Art from the University of Iowa's Thesis Collection
by: Katie J. Jones
Many art students have experienced the plight of sitting in a lecture hall listening to an art history professor regurgitate past art movements, artists, facts, and dates and for many art majors this historical background may be relevant and in many cases influential. However, this methodology essentially spoon-feeds information and concepts to these students. Why not focus on individual studio practices and growth… Grapple with concepts and ideas relevant to our own work? Peter Schulte, a graduate student in the MFA drawing program, considered these questions and decided to pioneer this interdisciplinary course, Issues in Contemporary Art, “I wanted to have a class where we could have open-ended discussion and explore the art world beyond just ‘modern and contemporary art,’ but introduce the realm of websites, blogs, and pod-casts into the art world today… your guys’ studio practices, anything and everything that pertains to art. What are you guys seeing, doing, everyday stuff that inspires you?”
This class not only provided a forum for open-ended discussion and the exchange of new ideas, but helped to open our eyes to this vast and fast-paced art world of the post modern era. In the process of examining our own studio practices and new artistic innovations throughout the community, we were presented with an opportunity to explore a collaborative project. This opportunity brought our class together: from print-maker, graphic designer, painter, photographer, drawer, and art historian. After days of grappling with fresh ideas, modifying these ideas, pondering old ones, and pounding out new ones, we arrived at one decision: Regeneration: Selected Art from the University of Iowa’s Thesis Collection.
–So what exactly is “Regeneration” anyway? Regeneration includes a rebirth, renewal, restoration, or starting a new. For many of us “regeneration” yielded a special significance rooted within our personal experiences working on this project. For me, “regeneration” signifies the unique experience of unveiling 60s years of dusty history. Who were these artists? Why did they donate these objects? What the heck is the Thesis Gallery in the first place?![1] For several weeks we pondered these questions and decided to plan an exhibition featuring a conglomeration of works from the Thesis Collection in order to pay homage to the University of Iowa and honor former MFA graduate students.
Some of these former students paid homage to the University of Iowa in unique and individual ways. Jonathan Haddock, Brandon Buckner, and Dan Attoe surfaced as viable candidates, in my mind, to paying homage to the School of Art and Art History. However we wonder, were these students tipping their hats or flipping off something else? Haddock raises these evocative questions in Three Years and the Pig Gets Enlightened (fig. 1). In this oil painting, Haddock portrays a man milking a pig as it looks off into a hazy fog in the distance where a cross looms above the horizon. Some argue that the pig represents “the institution” and the man milking the pig represents graduate students in the MFA program. The cross signifies the light at the end of the tunnel; in other words, after three years of labor at the graduate level students graduate with their masters and only then feel the satisfaction, or enlightenment, upon completion.
Brandon Buckner’s Postcard (fig. 2) also raises some interesting questions of artist intention. This bright pink painting reproduces, on a much larger scale, the exhibition announcement for the MFA show in 2005. Is this painting paying tribute or mocking the very enterprise that we are displaying in Regeneration: an exhibition of MFA graduate student’s work? The answer is uncertain, however, one thing is clear that Buckner primarily focused on reflecting the narratives from his own personal history and background throughout his university career.
Another artist who also incorporated his personal experience undoubtedly tipped his hat to the University of Iowa. One might even say that he tipped the scales in his creation of Thank You (fig. 3). Attoe pays respect to current and former faculty members in Thank You by literally inscribing it at the top of the canvas. The painting shows a forest night scene where the only light source appears from the stars and moon. Each star illuminates a figure in the lower center which presumably represents Attoe. Above each star, Attoe engraved the name of each faculty members in the School of Art and Art History.
The larger question, though, is the evolution and achievement of this collaborative project. Either way you look at it, this project allowed us to blaze an otherwise undiscovered terrain while paying homage to the upstanding tradition of the MFA program at the University of Iowa. We invite you to consider all of the objects in our exhibition, and our mission of tipping our hats to 60 years of a unique tradition.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
[1] Please refer to Daniel Granias’ blog.
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