April 11, 1997


Sheldon Acquires Landmark Cornell Work

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery announced the recent acquisition of Joseph Cornell's Pipe Box, c. 1960 (pictured at right), considered a major addition to the gallery's widely recognized American art collection. Thought to be one of the most important American artists in the 20th century, Cornell achieved artworld recognition in the 1930s when his work was first exhibited at Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1932, a gallery well-known for its involvement in the European Surrealist movement. In 1936 Cornell was represented in the landmark Museum of Modern Art exhibition, "Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism."

Because of his highly individualistic "constructions," as well as his unique creative process that combines the visual and the literary, he became a champion of the younger American artists in the 1940s through the 1960s. Dan Siedell, curator of the Sheldon Gallery, said that acquiring a major Joseph Cornell box construction has been one of the collecting priorities of the Sheldon for quite some time. "It is tremendously exciting to have been able to fulfill this important need. Cornell is one of the few American artists who provided a real and authentic link between European modern art and the nascent modern art movements in America. For that reason, his Pipe Box is not only of aesthetic importance but of historical significance."

Pipe Box consists of some of Cornell's most popular objects, such as the clay pipe, which served as a visual metaphor for the dream, or the dream state. It also incorporates Cornell's use of the cork sphere that moves freely on two horizontal rods, which alludes to the cosmos, or the passage of time. It also harkens to Cornell's lifelong fascination with Medieval and Renaissance astrology, an interest that is revealed in the constellation he painted on the top frame of the box. Cornell's fascination with language is manifested on the back of the box, where he has pasted fragments of an obscure Italian text.

Bobby McFerrin's Vocal Gymnastics Return With 'Circlesongs'

His voice can simulate everything from a carousel organ to a blackbird to a trumpet but Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin is best known for his 1988 Song of the Year, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." McFerrin brings his wonder voice back to the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 8 p.m. April 17.

The crowd-pleasing improvisational wizard will perform Circlesongs, his own mesmerizing version of chant and sacred music in a tour beginning this month. McFerrin returns to the Lied Center for the third time since its 1990 premiere season with 12 other singers - three basses, three tenors, three altos and three sopranos - to perform rich, nondenominational music recorded on the album last year.

"One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing and singing in community is exceptionally powerful. You get people together in a room and get them singing and you instantly knock down all the walls - the creeds, the gender, age and race differences, everything. You're all one at that point, lifting your voices," said McFerrin.

The eight-song a cappella recording from which he and other singers will perform was finished last year and is "primal, unadorned singing." To Western ears, Circlesongs may sound like a new, spontaneous sacred music but it's part of an oral tradition dating back centuries to tribal gatherings where the chief or medicine man would start with a sound or phrase and inspire others to join in.

A 15-minute pre-performance talk will be given by UNL jazz music instructor David Sharp at 7:05 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Steinhart Room of the Lied Center.

Tickets for Bobby McFerrin are $28, $24 and $20 and are half price for youth 18 and under and students with valid identification from UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College.

The Lied Center box office is open on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 90 minutes before the performance. Phone orders may be placed by calling 472-4747 or 1-800-432-3231. For more information about the Lied Center and its programs, check the Lied Center web page at http://www.unl.edu/lied.

Not Exactly 'Cheers'

Skinny, bug-eyed Steve Buscemi, the twitchy actor du jour of American independent films, makes a striking directorial feature-film debut with Tree's Lounge, in which he also stars as a twitchy, hyperkinetic loser.

Buscemi's deceptively light dramatic comedy follows the downward spiral of Tommy Bosilio (Buscemi, right), a 31-year-old unemployed auto mechanic who's just been dumped by his girlfriend and who spends his days quaffing boilermakers in the neighborhood watering hole, Tree's Lounge. The movie is showing on April 11-12 and April 17 through 20. Screenings are at 7 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3, 7 and 9 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Fritz Glarner, Relational Painting #89, 1961 (shown at right).


Exhibit Ponders Quest for the Absolute

Amidst the many crises of the 20th-century, many modern artists have sought to explore social and cultural issues through the communicative powers of abstract art. However, a growing legion of modern artists, believing that society and culture might be better served by transcending specific issues and engaging universal values, ventured beyond abstraction and into the realm of non-objectivity, or aesthetic purity.

The Sheldon Gallery will explore this issue in a new exhibition, The Quest for the Absolute: From Geometric Abstraction to Minimalism, from April 12 to June 22.
Organized exclusively from the gallery's permanent collection, the exhibit consists of more than 60 objects, including paintings, prints, and sculpture.

From the late 1930s to the present, artists have explored the expressive and evocative capacity of color, shape, and form without reference to values or issues outside of art. The exhibition surveys the full range of artistic responses to the seductive 'quest for the absolute,' from the geometric abstraction of Josef Albers and Fritz Glarner to the minimalism of Ad Reinhardt, Agnes Martin and John McLaughlin.

The unique contribution of sculpture to the 'quest for the absolute' is also represented in the geometric precision of Ibram Lassaw, the use of flourescent light by Dan Flavin, the floor pieces of Carl Andre and John McCracken.

A public Gallery Talk in connection with the exhibition will be given at 2 p.m. April 20 in the Sheldon Gallery auditorium by Curator Daniel Siedell.




