Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery | Essays on Artists & Acquisitions

August 20, 2016

The Landscape of Injustice: Ansel Adams and Manzanar

Ansel Adams extended his vision of American identity to the interned Japanese-Americans, arguing that they were born free and equal.

August 3, 2016

Highlights of the Collection: Vaea Marx, Plate

A member of the French Resistance in WWII and later a cowboy in Australia, Marx studied ceramics in Japan and had a significant impact on the mid-20th century movement to take clay into the arena of fine art.

June 30, 2016

Highlights of the Collection: Paul Jacoulet, The Pearls

Jacoulet illustrates the Western interpretation of Eastern life. His style, though beautiful, bears orientalist undertones.

May 15, 2016

Highlights of the Collection: Drawing Book of Designs

From the mythical to the concrete, this volume offers a plethora of designs, created during the late 19th century.

January 28, 2016

Highlights of the Collection: Kirk Pederson, Central Avenue

Photographer Kirk Pederson uses realism to as a tool to bring his works into the realm of abstraction.

January 25, 2016

Ken Gonzales-Day

Ken Gonzales-Day’s Searching for California’s Hang Trees series enriches the viewer’s understanding of the history of racial violence in America.

January 2, 2016

Elizabeth Catlett

Though primarily known as a sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett has also created a significant body of work as a printmaker. Madonna (1982) is a lithograph print, a reproduction technique in which the artist first creates an image on fine-grained sandstone (or aluminum plate) with a grease-based implement such as a pencil, crayon or wash. Via a multi-stepped process, the image is fixed to the stone, inked, and transferred to paper by means of a press.

December 2, 2015

Highlights of the Collection: Graciela Iturbide, Jaipur, India

Photographer Graciela Iturbide records the surreal and the spiritual in her work.

October 3, 2015

Sean Black, Dad: No. 11, House of Photographs

Sean Black Dad: No. 11, House of Photographs, 2010 Archival inkjet print on warm-toned baryta coated Inkpress Pro paper, 10 x 10 in. Scripps College, Gift of James H. Black & Patricia Black “Ultimately, the project was about embracing the fragility of life while I silently gathered the courage to say goodbye.”1 Sean Black’s photographic […]

October 2, 2015

Dmitri Baltermants, Agfa

Dmitri Baltermants Agfa, 1945 (Printed at a Later Date) Gelatin silver print 16 x 20 in. Scripps College, Gift of Sally Strauss and Andrew E. Tomback In the majority of Baltermants’ photos, viewers are immersed into the Second World War. Though he was born in Poland, Baltermants served under the Soviets, using his skills as […]