Opening of “Source & Resource” in the Schmucker Hall Art Gallery
(Grace Jurchak/The Gettysburgian)
By Sarah Daniels, Content Manager
Opened Jan. 29, the “Source & Resource” exhibit in the Schmucker Hall Art Gallery features contemporary artwork with their historical inspiration. The groupings give visitors a chance to compare, side by side, images that inspired artists decades after their production. Majority of the works shown are drawn from the Gettysburg College Art Collection. Artists include Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carl Beam, Carrie Mae Weems and Michael Scoggins.
A particularly central art piece, Andy Warhol’s “Cowboys and Indians: Sitting Bull,” is a screenprint made in 1986 that features the image of “Sitting Bull,” a print made by D. F. Barry in 1885. Warhol’s piece is bright, with a gold outline of Sitting Bull’s features and a combination of black, cerulean, red and yellow colors. The comparison of the two brings a swirl of questions to the viewer centering on race and class.
Some contemporary paintings, like Marisol Sol Escobar’s “Pocahontas,” had a photo of the historical artwork since they are older and rarer. “Pocahontas,” the earlier artwork piece, by an unidentified artist, is an engraving on paper from 1793. Even without the physical example of the history, the dichotomy between the images was stark. The pieces featured the same portrait, but Escobar inverted the colors from the original and included bright streaks of yellow, red, and white. While they share a name and a likeness, the images are different colors, sizes, and focus on different artistic objectives.
The largest piece of art in the exhibit centers around the Battle of Gettysburg. Taking the general layout of the work from a lithograph titled “Battle of Gettysburg” from 1884, Michael Scoggins’ work “Battle of Gettysburg” is a graphite drawing on a massive sheet of notebook paper. The medium, a basic sheet of paper and pencil, combined with the scribbled drawings of soldiers, cannons and horses, gives the piece a youthful feel. With no color from the graphite pencil, he invites the viewer to ponder about the futility of war, with no way to tell who is the winner or loser.
The exhibit will be up until April 12. The side by side comparisons are very interesting and thought provoking, imparting knowledge about what contemporary artists learn and borrow from previous historical works. With a basic white background and standout graphics, the physical exhibit space keeps the comparisons as the focus.
