‘Shadows Fall Down’ spotlights connections in art across time, distance
Alumnus, artist and UC Irvine art professor Monica Majoli (B.A. '89, M.F.A. '92, Art) curated the fifth exhibition of the Hammer Museum’s Houseguest series, titled “Shadows Fall Down,” for its analysis of themes such as melancholy.
Natori Shunsen, "Actor Ichimura Uzaemon XV as Naozamurai," from "Collection of Portraits by Shunsen," 1923–26. Color woodcut. Sheet: 15 7/8 × 10 3/4 in. (40.4 × 27.3 cm). Helen and Felix Juda Collection. (Courtesy of UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts) The Hammer Museum welcomes Bruins back to Westwood with art worth writing home about.
Works by Rembrandt and Henri Matisse are among the 68 pieces in “Shadows Fall Down,” the latest installment of the Houseguest series, in which an artist curates a Hammer exhibit from the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts’ collection. Open from Aug. 21 to Jan. 2, alumnus, artist and UC Irvine art professor Monica Majoli’s “Shadows Fall Down” is the fifth Houseguest exhibit since the project began in 2008, said Grunwald Center curatorial assistant Matthieu Vahanian. An artist curating an exhibit usually takes more creative liberties than a professional curator, he added.
“When you’re someone who (does) actually practice art, … you bring in this mix of your own creative vision with knowledge of your contemporaries and your interest in looking back in art history and building bridges,” Vahanian said.
Majoli said she found inspiration in art history while curating “Shadows Fall Down.” Works in the show range from 1505 to 2015, starting with “The Small Horse” by Albrecht Dürer. When she began the project in 2017, an initial search for art from the Black Death proved too narrow and – ironically now during the pandemic – too irrelevant.
But when Majoli came across Dürer’s 1514 engraving “Melencolia I,” she was struck by its clarity, beauty and lucidity, and became interested in the theme of melancholy. Although the piece itself is not featured in the show, Majoli said she decided the subject would offer a wide range of potential works.
“I was interested in … looking at how the affective states and psychological states and the state of mood, mind and emotion all carry tonal weight,” Majoli said. “There’s a mood or quality that unites the whole composition.” — David Egan, Sept. 18, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
HEADER IMAGE: Alumnus, artist and UC Irvine art professor Monica Majoli curated the fifth exhibition of the Hammer Museum’s Houseguest series, titled “Shadows Fall Down,” for its analysis of themes such as melancholy. (Chelsea Rose Westman/Daily Bruin)
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
