April 2011

Happy birthday, Weatherspoon

This is one of the coolest 70-year-olds you'll ever meet.

The Weatherspoon Art Museum is kicking off its 70th anniversary in a big way this year. First, the exhibition “Weatherspoon Art Museum: 70 Years of Collecting” features 100 highlights from its permanent collection.

Among those represented are Willem de Kooning, Paul Manship, David Smith, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, Ann Hamilton, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and many other notable modern artists.

The exhibition runs through May 1 in the Bob & Lissa Shelley McDowell Gallery.

To further mark this anniversary year, the Weatherspoon has published a book of the same title that includes a history of the Weatherspoon and full-color reproductions and entries on each of the 100 featured works. The entries are written by UNCG's art history faculty, the museum's director and past and present curators including: K. Porter Aichele, George Dimock, Nancy M. Doll, Xandra Eden, Richard Gantt, Carl Goldstein, Ann Grimaldi, Elaine D. Gustafson, Heather Holian, Elizabeth Perrill and Will South.

In addition to the exhibition and book, a series of activities, both social and educational, are being planned throughout the year. The next is an April 20 talk on the Weatherspoon's history from 1990 to the present. The free talk starts at noon in the McDowell Gallery.

To learn more, visit weatherspoon.uncg.edu/70.