Art & Art History
Department

Montgomery Hall as America; Curating with the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Teaching Collection

Abstract: The students at St. Mary’s College have no idea what a diverse, valuable collection we actually have. I am taking an art historical and historiographic stance to show students, staff and faculty how the artwork of St. Mary’s fits into a broader art historical context and the history of the gallery and teaching collection. This will be accomplished through four mini-exhibits that constitute an exhibition exploring the overarching question, “what is American art?” By presenting the colleges artwork in the form of smaller exhibits that attempt to answer this question through a specific exploration of their own, the audience is asked to consider new relationships between works of art. The audience should be able to see not only a progression of twentieth century American art, but also how American art historical trends at a given time greatly effected how the art in question was being interpreted. It is my hope that the viewer can return to the introduction where I have outlined historical survey of American art. The viewer should be able to take the questions posed in the other three exhibits and apply them to my introductory exhibit, as well as the “textbook” version of art history in general. American art is so multifaceted that my goal is to visually show that it cannot be just one thing. Formal elements, American experience, symbol, and art historians; none of them can fully explain that which is American art.  But together, they each can lend a new perspective.