Students show ‘Imprint of War’ in class exhibit

Late on a Monday night, students fluttered through the University Art Gallery, setting tiny… Late on a Monday night, students fluttered through the University Art Gallery, setting tiny 17th-century prints into delicate wooden frames. They had less than a week to prepare for what was, for many of them, their first public art exhibition.

“This is more hands-on than any other class I’ve taken at the University,” senior history of art and architecture major Colleen Bernhard said.

Bernhard is one of the 20 students running the exhibit as part of the history of art and architecture department’s Museum Studies Seminar.

Last night, the University Art Gallery in the Frick Fine Arts Building hosted the grand opening of the class’s exhibit, “Imprint of War: Responses in Print,” which runs until Dec. 5. The class chose to focus the exhibition on the printmaking work of artists Sandow Birk, Jacques Callot and Nicholas Naughton. The show also includes local artists Andrew Ames, Dan Buchanan, Joan Iversen Goswell, Susanne Slavick, Andrew Ellis Johnson and Delanie Jenkins.

This exhibit is a culmination of months of preparation. The class initially received about 50 pieces handpicked by instructor Janet McCall and was tasked with creating a theme. Since the pieces — which were gathered from the University’s collection as well as other galleries — shared similarities, namely, depictions of war in prints, the theme was relatively inherent. But McCall said the class is intended to focus on museum practices over curatorial choices, and eventually the class decided to focus on how artists use printmaking to reflect on the atrocities of war.

“Printmaking is a cyclical process, and war can be too,” said senior Christy Savage, who helped choose the theme. “Our exhibit looks at the common themes between these two very different cycles.”

Savage is the leader of the Curatorial Team, one of the four teams into which the class is divided. In order to prepare for the exhibition, McCall split the class into the Curatorial, Installation, Interpretation and Documentation Teams. The team leaders meet with McCall once a week to parallel the kind of weekly staff meetings museums have with curators. Class time is dedicated to communication between teams and group research into the exhibit’s material.

“I tried to structure it in a way where the students are doing as much work as possible,” McCall said. “I find myself collaborating with my students in the same way I do with my colleagues at work.”

Savage and the four other students on her team are in charge of developing the theme, delegating tasks and organizing tours at Frick Fine Arts. The Installation Team worked on assembling the pieces into a coherent exhibit. The Documentation Team developed flyers advertising the exhibit and managed the class’s blog, imprintofwar.wordpress.com. The Interpretation Team assembled information, including a display of printmaking tools, to educate the public on prints at the exhibit.

Artwork is rarely reproducible, but in the case of prints, the entire art revolves around reproduction. Printmakers etch textured images into metal or wooden plates using metal tools or acid. They then cover the plates in ink and press them onto a canvas.

Prints by 17th-century printmaker Jacques Callot are the oldest on display at the show. The artist depicted the depravities of war in the 18-print series “The Miseries and Misfortunes of War.” The Installation Team worked with the University Art Gallery to frame the pieces in a way that would not damage the irreplaceable originals from the gallery’s collection. The rest of the pieces were provided by the artists or their hosting galleries.

Callot published the prints in the midst of the Thirty Years’ War, when the French invaded his native Duchy of Lorraine, leaving behind a trail of destruction and disease.

Although the largest prints are the size of post cards, they are packed with visceral depictions of soldiers pillaging and burning entire villages. The prints then follow the soldiers to their fates: hanged by their commanders, lynched by peasants or left crippled and begging on the street.

Callot’s work directly inspired contemporary artist Sandow Birk’s much larger 4-by-8-foot prints in the series “The Depravities of War.”

The panels depict scenes of abuse perpetrated by American soldiers, including the infamous events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The final prints show veterans limping on crutches into a crowded Veterans Affairs office.

The third artist, Nicholas Naughton, also tackles modern warfare through a reimagining of classic prints. Inspired by 19th-century printmaker Francisco Goya’s “The Disasters of War,” Naughton’s prints are more gruesome than Birk’s.

“Through images, horrific or otherwise, we can create sympathetic reactions. For a moment, what we see is a reflection of ourselves, and what happens in those images is happening to us,” Naughton said in an interview with the class.

The class spent its first month speaking with artists and making field trips to local galleries. The students visited the Pittsburgh Glass Center to learn about the state and federal grants upon which many galleries survive. Bernhard said the staff showed them the decisions that go into running a gallery, from piece selection to how works will be displayed.

Now that the exhibit is up and running, the class will continue to meet. The students will read essays about running museums and take a field trip to a for-profit museum, Savage said.

McCall hopes that visitors will not be the only ones taking away a message from the exhibit. The portfolio of work that the students will have produced for the class “can be a real edge for getting an entry-level position at an [artistic] organization,” she said.

In a competitive job market, practical classes like Museum Studies can look great on resumés, Bernhard said.

“Last summer, I applied to internships and got turned down by some because I was lacking experience. Not professional experience, but academic experience, because I hadn’t taken this class,” Bernhard said. The senior originally planned to graduate and to seek a master’s degree in art history, but this course convinced her to consider pursuing museum studies. She explained that most galleries’ nonprofit status makes them less likely to hire and said that they often seek candidates who come in with advanced degrees as well as experience.

For students looking to get positions at the many small galleries throughout Pittsburgh, the chance to put on an exhibition while still in school is alluring.

McCall also serves as the executive director of the Society for Contemporary Craft, which has two gallery spaces in Pittsburgh. The class allows her to replicate the work environment of a large gallery, giving the students a practical understanding of the work that goes into producing an exhibition.

“Sometimes I find myself calling them my staff instead of my students,” McCall said.

And once the students are out of school, these skills will help them find jobs. McCall knows about the challenges of getting onto the staff of a museum. Originally turned down for a full-time position at a museum, she returned to volunteer.

“People got to know me, began to believe in me and what I offered,” McCall said, explaining that she eventually got a job. The rest is art history.

To schedule tours, email uga@pitt.edu