all living things. It denotes the mysterious, creative power of the Judeo-Christian God that captivated and inspired artists over the centuries, and offers a testament to the lasting importance of stories of Genesis. Z
left: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). Adam and Eve (The Fall of Man), 1504. Engraving. Gift of Margaret and Charlie Shufeldt © Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
above: Shrine Screen (Baltu). Nigeria or Cameroon, Mambila. Late 19th–early 20th centuries. Pigment, raffia palm pith. Ex coll. William S. Arnett. 4
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right: Anonymous (French, active 13th century). Genesis, from the Biblia Sacra Latina, ca. 1200–1300. Illuminated manuscript leaf. Art History Department Fund. © Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Bruce M. White.
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OnView
Two of Each: The Nippur Deluge Tablet and Noah’s Flood August 30 through July 26, 2014 the carlos museum created a special installation to feature a tablet discovered in the ruins of the ancient Babylonian city of Nippur in the nineteenth century by a team from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum). The Nippur tablet is on loan to the Carlos Museum from the Penn Museum to highlight programming and research focused on creation stories. One of the most exciting events in Near Eastern archaeology was the discovery of a cuneiform tablet from Nineveh that recounted the ancient story of the hero, Gilgamesh. The tale is remarkable not only for being mankind’s oldest epic, but also because it tells
the story of a catastrophic flood that parallels the biblical story of Noah. The translation of the tablet caused a sensation when it was first announced in 1872. Other tablets with versions of the flood story were later discovered at a number of ancient Near Eastern sites, including Nippur. The Nippur tablet tells the story of a plan by the gods to destroy the world by means of a great flood and recounts the tale of an immortal man named Utnapishti, who builds a boat to rescue his family and every type of animal. Dating from the seventeenth century bc, the tablet contains six columns of text, three per side, with ten to fifteen lines in
each column. Written in Sumerian, it not only tells the story of the deluge, but also describes the creation of humans and animals, and records the names of the first cities and their rulers. It reads, in part: …A flood will I send which will affect all of mankind at once. But seek thou deliverance before the flood breaks forth, for over all living beings, however many there are, will I bring annihilation, destruction, ruin. Take wood and pitch and build a large ship!…take into it…the animals of the field, the birds of the air and the reptiles, two of each… and the family… Z
above: Flood Tablet. Nippur, Iraq. Sumerian. 17th century bc. Clay. Loaned by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA. Image courtesy of the Penn Museum, image #152331 . 6
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Creating Matter: Prints by Mildred Thompson January 17 to May 17, 2015 the works on paper exhibition Creating Matter explores African American artist Mildred Thompson’s interest in the cosmos and the creation of the world from the ancient stories to contemporary scientific theories. The exhibition will feature works in a variety of print media, emphasizing Thompson’s artistic range. Born in 1936, Thompson trained formally in the United States at Howard University and at the Art Institute of Hamburg, Germany, among others. When she returned from abroad, she was discouraged to find that galleries in New York City were reluctant to feature the work of an African American artist. One gallerist even suggested that Thompson hire a white woman to impersonate her in public. She returned to practice in Germany during the 1960s as a result. Her work was admired and collected especially in Düren, where she lived and taught at the Eschweiler Volchoch Schule, and in the neighboring cities of Aachen and Cologne. Thompson’s German appeal is confirmed by a poster commissioned by the German Red Cross in 1990, seen to the right. In 1986, Thompson returned to the U.S., settling in Atlanta, where she became editor of Art Papers and taught at several area institutions. The city would be her home for the rest of her life. Although she lived in Atlanta, Thompson maintained deep ties with Germany. She was fluent in German and held several exhibitions in conjunction with the Goethe Institut Atlanta. Thompson’s work was heavily
influenced by African textiles, American jazz, European classical music, and German Expressionism. She worked at a frenetic pace in a variety of media, including wood sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, filmmaking, and set design. Most of her early work was figural, but she moved toward total abstraction in the 1970s. Thompson experimented with printmaking techniques throughout her career, including vitreography, an unusual and arduous intaglio process in which the artist engraves, stipples, or etches into a glass plate. Though she was a slight woman, barely five feet tall, she is also said to have ripped thin copperplates by hand to enhance the sculptural quality of the printed paper. The prints in this exhibition are mature works from the 1980s onward. They are full of movement, yet deliberately mysterious, revealing Thompson’s interest in creation, the cosmos, quarks, string
theory, astronomy, and the Jungian “collective unconscious.” The works are drawn primarily from the collection of Wes and Missy Cochran, who had a warm and longstanding relationship with the artist. They relate that Thompson was “intense, immensely talented, a close friend, mentor, and a natural-born teacher with a contagious laugh.” In her latter years, illness forced Thompson away from her physically demanding art-making practices. She turned instead to music, and formed the blues band “wedoblues” with partner Donna Jackson. Together, they recorded an album and performed at several Atlanta music venues, including Piedmont Park and Cabbage Town’s celebrated Daddy D’z bbq Joynt. She died in 2003, leaving behind a massive and important body of work that remains relatively unexplored in the United States. Z
above: Mildred Thompson (American, 1936–2003). Wave Function III, 1993. Vitreograph. Lent by Wes and Missy Cochran.
above: Mildred Thompson (American, 1936–2003). Untitled (Commissioned by the German Red Cross), 1990. Silk screen. Lent by Wes and Missy Cochran.