A Healing Place

The College of Architecture is sponsoring an exhibit by Jain Malkin, Hyde Chair of Excellence for Spring 1997. Malkin is president of Jain Malkin, Inc., a San Diego interior architecture firm, specializing in healthcare facilities. At left is a detail from the exhibit, "Creating Healing Environments: An Integration with Architecture." It will be displayed in the Architecture Hall Gallery through April 18.








A Festival for Hygiene Film Fans

Archivist Prelinger to Lecture, Conduct Workshop


Anyone who fondly remembers 1950s' high school hygiene films, or smiles at early television commercials for "space-age miracle products" owes a debt of gratitude to Rick Prelinger. Prelinger rescued and preserved thousands of such films from the golden age of American consumerism that otherwise would have moldered in obscurity.

Prelinger will be in Lincoln April 23-24 to lecture and present a workshop on the use of archival motion picture film, sponsored by the Nebraska Independent Film Projects organization.

On April 23, the film scholar, anthropologist and archivist will present a public program of films, Ephemeral Films: 1946-1960, at 7 p.m. in the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. This program will include eight to 10 films from the Prelinger Archives on subjects including gender roles, race, conformity, the lust for material goods and future expectations. Prelinger will introduce each film and entertain questions from the audience at the conclusion of the program.

Many of the films Prelinger will screen at the Ross were originally produced to fulfill specific commercial or educational purposes. What makes them so interesting now is the way in which they reveal hidden layers of our recent past. Films such as More Dates For Kay (1952), Shy Guy (1947) and The Relaxed Wife (1957) are rare artifacts that give us a snapshot of American postwar prosperity. The film screening is open to the public. Admission is $4.

On April 24, from 1 to 4:30 p.m., Prelinger will conduct a workshop-seminar at NETV in Studio One. The workshop-seminar, open to NETV employees as well as to outside participants, will cover use policies, copyright issues, rights negotiations and the cultural, social and ethical implications of using archival materials. The workshop is aimed in part at helping film and television producers become more efficient researchers and better negotiators. He also will discuss ways of using historical material in documentaries and the cultural, social and ethical implications of using archival materials. The workshop is free. For more information, call Mel Bucklin, 472-3611, ext. 472 or e-mail mbucklin@unlinfo.unl.edu.

Arts Dean to Head International Theater Group

Dick Durst, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts and assistant to the chancellor, has been elected president of the International Organization of Stage Designers, Theatre Architects and Technicians.

Durst, immediate past president of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology Inc., was elected president of the international group at its 10th World Congress in Pittsburgh, March 16-19.

Durst is the first American president of the UNESCO-sponsored organization since 1968. The world headquarters of the organization is in the Netherlands and is supported by the Dutch government and Ministry of Culture. It is described by its general secretary, Chris Lievaart, as an association of associations with 38 member nations, each of which has its own national center.

The organization's purpose is to serve as an information center, to stimulate theater activity and growth, to help educate and enhance the careers of those working in theater design, architecture and technology, and to celebrate the similarities and differences of world theater. Durst's responsibilities will include chairing a 12-nation executive committee.

"This is a tremendous challenge to help individuals work on projects that will benefit our industry," Durst said. "We will build upon previous successes like the Theatre Words Dictionary, a compendium of terminology that is translated into over 15 languages, and the current Theatre Atlas project, a technology-based source of drawings and specifications of every major theatre in Europe, to be used by touring companies and managers. We have a bright future and look forward to expansion."

Spring Choral Concert

The University Singers and Concert Choir will present a spring choral concert at 3 p.m. April 13 in Kimball Hall. The event is free.

The Concert Choir will open the program with two newly arranged spirituals. The University Singers will commemorate the l00th anniversary of the death of Johannes Brahms by performing his rarely heard Tafellied. They will also perform Bach's double-choir motet No. 1, Singet dem Herrn, ein neues Lied.

Following intermission, the University Singers will present selections from the concert they performed at the combined North Central MENC/Illinois All-State conventions in Peoria in January.

Fiction Reading

Prairie Schooner and the Creative Writing Program will present Geoffrey Becker reading from his fiction at 3:30 p.m. April 17 in 228 Andrews Hall.

Becker is the author of Dangerous Men, winner of the Drue Heinz Prize, and Bluestown, a novel published in 1996. The recipient of a James Michener Grant, the Nelson Algren Award from the Chicago Tribune, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize, and an NEA Fellowship, Becker has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa, Emory University and Colorado College.

The reading is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Creative Writing Program at 472-1871 or 472-0911.

Ancient Music

"This Ancient Music" will be presented by Musica Antiqua at 7:30 p.m. April 18 at St. Mark's-on-the-Campus. The concert includes vocal and instrumental music of the 13th to the 17th centuries by English, Italian, Spanish and German composers. Many of the instruments to be used are unfamiliar to modern concert goers but are appropriate for the period of the music. They include various kinds of strings (viola da gamba, vielle, psaltery, hammered dulcimer, mandolin and guitar), winds (recorder, shawm, krummhorn, Renaissance flute and sackbut), percussion (dumbek, tabor and tambourine) and harpsichord.

The musicians include several present and former UNL faculty, staff and students. The concert is free.


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