Summer Exhibitions 2007
Sponsored by Butterfield Bank in association with
the Argus Insurance Group, Robin Judah and Special Friends of the BNG
John Kaufmann Retrospective:
Essential Elements 1947-2007
Hair In African Art
European Collection 1500-1900 // Bermuda Collection
Elements II, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 48 inches. Collection of Capital G.
John Kaufmann Retrospective:
Essential Elements 1947-2007
Lower Mezzanine and Main Gallery
John Kaufmann’s has been called “the doyen of present-day Bermudian impressionist landscape painters” and it is only fitting that the BNG is to honour one of the Island’s most influential painters with a retrospective to celebrate his 70th birthday.
Curator Charles Zuill says: “When the history of Bermudian art is written, John Kaufmann's art will be seen as an important step in the maturation of local painting from souvenir art to create something not only much finer but which has a completely different purpose. Kaufmann's art is a more abstract rendering of the Bermuda landscape. Indeed, John Kaufmann sees his paintings as expressions of infinity.”
This retrospective, his first show since 2000, includes some 32 works ranging from John Smith’s Bay, which he painted as a 10-year-old in1947, to the epic sweep of Church Bay, Evening completed earlier this year. It also includes works painted at his farm in New Hampshire.
Essential Elements offers a rare opportunity to view the breadth and development of John Kaufmann’s extraordinary talent and, as someone who has painted here for six decades, it also reflects a changing Bermuda yet at the same time reminds us of the Island’s timeless natural qualities.
Guatemala Market, 1974, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches.
Collection of John Kaufmann
Sowei Mende mask, c.1960s, Mende Peoples,
Wood, 22 x 7 x 7 inches. Private collection
Hair In African Art
Upper Mezzanine
Whether styled into dreadlocks, shaved into complex patterns, braided with beads and hair extensions, hairstyles in the West are mostly used to make a dramatic fashion statement. But in Africa, hair has a far greater significance, often indicating power, authority, social standing or religious affiliation. This importance has long been reflected in the continent’s art, whether the pieces are ceremonial, functional or decorative.
This exhibition, based on similarly themed and popular shows at the Museum of African Art in New York and the California African American Museum in recent years, combines existing pieces from the Bermuda National Gallery’s acclaimed African Collection as well as works loaned from private collections and contemporary artists and seeks to portray the attitudes toward hair, its symbolism and how it is represented in African Art. The exhibition flows from tradition-based African objects, where the hairstyle is a significant feature of the work, and headrests that protect the coiffeur, to contemporary commercial signage for hairdressers, and recent Shona stone sculptures that are crowned by hairstyles from an earlier time.
The exhibition communicates a broader message about the styling of hair to express individual creativity or identification with certain people, attributes, or ideals - and in doing so necessarily draws upon the multiple cultural sources available in a world where fashion and traditions cross borders and contexts in varied and sometimes unexpected ways.
Headrests, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, 20th century. Wood, approx. 6 x 14 x 4.5 inches. Private Collection
European Collection 1500-1900
The Watlington Room
A survey of Western European art from the Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. The collection includes paintings by Lucas Cranach, Alonzo Sanchez Coello, Richard Wilson, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough as well as a Rodin sculpture.
Bermuda Collection:
350 Years of Art in Bermuda
The Ondaatje Wing
Presented as an historical timeline, our permanent exhibition follows the artistic, historical and cultural development of Bermuda through its decorative and fine arts from 1624 to the present day, including the BNG’s latest acquisition Each In His Own Way by Bermudian artist Sharon Wilson. The Gallery’s Permanent Collection is complemented by significant private loans focusing on Bermuda’s early decorative arts of furniture and silverwork. The care of the Bermuda Collection for 2006-07 is kindly sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Steinhoff.