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Carloscollections Object in Focus: An Etruscan carnelian scarab with the story of Bellerophon, Pegasos, and Chimaera
was thus able to prevail. It is the moment of victory that is depicted on the intaglio. The gem is carnelian, a stone much favored by the ancients on the current reorganization of account of its evenly packed, dense the classical galleries has offered an crystals that could support detailed opportunity to exhibit well over one carving while also taking on a high hundred works of art acquired over polish. Its saturated burgundy color the last decade. One of the most was artificially induced by exposing spectacular of these is an Etruscan the raw mineral to a combination of stone engraved around 400 bc heat, iron, and honey. The engraver depicting Bellerophon. first fashioned the stone in the form The story of Bellerophon was first of a scarab beetle, a convention told by Homer in a digression in the native to Egypt that reached Etruria action of the Iliad. While a guest of through Greek and Phoenician transProitos, king of Tiryns, Bellerophon mission. That completed, he turned was approached by his host’s wife, to the flat underside to lay out his Sthenoboia. When he rejected her composition. The carving was advances, she accused him of undertaken by means of a bow-drill attempting to rape her. Rather than tipped with an abrasive like emery kill his guest, Proitos sent him to mixed with olive oil as a paste. his father-in-law, Iobates king of Traces of the rounded tips of the Lycia, with a note advising him of drill can be made out most clearly Bellerophon’s alleged crime, and an in Pegasos’s legs. injunction to kill him. Iobates, also The gold shank, fashioned from reluctant to kill a guest, instead massive twisted wire, originally sent him to dispatch the menacing allowed the gem to swivel. At some Chimaera, a monster combining the point, possibly the occasion when body of a lion with the protome of it came to be consigned to a grave, a goat emerging from its back and a decision was made to prevent its tipped with a snake’s tail. The goduse again, and two small disks were dess Athena intervened, however, crimped from the shank against the and, giving Bellerophon a golden scarab to fix the stone in its current bridle, enabled him to tame the position. Reversing this action, winged horse Pegasos. Bellerophon while perhaps desirable aesthetically, would damage the object, and it has therefore been left as is. Truly remarkable are the monumental size of the stone and the elegance of its magisterial composition. The composition, furthermore, is of the highest importance, for it provides the best evidence we have for the original appearance of one of the greatest of all Etruscan bronze sculptures, the Chimaera of Arezzo, now one of the glories of the Museo Archeologico in Florence. The above: Scarab Intaglio with Pegasus, Bellerophon and Chimaera. Etruscan, ca. 400 bc. Carnelian and gold. Carlos Collection of Ancient Art. Photo by Bruce M. White. 8
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posture of the Chimaera, cowering from its wounds just like the counterpart on the Carlos gem, makes clear that it was originally conceived as a heroic group of which Pegasos and Bellerophon are not, alas, preserved. The gem, moreover, is exactly contemporary with the bronze group, made in the same part of the world, and the question arises whether the patron of the sculpture and the gem may not have been one and the same. Z Key ancient Egyptian object acquired with help from the Forward Arts Foundation canopic jars containing the embalmed internal organs were an important feature of ancient Egyptian funerary art. The jars were often placed inside a stone or wooden chest, which sometimes imitated
above: Funerary Chest. Egyptian, Ptolemaic Period (332–330 bc). Painted wood. Gift of the Forward Arts Foundation. Photo courtesy of Hixenbaugh Ancient Art.
