GEORGIA O'KEEFFE'S STUDIO, ABIQUIU, 1965, by Laura Gilpin, 1965, silver print

Gilpin Photos of Southwest Comprise Latest Great Plains Exhibition

The late Laura Gilpin's photography is most notable for her images of the Navajo peoples of the American Southwest. A selection of her works will be be exhibited at the Great Plains Art Collection from Sept. 7-Oct. 29.

This exhibition is traveling from the Museum of Fine Arts and TREX: Traveling Exhibitions Program of the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.

An opening reception, featuring Southwestern refreshments and optional informal tours from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 17 in 215 Love Library. The Friends of the Center for Great Plains Studies are sponsoring this event and exhibition, both of which are free and open to the public.

Laura Gilpin: Photographs of the Southwest gives a comprehensive overview of Gilpin's photography completed from the 1920s through the mid 1960s in the Southwestern region of the United States and the Yucatan. The exhibition consists of more than 40 photographs, including examples of intimate portraits at which she excelled, as well as views of the varied dwellings and landscape of the Southwest. Gilpin is best known for her images of the Navajo, begun when she moved to Arizona in the early 1930s. Her photographs of the Navajo people continued for almost half a century, and culminated in publications she produced of her work, including The Pueblos: A Camera Chronicle (1941) and The Enduring Navajo (1968).

Gilpin (1891-1979) lived and worked in relative isolation throughout her career, and worked in commercial as well as fine art photography. Martha A. Sandweiss, associate professor of American Studies and History at Amherst College and formerly curator of photography at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, states in her publication, Laura Gilpin: An Enduring Grace (1986), that Gilpin never considered herself an "artist; rather she was simply a 'photographer' who, for more than half a century practiced her profession with a consummate craftsmanship and a great love for the world that she captured with her camera."

Until the early 1930s Gilpin concentrated her efforts on producing and exhibiting her work in exhibitions in the United States and abroad. However, with the onslaught of the Depression she was forced to withdraw from exhibition activities to concentrate on incoming producing projects. She published photographic postcards, worked on a series of lantern slides on archaeological subjects, and even operated a turkey farm with her companion, Elizabeth Forster. During World War II Gilpin worked as a public relations photographer for the Boeing Co. of Wichita, Kan., and then settled in Santa Fe, N.M., to continue her photographic interests in the Southwest.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, and circulated through TREX: The Traveling Exhibitions Program of New Mexico, supported by grants from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and private donors.

Normal gallery hours are: Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 1:30 to 5 p.m.

Sheldon Exhibition Depicts African American Artists, Images

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden presents Black Image and Identity: African-American Art from the Permanent Collection, an exhibition that surveys the diversity of aesthetic expression from the African-American community since mid-century from Sept. 1 to Jan. 2, 2000. Intended as a complement to Robert Colescott: Recent Paintings, an exhibition opening at the Sheldon Art Gallery on Sept. 24, Black Image and Identity also will help locate Colescott's aesthetic achievements within the broad context of a rich and distinctive African-American artistic tradition, by which he was undeniably influenced and has, in return, influenced and challenged a new generation of African-American artists.

This exhibition is organized around the concept of identity as an important element in the development of an African-American artistic tradition in the 20th century. Far from being monolithic and homogeneous, "black identity" has been a largely contested concept as it has been constituted and reconstituted throughout the 20th century and has been largely dependent on the socio-cultural and historical locations of those offering definitions on behalf of various communities. Moreover, this exhibition shows the important role that the visual arts have played in "visualizing" or "aestheticizing" these concepts of identity while affirming the important role that the visual arts play in achieving personal and collective identities.

Black Image and Identity features 14 works that present eleven 20th-century African-American artists whose art addresses the question of racial identity. The exhibition reveals the diverse perspectives presented by these artists. On view are James VanDerZee's photographic portrayals of Harlem Renaissance "New Negroes" of the 'teens and 'twenties, Romare Bearden's mid-century construction of an African-American aesthetic, and the visual narratives of Robert Colescott and Raymond Saunders.

Black Image and Identity focuses particular attention on the younger generation of artists who have been deeply influenced by Colescott and Saunders, such as Michael Ray Charles, Willie Cole, Kara Walker and Carrie Mae Weems. Despite their diverse and, in some cases, divergent approaches to reflecting on "black identity," these artists all assume the importance of and the unique responsibility for the visual arts to address such socio-cultural issues as community, racial identity and the role of history in affirming and denying various forms of accepted wisdom.

What is ultimately revealed by Black Image and Identity is that it is much more accurate to speak of "black identities," of the diversity and multivocal traditions, discourses, and world-views that have formed a significant and powerful contribution which African-American art and ideas have made to national and international culture.

