Life-sized Egyptian Tomb Wall in Ophelia Parrish!

 Students more wall photos

Dr. Sara Orel's Egyptian Art class set up a full-scale reproduction of a painted wall of an Egyptian Middle Kingdom tomb in the atrium of the art wing of Ophelia Parrish Hall.  The scenes show Khnumhotep, a provincial governor of Beni Hasan about 4000 years ago, accepting offerings for the afterlife from his family and servants and hunting animals in the desert.  One of the most famous scenes from his tomb shows foreigners (probably from the area of modern Israel and Palestine) wrapped in elaborately-patterned woolen clothes, a scene that is often reproduced to illustrate the biblical story of Joseph and his family settling in Egypt.  The scene was painted in the original colours by some of the students in the class to illustrate the bright hues of the original tomb.  Laura Wellington, of Fine Arts Publications, expanded the original 1893 line drawing (from Percy E. Newberry's Beni Hasan I, London) to the original size, approximately 33 feet long and 14 feet tall. 

Students marya and devin set up wall 
Students setting up lowest frieze 
Students danielle and marya set up tomb wall 

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Studio Publication…congratulations, Profs. Fine!

Professor of Art, Aaron Fine, and his brother Peter Fine, Associate Professor of Art at New Mexico State University, recently had their paper "Whiteout" published in Racism and Borders: Representation, Repression, Resistance, Jeff Shantz, ed. Algora Publishing. This paper was written collaboratively and was originally presented at the College Art Association Annual Conference in Los Angeles in 2009.

Gallery-o-rama

Lots of exciting events coming up in the University Art Gallery over the next week:

Thursday and Friday, February 16 & 17, Nancy Mizuno Elliott and Amy Auerbach will be on campus.  Nancy Mizuno Elliott is finishing up her two-year term as the Truman Curatorial Fellow, and has done so by curating the wonderful exhibition "4 Real 4 Faux:  Animating the Vernacular", currently on display in the Gallery.  Amy Auerbach is Gallery Manager at Creativity Explored, the Bay Area arts organization from which much of the work in "4 Real 4 Faux" came.  So, come to some of these great events:

  • Thursday, February 16, 4:30 p.m., OP 2210
    Panel Discussion with Nancy Mizuno Elliotto, Amy Auerbach, and Truman's Gallery Director Aaron Fine
  • Thursday, February 16, 6:00 p.m., University Art Gallery
    Closing reception, "4 Real 4 Faux".  Refreshments will be served.
  • Friday, February 17, 3:30 p.m., University Art Gallery
    Gallery Talk with Nanzy Mizuno Elliott and Amy Auerbach

Congratulations, also, to the next Truman Curatorial Fellow, Brandelyn Dillway (Mt. San Jacinto College).  She will be on campus early next week to jury the Student Juried Exhibition and will give a talk on Monday, February 21 at 6:00 p.m. in OP 2210.

National Travel Award to TSU Alumna

Congratulations to Art History alumna Jasmine Cloud who was recently awarded a travel grant by the national Italian Art Society.  This organization which promotes the study of Italian art of all time periods awards two competitive travels grants to IAS members (doctoral candidates or recent PhDs) wishing to travel to an academic conference.  The IAS announcement follows:

Jasmine Cloud is currently a doctoral student at Temple University.  She will speak on the topic “Reviving the Heart (of the City):  The Renovations of the Churches on the Roman Forum” in the Italian Art Society session “Rome Revitalized:  A Reassessment,” at the Renaissance Society of America Conference in Montreal in March.

Winter Wonderland & Welcome Back!

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The Art Deparmtment–along with the rest of the Truman State University campus–reopened at 10:30 a.m. today (Thursday, February 3) after being closed since Tuesday morning because of the massive blizzard that hit much of the central and eastern United States.  The most recent estimate we've seen is that Kirksville got c. 14" of snow in less than 24 hours. 

Welcome back everyone and stay warm and safe!

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