Students looking at the curated art pieces. (Photo William Oehler/The Gettysburgian)
By William Oehler, Staff Writer & Director of Photography
The Gettysburg College Schmucker Art Gallery unveiled two new student-curated exhibits on Wednesday, Sept 4, highlighting the work of students Isobel Debenham ’25, Cyndy Basil ’25 and Sarah Louise Huebschen ’26.
Basil and Debenham co-curated the exhibit “The Portrait of the Artist” featuring fifty-one prints from western artists, while Huebschen’s curation focused on works of Violet Oakley, an American artist working with silkscreen printing.
The reception began with Huebschen presenting her work with Oakley’s prints. Violet Oakley worked during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and was “a trailblazing visionary who through her art communicated ideals of unity and understanding and issues of division and persecution.”
The work highlighted by Huebschen is mounted in the Pennsylvania State House, both in the Governor’s Reception Room and the Senate Chambers. One is also featured in Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano’s office.
Oakley was one of the first women commissioned to create a public mural in the United States. Her screens in the reception room follow the history of William Penn’s purchase of the land that would become the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and his “Holy Experiment” in response to religious intolerance.
The Genius of Salvator Rosa. (Photo William Oehler/The Gettysburgian)
Her second commission, ordered to ornate the Senate Chambers, came about when the original artist passed away mid-job. She continued his work with inspiration from her time in Europe before World War I. She created images of “peace, unity and understanding.”
The evening shifted to Debenham and Basil’s curation: “A Portrait of the Artist” consisting of fifty-one prints from artists Rembrandt Van Rijk, Salvator Rosa, William Hogarth, Baccio Bandinelli and many others. Both Debenham and Basil worked extensively over the summer to organize their exhibit.
Later this semester a link to an interactive website will be live on the Schmucker Gallery website, which was created by both curators and allows viewers to interact with works displayed in the gallery.
The exhibit showcases works that “examine how artists depicted themselves and their professions from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.” The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation generously loaned all fifty-one prints for display, making a notable contribution to the exhibit.
Art History Professor Felicia Else and Director of Schmucker Art Gallery Sarah Kate Gillespie also supported both curators in getting the exhibit finalized.
The drypoint piece “The Genius of Salvator Rosa” by Rosa “functions as an allegorical self-portrait…” Genius reclines, front and center, with a crown of ivy with Sincerity and Liberty as an audience.
Rosa most directly depicts himself as Genius, “paying no attention to the temptation of wealth or the threat of death, as genius work will be inspired and immortal”.
The reception ended, allowing guests to enjoy catered food and drinks, speak with the curators and enjoy the exhibits. The Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free to the public. Violet Oakley: “A Message to the World from Pennsylvania” and “A Portrait of the Artist” will be on display until Nov. 4 and Dec. 12, respectively.
Sarah Louise Huebschen ’26 presenting at Schmucker Art Gallery. (Photo William Oehler/The Gettysburgian)
The exhibition’s sign. (Photo William Oehler/The Gettysburgian)