Black Image and Identity will serve as a complement to Robert Colescott: Recent Paintings, an exhibition of eighteen paintings that was presented at the American Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 1997. In addition, from Sept. 2-19, a special expanded version of Black Image and Identity will be on display in the two adjacent galleries. This expanded exhibition will consist of such important African-American artists as Henry Ossawa Turner, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Hunt, Faith Ringgold, Sam Gilliam, Glen Ligon, and others.

An exhibition catalog of Colescott's paintings and an illustrated brochure for Black Images and Identity will be available for purchase from the Sheldon Gift Shop. It is anticipated that these exhibitions will serve as the context within which several lectures and dialogues will occur on the role of the visual arts in constituting and sustaining racial identity.

NU Professor Ingraham's Sculptures on Nationwide Display

Elizabeth Ingraham, assistant professor, Art and Art History, has three of her sculptures on exhibit at the Paris Gibson Square Museum in Great Falls, Mont., as part of "Art Equinox 99." The biennial juried exhibition showcases contemporary art from twelve western states, including Nebraska. One of her pieces, baggage, was awarded the Juror's Choice Award in Sculpture. Gregory Bell, associate curator of the Tacoma Art Museum, and Willem Volkersz, a Fulbright Senior Scholar and professor of Art at Montana State University, were the jurors. The exhibition continues until Oct. 4.

Ingraham also has three works included in the exhibition, Social Fiber: Unraveling the Messages, at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. The exhibition presents innovative fiber works exploring personal, social and global themes. The Society, which was established in 1897, is the oldest non-profit craft organization in the United States.

Her work has also been selected in a national competition for a solo exhibition in November and December at Ventura College in Ventura, Calif.

Faulkner in Recital Aug. 29

The School of Music presents faculty artist Quentin Faulkner, organ, in recital at 3 and 8 p.m. Aug. 29 at St. Mark's-on-the-Campus, 1309 R St. Admission is free.

The identical recitals focus on places and significant organs that Faulkner experienced during the past year, when he was a Fulbright guest professor in Halle and in Munich, Germany. For his program, Faulkner has selected Johann Ernst Eberlin's Toccata secunda; Heinrich Scheidemann's Paduana Lachrymae; Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow's Fantasia; Girolamo Freschobaldi's Capriccio del Soggetto; Georg Anton Benda's Two pieces; Franz Josef Haydn's Two Pieces for a Clock Organ; Johannes Speth's Toccata secunda; Franz Xaver A. Murschhauser's Variations on 'Gegruest seyest du, O Jesulein' and Johann Ludwig Krebs' Prelude and Fugue in C Major.

Sept. 1 Performance Explores Masculinity

The national tour of Crimes Against Nature will perform at 7 p.m. Sept. 1 in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. The performance is free. The production is a humorous, compelling and personal look at the pressures of masculinity and will be performed by Christopher Kilmartin, an associate professor of psychology at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va.

Crimes Against Nature cleverly points out the absurdities and contradictions of traditional masculinity. The piece promotes an awareness of the demands of masculinity and also provides a sense that one can choose whether or not to acquiesce to these demands. Kilmartin pokes fun at the experiences of his adolescence and young manhood, including stories about sports, puberty, communication, homophobia, girlfriends, sex education and drag queens.

Crimes Against Nature uses Kilmartin's personal accounts to weave an important statement about the pressures of masculinity.

Crimes Against Nature is touring the country during the 1999-2000 theatre season.

The UNL performance of Crimes Against Nature is being sponsored by the Athletics Department, the Community Health Education Department and Sexuality Education Program of the University Health Center, University Foundations, the Women's Center and Residence Life.

Those who require special accommodations for the performance should call the Community Health Education Department at 472-7440.

Backyard Farmer Tips Soon Available on Videotapes

Yard and garden enthusiasts will find tips from azaleas to xeroscaping on a two-volume videotape set from the Backyard Farmer television program.

The popular University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension show is produced in cooperation with the Nebraska Educational Television Network.

Each tape has more than 30 minutes of tips, composed of two-minute or longer video segments as seen on Backyard Farmer programs during the 1998 and 1999 growing seasons. The live, call-in program airs Tuesdays during the summer on NETV. The tips are prerecorded on-site at various locations around the state.

Volume I of Backyard Farmer Tips consists of nine tips dealing mainly with lawns, trees and shrubs from 1998. Volume II contains 21 tips dealing with flower and vegetable gardens, composting and averting animal pests, all from 1999 programs. An index accompanies each tape, for ease in quickly finding the right tip.

The how-to segments provide a resource for amateurs to master gardeners. Each tip is presented by NU and other gardening experts in the state. Segments were produced by Brad Mills, program producer and media specialist for NU's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources here.

"The best thing about the Backyard Farmer Gardening Tips is that they're for Nebraska's growing conditions," said Jim Randall, Backyard Farmer executive producer.

Volume I costs $14.95 and Volume II is $19.95. The set of both tapes costs $29.95. Shipping and handling is $3 per order.

Order forms will be available at local extension offices and garden centers statewide, or dial (800)755-7765 to order via credit card.