the form of a shrine with a cavetto cornice and a sloping roof. However, by the end of Dynastic history the jars were dispensed with — internal organs were simply wrapped in linen packages and placed within these funerary chests. The front panel of this chest depicts the door to a shrine flanked by worshipping images of priests. Each of the four sides is decorated with two figures of the four Sons of Horus; the deities most directly associated with the protection of the internal organs. Isis and her sister Nephthys, the traditional mourning goddesses, are also shown, holding their hands up in a gesture of adoration. Between them are blank panels for hieroglyphic inscriptions that were never added. During the Ptolemaic Period, as the Egyptian language was being replaced by Greek, it is not uncommon to find such sections, which were reserved for text, left blank for want of a literate scribe. Much of the painted detail survives on this chest including classic details of the cavetto cornice and kheker frieze at the top along with a protective band of cobras. The lower part is covered with alternating symbols of the djed pillar, symbolic of the god Osiris, and tet sign, symbolic of the goddess Isis. These are framed by the standard block border and the base has a representation of the niched façade that is featured in Pharaonic funerary art from the First Dynasty onward. The acquisition, conservation, and installation of this lovely work of Egyptian art was made possible by the Forward Arts Foundation. Z
A Visit to Dak’Art 2014 this summer i was fortunate to visit Dakar, Senegal, as a representative of the Carlos Museum at Dak’Art, the international African art biennial. First held in 1990, Dak’Art emerged from the nineteenth-century world exposition tradition by way of the decades-long effort to establish a pan-African arts festival. Due in part to the interest of Léopold Senghor, the first president of Senegal, attempts to inaugurate an African biennial in the 1960s and 1970s culminated in the first Dak’Art. Dakar is a bustling city of around four million people on the Cap-Vert peninsula along the West Coast of Africa, an ideal location for this diverse international exhibition. Dak’Art 2014 was primarily held at a film studio, providing large open spaces that could be divided to accommodate new media, installations, sculpture, painting, and photography. There were three curators, all of whom were born on the continent, but none of whom currently live there: Abdelkader Damani, Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, an Emory alumus, and Elise Atangana. Each curator was in charge of a different section: North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the African diaspora. For the first time since 1990, every artist was a first-time exhibitor, breaking the routine of major celebrity artists repeatedly participating. Yet there were plenty of big names: Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Atlanta artist Radcliffe Bailey, and Olu Amoda, who received his mfa from Georgia Southern University. above: Amanda Hellman, Curator of African Art at the Carlos Museum
Simone Leigh and Chitra Ganesh were invited to exhibit the video installation My Works, My Dreams, must wait until After Hell, which was on view at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center this spring. I especially appreciated the opportunity to experience Dak’Art off. Originally conceptualized as a salon des refusés, off was organized by artists who were not included in the biennial. All over the city, artists pinned up their work, participating in an alternative exhibition. Although in 2012, the Dak’Art Biennial Foundation institutionalized this radical statement by requiring artists to register, participants find their own funding and space but are officially linked to the Biennale. This year there were more than 270 off exhibitions across the city. The most interesting off-site space I visited, a photographic installation with works by Fabrice Moneiro, a Belgian-Beninese photographer who works in Dakar and Ivorian photographer Paul Sika, was located in a construction site behind a gas station. The space was constantly in flux; at one point, a construction worker carrying drywall walked through the space. The large-scale photography and light boxes were highlighted against the unfinished white walls, creating a truly dynamic venue. –Amanda Hellman. Z
above: Installation shot of Fabrice Moneiro’s exhibition “Vues” de l’esprit, 2014.
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Educationnews Artful Stories recent studies have confirmed the importance of reading to children from a very young age to build vocabulary, stimulate the imagination, and expand their understanding of the world. Artful Stories offers children ages three to five and their adult companions an opportunity to hear compelling and beautifully illustrated works of children’s literature read aloud in the galleries of the Carlos Museum. The books selected relate to the cultures represented by the museum’s collections of ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, ancient American, South Asian, and African art as well as temporary exhibitions. After each story, children and their parents look closely at and discuss one work of art in the gallery that relates to the story, and then go to the “studio” for a related handson activity. Examples of past programs include: Buddha Stories: More than two
thousand years ago, the Buddha told stories to his followers to illustrate the importance of compassion, love, and kindness. Children heard three of these stories, or “Jatakas,” in the calm presence of several Buddhas in the Asian gallery. After looking carefully at the gilded Tibetan Buddha seated serenely on a lotus throne, children made an image of the Buddha in gold ink on indigo colored paper, similar to the illustrations in the book of Buddhist stories. This is Rome: In the exhibition Antichit`a, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome, children, surrounded by maps and views of the Eternal City, listened to the classic “first travel book” titled This is Rome. Then they looked for the monuments they had seen in the book in the prints in the galleries, and made homemade pasta and fresh tomato sauce with an Italian chef. Artful Stories has been an unqualified success, with many families returning month after
month. It was recently selected for inclusion in the Association of Art Museum Directors (aamd) report titled Next Practices in Art Museum Education. Lori Fogerty, Chair of the aamd Education & Community Issues Committee, described the programs included in the report as “taking us beyond proven ‘best practices,’ meant to both share and spark new ideas and innovation.” This fall, thanks to generous financial support from the pnc Foundation, the wonderful literary and artistic experience of Artful Stories will be made available to area preschools on Monday mornings. Groups will experience stories from cultures around the world, view works in the collection, create art (and sometimes food!), and return to their classroom with a copy of the book for their classroom library. The museum will host an Evening for Pre-School Teachers this fall on September 12, with examples of the program set up in each gallery for teachers to experience themselves. Z
