The Rick and Cindy Burns Collection of 19th & 20th Century Masters of Photography
The Midwest Museum of American Art is delighted to present the exhibition, “NATURE & NURTURE: The Rick and Cindy Burns Collection of 19th & 20th Century Masters of Photography” for the Holiday Season and into the New Year, beginning on December 3, 2004, and continuing through February 28, 2005. The exhibition will feature over 80 works by such luminaries as Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Dorthea Lange, William Henry Jackson, Elliott Porter, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Carleton Watkins, Edward Weston, Brett Weston, and Minor White, to name but a few.
“Nature & Nurture” as a title for the exhibit, emerged from several conversations over time with the collectors. The Burns have been passionately acquiring works of photography which embrace their view of life and their interest and love for adventure travel to remote challenging landscapes where most ordinary folk would not attempt. As a talented documentary photographer himself, Dr. Rick Burns turned his collecting “eye” to those works by photographers of the 19th and 20th century who made pictures about places he and his wife Cindy have visited. In addition and without exception, the Burns Collection represents those who literally blazed trails to make photography accepted as an artform.
Two photograpers in particular have captured the couple’s love of the land and poetry of preserving and/or portraying it on film – Ansel Adams (1902-1984) and Brett Weston (1911-1993).
In this exhibit both Adams and Weston are represented by more than 30 works selected from a larger number of holdings of each. Some of these images are the respective photographers’ greatest accomplishments as artists of the “straight photography” school of thought. Brett Weston, son of Edward Weston, is the artist who the collectors feel most poetically assembles the elements of nature in the lens to capture the “seldom seen/seldom heard” aspects of the environment as W. H. Auden might describe it.
In every respect this exhibition of silverprints and color photography by 29 individual artists is the essence of the curious impassioned mind. For those of us with this rare opportunity to glimpse the past through the framework of art, the exhibit of the Burns Collection should serve to nurture our respet for nature in all of its spiritual grandeur. In short, this collection of photographs will serve the novice as well as the experienced professional with a look at “the art of seeing through the lens”.
Members and Guests and invited to a Holiday Open House for NATURE & NURTURE!
Meet the Collectors Dr. Rick & Cindy Burns on Friday Evening, December 3rd, 2004 from 7:00 to 9:00pm.
Peter Norton Family Christmas Project
The Midwest Museum of American Art will showcase 11 works which have been acquired since 1993 from the Peter Norton Family Christmas Project. The exhibit will open on December 1st and continue throught the holidays until December 31st, 2004 .
Software extrepreneur, Peter Norton, has for over a decade been one of the world’s leading collectors of contemporary art. Upon selling his company, Norton Utilities, for 70 million in stock shares, he and first wife Eileen began a quest to support young emerging artists whose work would be difficult for most to understand. The nature of the work that attracted the Nortons would be more conceptually based, but deal with ideas about social conditions, ethnicity, or gender issues. Many of the young artists have continued in their careers to become internaitonally famous.
In an effort to spread the canons of contemporary art, the Nortons began to commission artists to create limited edition works of art which they would send as holiday greetings to museum directors, curators, and art dealers across the country. The elaborate tooling-up for such projects required many experts to get involved in technical aspects including the custom boxes required to ship the artwork. Each work of art would arrive with a personal holiday greeting from the Nortons and their children along with a brief biography about the artist and a description about the art object.
Jane Burns, Director of the Midwest Museum of American Art, has been the designated recipient of the 11 works to be displayed, in turn, donating them to the public collection. This is the first time for all to be shown collectively.
A FREE Gallery Talk will be held on Thursday, December 16th, for visitors to hear more about the Peter Norton Family Christmas Project.
Special Lecture by Jon Meyer
The Midwest Museum of American Art will present a Special Lecture by Jon Meyer, Professor of Visual Communications from Indiana University at South Bend on Sunday, November 21st at 2:00pm . The lecture by Jon Meyer will present his work in Visual Communication, Graphic Design, New Media, and will show in discussion his part in the making of “The World Tea Party: A Family Tea”. This video/moving image was made by Meyer and shown as an introduction to “The World Tea Party” on German National television and toured with the exhibition around the world. It shows a compendium of museum quality teapots from many cultures and time periods as well as Meyer’s own family tea ritual based on family travels and animated images. His Visual Communications and Graphic Design work, including some new media will illustrate his vision of global scenes and imaginary, dream-like images.
NOON TIME TALKS
A variety of Gallery Talks featuring topical issues, biographical sketches, or films – FREE every Thursday at 12:30pm.
November 4th, 2004
Linda Freel , Dennis, Wenger, & Abrell Attorneys Purchase Award winner, will discuss her unusual triptych drawing entitled, “Advent”. Freel teaches graphic Design at Ivy Tech and resides in South Bend, IN.
November 11th, 2004
Sherry Sprouls , an artist and teacher from South Bend, will discuss her mixed media assemblage entitled, “Whitch’s Tree”, which won the William Leighton Batten Merit Award for Sculpture .
November 18th, 2004
Timothy Grieb , winner of the Stan & June Disher Purchase Award, will discuss his pastel drawings entitled, “Winter’s Solstice” and “Four Weeks Until Spring”. Grieb currently resides in Elkhart, IN.
November 25th, 2004
Happy Thanksgiving – Museum Closed
December 2nd, 2004
“Magic of the Image: Photography Revealed”
This film artistacally unfolds the history of photography, including the contributions of Henry Fox Talbot, Louis Daguerre, and the Lumieres, with emphasis on the processes involved in creating photographs. (27 min. film)
December 9th, 2004
NATURE & NURTURE
Collector Dr. Rick Burns discusses his collection of 19th and 20th century masters of photography.
December 16th, 2004
ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Curator Brian Byrn continues the discussion of master photographers concentrating on the work of Ansel Adams and his contributions to the environment.
December 23rd, 2004
“BRETT WESTON: Photographer”
This film explores the career of Edward Weston’s son, brett, and his unique vision of nature. Included are views of 892 viewable images from the Brett Weston Archive. (Film – 30 min.)
December 30th, 2004
Brett Weston (1911-1993)
Curator Brian Byrn continues the discussiuon of this master photographer concentrating on the work in the exhibition “Nature & Nurture”.
ALICE BILANCIO (by Paul & Betty Thomas
JULIUS C. BURKE (by Anna Bowers, and Francis & Marie Kennard)
EUGENE D. CARLILE (by Marjorie Swift)
RUTH CONANT (by Jane Burns, and Brian & Lisa Byrn)
CARL COOK (by Paul & Betty Thomas)
HELEN CULP (by Dorothy Hemphill)
ANNA & BOB GALLAGHER ( by George & Evelyn White)
JANE GRIMES (by Anita Pearson)
DR. JAMES W. HURLEY (by George & Barbara Thomas_
DR. VERNON MARTIN (by Jane Burns, and Alice Craven)
EARL SAULMAN ( by Jeanne Batten, Jane Burns, Brian & Lisa Byrn, Wendell & Marty Culp, Mary Helvey, Dorothy Hemphill, and Alice Holtz)
EVELYN WALTERS ( by Jeanne Batten)
Eva Cole Memorial Education Fund: In memory of CHELSEA C. BOONE (by Dr. Howard L. Smith)
In memory of ARRON, ALLAN and ADAM GINTHER ( by Paul & Betty Thomas)
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