Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Friday, July 13, 2007
GUIDED VIEWING OF THE DARTMOUTH LIBRARY’S SAINT-GAUDENS AND CORNISH COLONY COLLECTIONS
Ticknor Room, Rauner Library
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
SYMPOSIUM ON AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS
Loew Auditorium, Hood Museum of Art
1:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Welcome:
Brian Kennedy, Director, Hood Museum of Art
BJ Dunn, Superintendent, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
Moderators:
Dr. Henry J. Duffy, Curator, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art, Hood Museum of Art
Speakers:
• Kathryn Greenthal, Art Historian and Curator
Engaging the Viewer: Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Contemporary Sculpture
An overview of the life and career of Augustus Saint-Gaudens will be followed by a discussion about how Saint-Gaudens engages the viewer, and compare how the viewer interacts with several of Saint-Gaudens’s pieces with how he responds to examples of contemporary sculpture.
• Jennifer Hardin, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Diana of 1891-93: Critical and Public Response to a Singular American Nude
Diana was the only major nude created by Saint-Gaudens and as an undraped figure seemingly runs counter to American expectations for public sculpture during the late nineteenth century. When both versions of Saint-Gaudens’ Diana were installed on top of the McKim, Mead, and White’s Madison Square Garden in 1891 and 1893, they attracted considerable commentary. Lively discussions ensued on such issues as the role of the ideal nude and the idea of real female bodies, voices ranging from established art critics to newspaper reporters. Even well after the 1893 version’s installation, Diana continued to be mentioned, revealing its importance in the New York landscape and American art culture of this period.
• David Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art, Wake Forest University
War Relief: Saint-Gaudens’ Memorial on Boston Common and the Battle Over Civil War Memory
In 1897, Bostonians unveiled Saint-Gaudens’ monument to the Civil War hero Robert Gould Shaw, a 26-year-old white native son who had died in battle commanding one of the first regiments of African-American soldiers formed in the Union army. The artist sculpted the Shaw Memorial at a time when Jim Crow laws and racist doctrines were gaining momentum in the North as well as the South, yet despite this political backdrop, it offers a vision of racial dignity that has continued to reverberate with viewers.
• Thayer Tolles, Associate Curator, Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Afterlife of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1907-1919
The public chain of events that unfolded after the death of Augustus Saint-Gaudens in August 1907, mourned and celebrated an American sculptor on a scale never witnessed before. The artist was remembered—from a retrospective exhibition tour to five American cites and the casting of his sculptures to countless publications and the founding of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial. This paper will investigate the well-coordinated campaign of family and friends to canonize “The Saint,” reasons that served both his memory and their personal and professional motives.
* A reception will follow in Kim Gallery
FILM PREMIERE (a Hopkins Center Film Special)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture
Director Paul Sanderson
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center
8:00 p.m.
Tickets ($5) available at the Hopkins Center Box office at 603/646-2422 or online at http://hop.dartmouth.edu/tickets/index.html
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Paul Sanderson, Dartmouth Class of 1978, this hour-long documentary film has been produced by the Trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial with assistance from the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. Following its world premiere at Dartmouth, the documentary will air on public television later this year and be featured in additional regional premieres, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (September 23) the Philadelphia Museum of Art (September 30) and the Chicago Institute of Art (October 20).