Making a Difference classroom teachers tell us that the single greatest impediment to visiting the Carlos Museum for public schools is the escalating cost of transportation. Over the past two years, generous financial support from the Emory Womens’ Club, Advisory Board member Sarah Shlesinger and her husband John, Joan and Howard Weinstein, and Fidelity Bank has allowed the museum to offer a transportation stipend to Title One schools. Through the support of these individuals and organizations, more than 2,500 young people from fifty-five schools have been able to tour the collections and exhibitions of the Carlos, expanding their classroom experience and their understanding of the cultures they are studying. Recipients include: Atlanta Public Schools Toomer Elementary Coan Middle School Conley Elementary Coretta Scott King Academy Jackson Elementary Young Middle School Whitefoord Elementary Drew Charter School
Clarke County JJ Harris Elementary Cobb County Garrett Middle School Norton Park Elementary Griffin Middle School Pitner Elementary Catoose County Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe High School Coweta County Northgate High School Dekalb County Brockett Elementary Clarkston High School Midvale Elementary Andrews High School Hambrick Elementary City of Decatur System Decatur High School Douglas County Arbor Station Elementary Chapel Hill Middle School Dorsett Shoals Elementary Sweetwater Elementary
Fayette County Bennett Mill Middle School Braelinn Elementary Fayetteville Elementary Fulton County Barnwell Elementary Conley Hills Elementary Cliftondale Elementary Tubman Elementary Woodland Middle School Gilmer County Mountain View Elementary Gwinnett County Norcross Elementary Meadow Creek Elementary Hart County Hart County High School Henry County Tussahaw Elementary Luella High School Patrick Henry High School Rockdale County Peeks Chapel Middle School Davis Middle School Heritage High School Z
Elbert County Blackwell Elementary
Bibb County Heard Elementary Vineville Elementary Porter Elementary Burdett-Hunt Elementary Heritage Elementary Skyview Elementary Sonny Carter Elementary
above: The book Buddha Stories
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above: Shakyamuni Buddha. Tibetan. 13th– 14th centuries. Gilt bronze. The Ester R. Portnow Collection of Asian Art, a Gift of the Nathan Rubin-Ida Ladd Family Foundation. Photo by Bruce M. White.
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above: A child doing the art project with gold ink and stamps.
Clayton County Unidos Dual Language School Morrow Elementary Mundy’s Mill High School RT Smith Elementary above: Carrie Rosenthal, Carlos Museum docent, gives a tour to students. More than 2,500 public school students can visit the museum thanks to transportation stipends.
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Carlos&theCampus Andrew W. Mellon interns
Cosmos particularly challenging, stating, “All Egyptian art has cosmological subtext, but much of this summer three graduate it is oblique or overly complex, and students from Emory’s Art History working on this exhibition has given Department received Andrew W. Mellon internships and are working me a chance to confront questions with curators on a variety of projects about the reception of Egyptian material that I had only considered related to the development of theoretically before this summer.” exhibitions. Graham Lea worked Rachel and Amanda are also visiting with curator of works on paper other museums with collections Andi McKenzie, researching of African art to study their recent Albrecht Durer’s 1504 engraving redesigns and reinstallations, of Adam and Eve, which will be including their critical receptions. featured in the exhibition God Spoke the Earth: Genesis and Prints Shelley Burian is working with and Drawings. Rebecca Stone, faculty curator of Rachel Kreiter is assisting curator Art of the Americas, on the developof African art, Amanda Hellman, on ment of the exhibition Threads of two projects — the ancient Egyptian Time: Tradition and Change in component of the exhibition African Indigenous American Textiles, Cosmos: Stellar Arts, which opens in scheduled for the academic year 2015–16. In addition to curating late January, and the reinstallation of the African galleries that will take the modern Andes section of the exhibition and researching and place when African Cosmos closes. writing labels and texts for the Rachel found her work on African show, Shelley has embarked on an attempt to recreate an ancient Wari textile fragment —from spinning to dyeing to weaving—which she is chronicling in a blog and will result in a website and or/video to accompany the exhibition. She says of the learning experience provided by the Mellon internship, “What I have found to be the most interesting is the experience of being given a space in an exhibition to fill essentially in the way that I find to best fit the theme (tradition and change). You learn the different ways of approaching curating an exhibition and how to determine which one is right for your situation.” Z
above: Graham Lea, Shelley Burian, and Rachel Kreiter, the Andrew W. Mellon interns. 12
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National Junior Classical League at the Carlos Museum in late july, Emory University played host to 1,800 toga-clad middle and high school Latin students from around the country attending the 61st annual meeting of the National Junior Classical League. The Carlos Museum’s rich collections of art from ancient Greece and Rome were a highlight of their campus experience. Several Carlos Museum docents, former Latin teachers themselves with a shared fascination and love of the ancient world, explored the galleries with the students making direct connections with the Latin curriculum. Tour themes ranged from Virgil and Ovid to Percy Jackson and the Olympians to Life in a Roman Villa. In addition to gallery tours, students were able to study works of art up close without the glass, including a fifteenth-century reconstruction map of ancient Rome by Pirro Ligorio and ancient Greco-Roman gemstones and coins with curator Jasper Gaunt. A resurgence of interest in Latin is occurring in high schools across the country. Over 150,000 students take the National Latin Exam every year and many are enrolling in AP Latin classes as well. The Carlos Museum is delighted to be a resource for these teachers and students. Z
above: Toga-clad middle and high school Latin students attending the annual National Junior Classical League meeting.
