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Recent Acquisitions Releases Press Release Archive |
TMA Goes Wild, Casting Shadows and Silhouettes With Tandem of Summertime Exhibitions Tyler, TX—What do miniatures, mammoth land mammals, and a bygone technique of portrait-taking have in common? They're all a part of the summertime attractions at the Tyler Museum of Art, as the venue gets set to open a pair of new exhibitions: Shadowboxes and Silhouettes, and Into the Wild: Animal Art from Caldwell Zoo. Both exhibitions open to the public Sunday, June 8, and continue through July 13 in the Museum's Bell Gallery. Admission to both shows is free. Shadowboxes and Silhouettes, organized by the Tyler Museum of Art, bears its title as a tribute to the contributions of longtime TMA patrons Mildred H. Grinstead and Dede Menking: the former as an artist, the latter as collector. The shadowboxes of the exhibition's title are designed and created by Mrs. Grinstead, highlighting a popular way to display a room of miniatures without utilizing an entire dollhouse. Also called vignettes or room boxes, the shadowboxes allow the artist to play on different styles and moods for each one. Mrs. Grinstead's love of miniatures began as a child, when her father had a dollhouse built for her. Years later, after her own children had entered school, she and her son, Jay, worked on dollhouse kits and miniature rooms until the Wilton House in Virginia inspired Mildred anew. Working in a full scale, in which 1 inch equals 1 foot, Mrs. Grinstead recreated the Wilton House in miniature, in a process that took almost six years. "Several model houses later, I had collected a large amount of incredible miniatures from builders in America and Europe," Mrs. Grinstead said. "Looking for a way to display the miniatures in small spaces, I began to create the room shadowboxes. And I've just gone from there." An added feature to the shadowboxes on exhibit will be the inclusion of a miniature house and furniture in the style of the Georgian period, donated to the TMA last year by Mrs. Grinstead. The house, constructed c.1977 and modeled after an 18th-century home in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, also features rugs and other textiles hand-made by Francis Connally Morriss of Tyler during the 1970s and '80s, with furnishings and household items donated to the Museum by her family. The silhouettes in the exhibition represent the collection of Mrs. Perry Menking, a Houston native who made Tyler her home five years ago. She said she began acquiring them "one at a time" about 35 years ago, when Mrs. Menking's home décor consisted mostly of American antiques and she became fascinated by the silhouette process which was extremely popular in the U.S. from about 1790 and 1840, prior to the advent of photography. "Someone in those days wishing to have an inexpensive portrait created of their loved ones would have visited a silhouette artist," Mrs. Menking said. "Within minutes and using only a pair of scissors, or sometimes ink, and a skillful eye, he would have produced a little image with a remarkable resemblance to his subject." Though the invention of the camera signaled the end of the silhouette as a widespread form of portraiture, "their popularity is being reborn in a new generation of people who appreciate the silhouette as a nostalgic and unique way of capturing a loved one's image," she added. SOMETHING WILD Into the Wild: Animal Art from Caldwell Zoo is an exhibition bringing art and animals together and indoors. This partnership exhibition between the Tyler Museum of Art and Caldwell Zoo spotlights the zoo's most prominent pachyderm painters, namely, elephants and rhinos and showcases more than 20 of their works in acrylic. "We also have a sampling of pieces created by Madagascar hissing cockroaches and a bearded dragon named Norbert," TMA Head of Education Katie Powell said. The exhibition was inspired by the routine of "environmental enrichments," an integral part of the daily care for all animals at Caldwell Zoo. Enrichments stimu late the animal to interact with its environment, encouraging natural be haviors and simulating behavioral opportunities much like those an animal may encounter in the wild. "Enrichments are in the best interest of the animal, reducing stress and ensuring not only physical health, but also psychological well-being," said Linda Kunze, Caldwell Zoo curator of education. "Painting for pachyderms is certainly something that would not be a part of life in the wild, but it is an activity that they seem to find enjoyable, even relaxing. Of course, it could be that the best part of the process is getting all the fruit and vegetable treats as they paint." FIRST FRIDAY ART TOUR Also on tap this week at the TMA is a First Friday Art Tour at 11 a.m. Friday, June 6, in conjunction with the new exhibition, The Eye of the Collector: The Jewish V ision of Sigmund R. Balka. TMA School Tour Coordinator Elnor a Williams is scheduled to lead the tour, highlighting the history of some of the 86 works included in the exhibition celebrating more than five decades of collecting and study of Jewish art by noted attorney and civic activist Sigmund Ronell Balka of New York. First Friday admission is free to TMA members plus one guest, and $3 for non-members. Exhibition a dmission is free for The Eye of the Collector, which continues through August 10 in the North Gallery. The Tyler Museum of Art is located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave., adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus off East Fifth Street. Regular hours are 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1:00–5:00 p.m. Sunday. Light lunch is available in the Museum Café from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday t hrough Friday, and the TMA Gift Shop is open during exhibition hours. For more information, call 903-595-1001. |