Students Explore New York City Art Scene
Studio-art and art-history students experienced the New York City art world firsthand during a spring trip to the city’s major museums March 31 through April 3. Professor Paul Ryan of the Department of Art and Art History and Professor Dinah Ryan of the English Department, along with Post-Graduate Teaching Intern (PGTI) Kristians Klava led the group of 10 students through more than a dozen art museums and galleries in four days.
“There is simply nothing like New York City,” said Prof. Paul Ryan. “The highlights were everything—the major art museums, the Chelsea gallery district, the Drawing Center, and the excitement of being in New York City, one of the great art capitals of the world.”
Within hours of landing at LaGuardia Airport, the group was exploring the Guggenheim Museum, sketchpads in hand. “The Guggenheim had on exhibit Vasily Kandinsky’s work who was an early 20th century abstractionist who contributed to the Bauhaus schools in Germany. I have a familial tie to Bauhaus, so it was interesting to experience Kandinsky’s work up close when I’d grown up with my great-great tante’s work up on our home walls,” said Nadja Peschke who graduated after the trip. “I love the contrast between fairy tales and spirituality; two societal concepts that have shaped lives for centuries. It made me realize just how relatable his work is to our world today; to think critically about how we defeat our demons and how we view the world (through color, metaphors, etc).”
After a whirlwind of museum and gallery visits amid the bustling pace of city life, Nathan Babcock realized that he was “asked to repeatedly approach art that I couldn’t get my head around. I sat down next to Kristians, the art PGTI, at the end of the Faith Ringgold exhibit, and asked him how he approached art—especially art with its own visual language. He paused for a moment, then explained that, in the case of abstract art, he would wait and remain emotionally open; he would feel the art, trusting that it was successfully communicating a specific idea in its own language. ... after having that conversation, seeing art became an empathetic practice, too, and I have been able to approach art and appreciate it for what it is saying to me.”
“Whether exploring completely new pieces or familiar works up close for the first time, the trip offered the students an opportunity to reflect more deeply on their own art practice and the artistic ideas that inspire change in society,” said Carolina Vilcapoma, another recent graduate who was on the trip. “It was very enriching to my art practice to be exposed to different perspectives and fresh ideas, and to see the different ways in which all these contemporary artists use painting to talk about relevant issues in society, and to see how their personal history and culture inform their work.”