Welcoming new staff at the museum Ana Vizurraga
Alyson Vuley
Ana Vizurraga has a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Georgia State University. She taught elementary art education at a small private school in Atlanta and continues to teach adult pottery classes at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. Ana is a practicing ceramic artist and an active teaching artist with the Carlos Museum. Currently, Ana is serving as the Educational Programs Assistant with a focus on expanding the Artful Stories program for preschool-age children. Her affiliation with the Carlos Museum began almost twenty years ago when she worked on an interactive video project in which she recreated a Colima ceramic dog from the collection.
Alyson Vuley graduated from Antioch College with a ba in Visual Art before moving to Atlanta and teaching art at The Atlanta School for five years. Alyson moved with her family to the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica where her art-making was inspired by the tropical dry forests of Guanacaste, the pottery of Nicoya and the ancient petroglyphs on Isla Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. Alyson recently returned to Atlanta and is thrilled to have joined the Carlos Museum Education Department.
Marla L. Carter Marla L. Carter is a graduate of the 2012 class of Auburn University. She received her ba in Mathematics Education. While completing her degree, Marla was employed as a Data/Financial Analyst Assistant at the Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission. After graduating Marla was offered a Mathematics Educator position at Russell Country Middle School in Seale, Alabama. Soon after Marla was recruited by Emory University to begin her career at the Carlos Museum’s business office. In July she welcomed a beautiful baby named Brooke into the world.
Caleb Plattner Caleb Plattner is a sculptor, dog lover, and woodworking enthusiast with over fifteen years of experience fabricating wood and metal. After earning a bfa in sculpture from the University of West Georgia, Caleb briefly moved to Detroit where he worked with artist Matthew Barney on his film and performance “KHU” before settling permanently in Chicago. Caleb’s passion for woodworking and a desire to be closer to his family led him back to the Atlanta area where, after a short stint at the High Museum of Art, he started working at the Carlos Museum in June. Z
top to bottom: Ana Vizurraga, Marla Carter, Alyson Vuley, Caleb Plattner
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Conservation@theCarlos Conservation resource for science education
This resource has been a collaborative project with numerous contributors. During the summer a team of conservators, educators, of 2012, Dekalb County teacher and interns working with the Tiffany Smith and Emory student Parsons Conservation Laboratory Julia Commander worked with and Emory’s Center for Science Carlos conservators Renée Stein and Education has created the mini-site Kathryn Etre to develop the handsScience & Art Conservation: on activities. Smith teaches sciences Resources for Teachers (carlos. at Cedar Grove High School and emory.edu/science-art-conservation). was funded through Emory’s Center This web-based resource provides for Science Education to spend six learning units that relate science weeks learning about art conservatopics to the conservation of art tion practice at the Carlos Museum. and artifacts. Issues of materials Commander’s ten-week internship identification, deterioration, and in the Parsons Conservation Laborapreservation create an engaging tory was supported by an endowcontext for concepts such as pH, ment from the Andrew W. Mellon solubility, osmosis, melting point, Foundation. During the summer etc. Each unit includes a student of 2013, the Carlos Museum and activity and teacher guide paired the Center for Science Education with Georgia Performance Standards co-sponsored a week-long workshop for chemistry and/or biology. that brought over twenty AtlantaAccompanying images illustrate area science teachers together to objects from the Carlos Museum. learn about art conservation and The site also includes a short narra- trial the activities. Jordan Rose of ted slide presentation that introduces the Center for Science Education led the field of art conservation. sessions on problem or case-based
above: Atlanta-area teachers gather for a workshop held at the Carlos Museum to explore connections between art conservation and teaching sciences. 14
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learning in which the teachers wrote units involving each of the experimental activities. These learning units accompany the student activities, teacher guides, context images, and references for each topic on the site. The site was premiered at an Evening for Educators on March 13 at the Carlos Museum in conjunction with the inaugural year of the Atlanta Science Festival. At this event, participants explored a “science fair” in the galleries, encountering stations dedicated to each of the topics presented on the web resource, including adhesives, insects, pigments, corrosion, paper, ceramics, and wood. These stations were staffed by teachers who had developed associated learning units for classroom use. Students Emily Farek, Gracelyn Miller, and Jennifer Hallaman helped assemble materials for the workshop, launch event, and mini site. The resource and its collaborative creation have been featured on the websites of the Association of Art Museum Directors and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, as well as the Emory Report and Emory Magazine. The resource site is directly accessible and is also linked through the museum’s website. Users are invited to submit learning units that can be added to the site and more activities may be developed to address additional topics. The goal is for this site to be a vibrant and expanding public resource that engages science educators and students in art conservation and the museum’s collections. Z
Summer intern prepares ancient coffin lid for loan to Houston kathryn (kate) brugioni joined the Parsons Conservation Laboratory for the summer to prepare an ancient Egyptian coffin lid for loan to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The painted wood lid dates from the 22nd to 24th dynasties and is similar to examples excavated at Lahun by Petre. The lid has a complex restoration history, including modern reassembly of the boards and reconstruction of the wig. Kate’s many hours of careful cleaning have reconciled these past interventions with what remains from antiquity to bring more subtlety and aesthetic accuracy to this intriguing object. After her summer at the Carlos Museum, Kate returned to New York City to resume her studies of art conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She plans to join the team in Houston later this fall to install the coffin lid along with other objects on loan from the Carlos Museum. Z
Peter Lacovara leaves a powerful legacy at the Carlos Museum after many years of inspiring work with the Carlos Museum, Peter Lacovara, senior curator of Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art, will begin a new chapter in his life pursuing other exciting projects close to his heart. Peter leaves an incredible legacy. His remarkable tenure at the Carlos Museum began with the acquisition of the Niagara Falls Museum’s collection of Egyptian art and the subsequent research and identification of the Ramesses i mummy. Since 1998, Peter has worked tirelessly to build the Egyptian,
above: Kate Brugioni, intern at the Parsons Conservation Lab, working on a Late Period Egyptian coffin lid.
