Robert-Goldwater-Library

Review of Marquesas Catalogue

Adorning the World : Art of the Marquesas Islands by Eric Kjellgren, with Carol S. Ivory, has been reviewed in the  latest issue of Rapa Nui Journal, vol. 19, no. 2 (October 2005) :

"Those who are fortunate enough to visit this exhibit will certainly want a catalog to take home with them, but those who cannot visit the museum and have any interest in Pacific cultures, and particularly in the Marquesas Islands, simply must obtain a copy of this catalog.  Highly recommended." -- Georgia Lee

• Read the full review in print : Rapa Nui Journal -- Goldwater Library call number A R216

• Read a review of the exhibition [our earlier post]

• Read the more about the practice of tattooing in the Marquesas [our earlier post]

Adorning the World : Art of the Marquesas Islands is on view in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing through January 15, 2006.
 

Library closed for three weeks

The Robert Goldwater Library and the Photograph Study Collection (AAOA) will be closed to staff and public from Monday, December 19, 2005, to Friday, January 6, 2006, due to ongoing construction activity on the Rockefeller Mezzanine. Staff needing to use these collections may be able to make an appointment for time during the closure, subject to physical accessibility and adequate staffing. You must call Ross Day (Goldwater Library) or Virginia-lee Webb (Photograph Study Collection) prior to coming to the Rockefeller Mezzanine.

The blog, on the other hand, will not be taking a holiday.

Virginia-Lee Webb Tangles with the Entangled Object

AAOA's own Virginia-Lee Webb has an article in the current issue of the online journal Cultural Analysis:

An Entangled Object: The Picture Postcard as Souvenir and Collectible, Exchange and Ritual Communication
by Bjarne Rogan, University of Oslo, Norway
with responses by Stephen Brown, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Northern Ireland and Virginia-Lee Webb, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Abstract
The picture postcard craze went hand in hand with the rise of a new consumer culture, a more affluent society, and a new middle class. Modernity is the common denominator and the frame of reference. However, these cards served a multiplicity of uses and functions including as collectibles, ritual communication, and gift exchanges, and were enmeshed in a tangle of relationships. What characterized the craze for the picture postcard a century ago and guaranteed its enormous spread and popularity was precisely these enmeshed functions, concrete as well as symbolic, and the many layers of meaning invested in the postcard. Few material items are more aptly characterized as "an entangled object" than the picture postcard of the Golden Age.
[read full text in html]

PS: from the Editors of Cultural Analysis:

We are pleased to announce the publication of:
CULTURAL ANALYSIS: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY FORUM ON FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE, VOLUME IV

This issue is now out in full, and available free of charge on the web
(in both html and pdf formats), at: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~caforum/current.html

Please feel free to share this information with anyone you feel may be interested.

Art exhibit to address contemporary environmental issues

Joy Garnett
Dark Head (Strange Weather series) 2005
48 x 54 inches
Oil on canvas
Reproduced with permission of the artist

From the New York Academy of Sciences web site:

If Rachel Carson were alive today, she would probably be pleased about the heightened public awareness of the environment and some of the protective legislation passed since she wrote Silent Spring. She would likely be less satisfied with the ongoing battle between those who wish to preserve our natural environment and those whose efforts continue to contribute to its deterioration and destruction. ... The book was predicated on the belief that the public was obligated to know the specific facts about the dangers of some pesticides if they were to make informed decisions about their use.

And just as Carson brought an investigative scientific eye to the problems she described in Silent Spring, an exhibition opening November 4 at the New York Academy of Sciences casts a probing artistic look at some of the most critical environmental issues facing the world today. The exhibition, "The Obligation to Endure: Art & Ecology Since Silent Spring," features works in a variety of media that raise questions about such current concerns as global warming, toxic waste, POPs (persistent organic pollutants), the extinction of species, and genetic modification. Artists included are Joy Episalla, Joy Garnett, Tom Hawkins, Dominic McGill, Jason Middlebrook, Frank Moore, Catherine Murphy, Bruce Nauman, Gary Ponzo, Amy Jean Porter, Alexis Rockman, David Wojnarowicz  and Carrie Yamaoka ... [read more ; click through for a gallery of the art on view]

[Nick] Debs, [curator of the exhibit and] former director of the activist group Visual AIDS and principal of the New York gallery Debs and Co., noted that the artists chosen for the exhibition reflected Carson’s own activist calling and her goal of speaking "truth to power."

"The directness of message on environmental topics from artists like Rockman, Garnett, Moore, and Wojnarowicz certainly pay homage to Carson’s own clarity of communication and her passionate love of the natural world," he said. "Silent Spring was a call to action that resonated with a wide public; similarly, the works of art in this exhibit provoke the viewer into considering what we’re doing to the environment, and they serve as a caution and warning to all of us."

The Academy exhibition is on view Monday-Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM from November 4 through January 13, 2006. The Gallery of Art & Science is located at 3 E. 63rd Street [MAP] New York City.

Way to go, Joy! -- Ross

Who are we?

Ross Day (seen here in an earlier photo) is the head of the Robert Goldwater Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Joy Garnett is the library's manager and blog-meister. Check out her growing web empire at http://joygarnett.com

Erika Hauser is a Senior Library Associate who enjoys dual citizenship between the Robert Goldwater and Thomas J. Watson Libraries.