Reynolda House Hosting Gallery Talks Highlighting WFU Studen

Press Room

Reynolda House Hosting Gallery Talks Highlighting WFU Student Union Collection

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sharyn Turner
336.758.5580
sturner@reynoldahouse.org
or Sarah R. Smith
336.758.5524
manselss@reynoldahouse.org

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (November 4, 2009) In conjunction with the recently opened exhibition, "Now/Then: A Journey in Collecting Contemporary Art at Wake Forest University," Reynolda House Museum of American Art is hosting a series of engaging and informative gallery talks by Wake Forest faculty and graduates, who will reflect on their art-buying trips for the Wake Forest Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art. The gallery talks will occur on Tuesday, Nov. 10, Tuesday, Nov. 17 and Tuesday, Dec. 1 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Reynolda House.

The gallery talks cost $5, are open to the public, and will consist of informal discussions with members of the buying teams for highlighted trips.

Every four years since 1963, a small group of Wake Forest students has taken a trip to New York City to purchase art. Under the direction of Wake Forest art department faculty members, the students spend several months prior to the trip researching the contemporary American art scene. In New York, they visit galleries and studios and devote hours to debating the merits of the pieces under consideration. Then, using university funds, they make their selections and add them to the Wake Forest Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art.

At the gallery talks, former advisors and student buyers will discuss the goals of each buying group, which studios and galleries they visited and what their preparation was prior to the trip. Participants also will have a chance to see actual works from each buying year on display in the exhibition.

November 10: The Class of '63 Buying Trip- Representing the first buying trip will be Provost Emeritus Edwin G. Wilson and alumnus Ted Meredith, a former trustee of Wake Forest University and member of the Reynolda House Board of Directors. The inaugural group acquired works by Pablo Picasso, Elaine de Kooning, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Anne Kesler Shields.

November 17: The Class of '89 Buying Trip- Wake Forest University Professor of Art David Faber and alumnus H.D. "Giz" Womack discuss their selection of works by Richard Diebenkorn, Odd Nerdrum, and Robert Colescott.

December 1: The Class of '77 Buying Trip- Retired Wake Forest University Professor of Art Robert Knott led buying trips over three decades, as well as preparing students through his course on contemporary art. In 1977, Matt Bullard was one of the students who selected works by Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg, and Red Grooms.

"Now/Then: A Journey in Collecting Contemporary Art at Wake Forest University," presented by Reynolda House Museum of American Art and Wake Forest University, features contemporary art works by renowned artists such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alex Katz from a collection developed entirely by Wake Forest students since 1963. The exhibition captures significant trends and developments in contemporary art over the past half-century. It will run from through Dec. 31, 2009 in the museum's Babcock Wing gallery.

Co-curated by Reynolda House Managing Curator Allison Slaby and Wake Forest University Assistant Professor of Art History John J. Curley, the exhibition includes selections from the Wake Forest University Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art, the University's premier art collection. Numbering more than 150 pieces by more than 100 different artists, the collection includes paintings, prints, drawings, photography and sculpture by such notable artists as Johns, Rauschenberg, Katz, Milton Avery, Kiki Smith, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Ellsworth Kelly, Adolph Gottlieb, Ben Shahn, Richard Diebenkorn, Collier Schorr and Do-Ho Suh.

About Reynolda House

Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation's premier American art museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart among its permanent collection. Affiliated with Wake Forest University, Reynolda House features traveling and original exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings and other events. The museum is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the historic 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150.

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