Nubian, and Near Eastern art collections, positioning the Carlos Museum on the national and international stage. He identified and cultivated patrons and donors across the country, organized myriad exhibitions, attracted Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs to Atlanta, led tours to Egypt to promote the museum, wrote catalogues, networked on behalf of the museum with colleagues both in the U.S. and abroad, and served as a spokesperson on numerous, broadly successful media features, including the National Geographic and History Channel documentaries. Peter has also been a significant donor to the museum, generously giving objects to enhance the collections and their teaching value. And, he was unstinting in his dedication to students and interns, always offering his time and expertise to enhance their work and Emory experience. A lecture series in Peter’s honor was recently endowed through the generosity of friends and museum patrons. The Lacovara Lecture will, in perpetuity, bring scholars of Egyptian, Nubian, and ancient Near Eastern art to Emory, continuing Peter's legacy of expanding and sharing the knowledge of the field he so loves. Z above: Peter Lacovara Lacovara at the press opening of Life and Death in the Pyramid Age: The Emory Old Kingdom Mummy.
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SupporttheCarlos Karen Sibley: In memoriam the carlos museum’s long-time Board member, patron, dedicated volunteer, and beloved friend passed away in August. Karen Sibley was a fixture in the halls and galleries of the museum— from volunteering in the lab and having lunch with staff, to raising money and attending events and programs, Karen was a tireless advocate and ambassador for the museum. Karen’s financial support of the conservation program was essential in making the lab, named for her mother, an exemplary center for collection care and teaching; her influence in the Atlanta community brought civic and business leaders to the Carlos Museum; and her work with the Board and on advisory committees helped the museum receive recognition as an important cultural center. In 2006 she received the Woolford B. Baker Service Award in recognition of her contributions. But she will be remembered and missed mostly for her generous spirit, remarkable intelligence, infectious laughter, and loyal friendship. Z
v e n e ra l i a : enlighten Veneralia: Enlighten —an illuminating event the carlos museum glowed at Veneralia: Enlighten April 12th. Supporters celebrated at this 23rd annual spring fundraiser with twinkling stars, radiant artwork, and celestial tunes, while honoring Henry Mann and Lewis Nix who established the first endowment at the museum in 1992 through their architecture firm Nix Mann and Associates. Featured art installations by Atlanta based contemporary artists Steven L. Anderson, Stephanie Dowda, Karen Tauches, and Bean Worley transformed the museum’s galleries for attendees. Lavish cuisine provided by Dennis Dean catering complemented each artist’s work. Jazz vocalist Alexandra Jackson performed a unique selection of songs including those with a celestial motif. Robert Long, owner and creative director of floral and event company Robert Long Flora Design, created a uniquely lit nightclub atmosphere in the museum’s reception hall, which served as a gathering space and backdrop for Jackson’s Carlos Museum debut. Chaired by Su Longman, the luxury silent auction featured getaways, experiences, and indulgences including donations from Bentley Motors, Burberry, Davio’s, Delta Air Lines, Dennis Dean Catering, Dermatology Consultants, Fendi, Montana Sporting Club, Neiman Marcus, Robert Long Flora Design, St. Regis Atlanta, Sea Island, Steve Goodman, Tourneau, Umi Sushi, and Victor Velyan. On behalf of Veneralia: Enlighten Chairs Tara and Richard Aaronson, Patron Co-Chairs Anna Paré and Sara Shlesinger, and the museum Advisory Board and staff, we would like to extend a special thank you to our generous sponsors and benefactors who ensured that the gala was a success: Gold Sponsors Canterbury Press, Dennis Dean Catering, Publix Super Markets Charities, National Distributing Company; Silver Sponsors Delta Air Lines, Magnum Companies, Peachtree Tents & Events, Robert Long, Times 3; Bronze Sponsor Burr & Forman, llp; Media Sponsor Atlanta Magazine; Gold Benefactors Anne Cox Chambers, Sarah and James Kennedy; Silver Benefactors Tara and Richard Aaronson, Marc D. Taub; Bronze Benefactors Joanne and Charles Ackerman, Anna and Richard Paré, Sara and John Shlesinger, and Dina and Ed Snow. Save the date for Veneralia 2015: Friday, April 17, 2015. Z
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Veneralia revelers included: A Su and Al Longman; B Richard and Tara Aaronson; C Alexandra Jackson and Ann Johnson; D Veneralia artists Bean Worley, Karen Tauches, Steven Anderson; E John and Sara Shlesinger; F Lewis and Beth Nix and Aimee Nix
F
above: Karen Sibley 16
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SupporttheCarlos
Membership
Body-painted models usher in the Fall at Bacchanal 21: Farewell to the Flowers
we extend our gratitude to all who have become new members or who have renewed their Partner, Council, or Patron level memberships between January and July 2014. Your support is greatly appreciated and we look forward to seeing you at the Museum for many years to come.
at bacchanal 21: Farewell to the Flowers, co-chairs Khalilah Birdsong and Keith Radford invite guests to indulge, dance, and feast to benefit the Michael C. Carlos Museum on September 20, 2014. Live models, body-painted by an artist from the set of The Walking Dead, will usher in the fall, Aztec style. The ancient Aztecs celebrated Xochiquetzal, or the “Goddess of the Flowering Earth,” during the Farewell to the Flowers festival. Participants enjoyed a great feast, performed ritual dances, and inhaled the flowers’ sweet scents with the understanding they would soon wither with the coming frost. Bacchanal 21 begins at 7 p.m. with a vip welcome reception in the fragrant outdoors complete with Aztec-inspired cocktails. At 8 p.m.
Not yet a member? Visit carlos.emory.edu/join to join the ranks of these generous supporters. To upgrade your membership, call 404-727-2623.
Bookshop
partner Mr. Chris Michael Carlos Mr. and Mrs. James H. Morgens d i r e c t o r ’s C o u n c i l Mrs. Jean T. Astrop Mr. and Mrs. M. Edward Ralston Dr. William E. Torres and Mr. Donald Jack Sawyer
the festivities move inside where dancing and an array of food stations and an open bar await guests. There will also be an extraordinary raffle! Tickets for Bacchanal 21: Farewell to the Flowers are $50 for Museum members, $65 for Emory alumni, $75 for the general public, and $125 for vips. To purchase tickets, join the host committee, or request more information please visit carlos.emory.edu/bacchanal or call 404-727-2623.
Curators’ Council Dr. Mark R. Bell ii Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Neal Benham Ms. Robin Beningson Mr. Joseph Coplin Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Crawley Dr. and Mrs. Overton Anderson Currie, Jr. Dr. Elinor P. Daniel and Mr. J. Wallace Daniel Dr. Erl Dordal and Ms. Dorothy K. Powers Mr. and Mrs. James C. Edenfield Mr. Kenneth Stewart Falck Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Gladden, Jr. Mrs. Louise S. Gunn Dr. Jiong Yan and Mr. Baxter P. Jones Dr. and Mrs. Frank R. Joseph Mr. David L. Kuniansky Mr. James H. Landon Dr. and Mrs. John Laszlo Mrs. Lindsay W. Marshall Mr. and Mrs. Anthony P. Meier, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas Mobley, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. S. Jay Patel Dr. and Mrs. William M. Scaljon Dr. and Mrs. Jagdish N. Sheth Mr. Bolling P. Starke iii Ms. Joni R. Winston
Carlos docent publishes new young adult novel of ancient Rome vicky alvear shecter has published one fiction and three nonfiction books on the ancient world for young readers to date, and this summer has a new book, Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii. Tagus is a medical slave who wants to be a gladiator, Lucia is the daughter of Tag’s owner and betrothed to an older man, and the two teenagers are in love with each other. Unfortunately, it is the year 79 ad and soon Vesuvius will alter their lives forever. Visit the bookshop today and get your copy or order it online at carlos.emory.edu/ bookshop.Z
To order books by phone call 404-727-2374, or visit our website at carlos.emory.edu/bookshop.
Corinthian Dr. Delores P. Aldridge Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence W. Davis Mr. Owen H. Halpern Dr. and Mrs. Larry R. Kirkland Mrs. Jo W. Koch Mr. William K. Zewadski
Ionic Dr. David S. Pacini and Mrs. Martha H. Abbott-Pacini Ms. Janet M. Abraham Dr. Susan Youngblood Ashmore and Mr. Robert Walter Ashmore Ms. Merrily C. Baird Drs. Aubrey M. Bush and Carol T. Bush Dr. Daniel B. Caplan Mrs. Carolyn J. Childers Dr. Francine D. Dykes and Mr. Richard Hale Delay Dr. and Mrs. Billy E. Frye Mr. and Mrs. Alexander S. Hawes Mrs. Judy W. Hemenway Mr. James E. Honkisz and Ms. Catherine A. Binns Mrs. Susanne W. Howe Dr. and Mrs. Michael M. E. Johns Dr. and Mrs. Patton H. McGinley, Sr. Mrs. Dorothy H. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Melvin A. Perling Mr. and Mrs. David T. Peterson Mr. and Mrs. William C. Rawson Mr. David Marsel Taylor Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Vivona Dr. and Mrs. Warren Walter Doric Mr. and Mrs. John M. Allan Mr. Michael J. Andrechak and Ms. Kathryn Seybert Ms. Diane Byrd Bartlett Mr. and Mrs. John H. Beach Dr. Lucius Courtenay Beebe Sr. Dr. and Mrs. Michael E. Bernardino Dr. and Mrs. Bruce H. Bielfelt Dr. Josephine V. Brown Mr. and Mrs. Thurman Cary Dr. and Mrs. Stewart Wright Caughman Dr. Stanley A. Cohen Mr. Gerald R. Cooper, Jr. and Mrs. Charlotte F. Slovis-Cooper Dr. Ann Davidson Critz Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Cross Ms. Dorothy A. Cunningham Mr. Jefferson James Davis Dr. and Mrs. Shelley Carter Davis, Jr. Dr. Robin Henry Dretler and Ms. Alice K. Michaelson
Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Steven E. Fox Mr. and Mrs. Carl I. Gable, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Garrison Mr. and Ms. Clark M. Goodwin Mr. Morris N. Habif Ms. Ruth A. Hough Mrs. Barbara S. Hull Mr. William O. Jaynes Mr. and Mrs. J. Timothy Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Eric Klingelhofer Mr. Stephen P. Kramer Mr. and Mrs. Arnold H. Kurth Ms. Lorraine E. Loftis Ms. Patricia Ann Louko and Mr. Herbert Johnson Mrs. Edith Kirkland Malone Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Mann Mr. and Mrs. Dileep Mehta Ms. Martha J. Mills Mr. Kenneth Nassau Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. O’Harrow Mr. Andreas Penninger Mr. L. Richard Plunkett Mr. and Mrs. William L. Pressly Ms. Mina Rhee Mr. Darryl C. Payne and Mrs. Lisa C. Richardson Mr. and Mrs. Marion Pinckney Rivers iii Mr. David P. Robichaud and Ms. Sharon McClelland Ms. Sharon L. Roy Mr. and Mrs. Shouky A. Shaheen Mr. and Mrs. Milton W. Shlapak Mr. and Mrs. Barry Lee Spurlock, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Stickell Dr. Robert J. Samuels and Ms. Patricia Stone Dr. and Mrs. Gary W. Tapp Ms. Virginia S. Taylor Dr. and Mrs. James L. Waits Ms. Beth Webb Ms. Ruth W. Woodling Dr. and Mrs. William N. Yang Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey E. Young Z
top: Bacchanal chairs Keith Radford and Khalilah Birdsong 18
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non profit organization u.s. postage paid atlanta, georgia permit
571 south kilgo circle atlanta, ga 30322 carlos.emory.edu
Member
Comingup
Visitorinformation
September 13–December 7, 2014
Hours Tuesday through Friday:
God Spoke the Earth: Stories of Genesis in Prints and Drawings
10 am–4 pm; Saturday: 10 am– 5 pm; Sunday: noon–5 pm; Closed Mondays and University holidays. Admission $8 general admission. Carlos Museum members, Emory students, faculty, and staff: Free. Students, seniors, and children ages 6–17: $6 (Children ages 5 and under free). Visit our website to find out about Free Afternoons.
January 17–May 17, 2015
Through the Atmosphere: Vitreographs by Mildred Thompson January 31–June 21, 2015
African Cosmos: Stellar Arts
Stayconnnected Stay connected on our Facebook page with event reminders, specials, notes from curators, and exhibition information. Subscribe to our Carlos Museum calendar and enjoy lectures, the Carlos Reads book club, AntiquiTEA, family events, and more. Visit carlos.emory.edu/connect
Handicapped parking Drop off at
Plaza level entrance on South Kilgo Circle. Handicap-accessible parking is available in the Oxford Road and Peavine parking decks. Limited handicap parking spaces are available along Kilgo Circle during weekends, and cars must display state issued hangtag. A handicap-accessible shuttle (shuttle D) runs from the Peavine parking deck weekdays every 10 minutes. For further assistance contact the Disability Services Office at 404-727-9877.
Public transportation marta bus line 6 Emory from Inman Park/ Reynoldstown & Lindbergh stations or 36 North Decatur from Avondale and Midtown stations.
Tours Advanced booking required
Parking Paid visitor parking in
Public tours Depart from the
the visitor sections of the Fishburne and Peavine Parking Decks and in the new Oxford Road Parking Deck, located behind the new Barnes and Noble @ Emory, 1390 Oxford Road.
rotunda on Sundays at 2 pm. Call in advance, 404-727-4282.
for weekday or weekend groups of 10 or more. For reservations call 404-727-0519 at least two weeks before your group would like to visit.
Audio tour $2. Free for museum
members. Museum information 404-727-4282 Web access carlos.emory.edu