Curated By
Laura Minton, she/her, Curator of Exhibitions and Matthew McLendon, he/him, former J. Sanford Miller Family Director

Longtime collaborator and conservator at the Hirshhorn, Scott Nolley will be conserving our Joan Mitchell painting, Untitled, featured in the exhibition Processing Abstraction. By carefully removing decades of settled dust and accumulation, Scott will reveal the true colors and forms of Mitchell’s seminal work. We welcome you to see the process in action as Scott interacts with visitors in The Fralin’s galleries in September and October.

Conserving the Collection: Joan Mitchell

In 1999, The Fralin received a transformational gift of works by significant mid-20th-century American artists from Buzz Miller in honor of his partner Alan Groh, who graduated from UVA in 1949. Both men worked in the arts—Miller as a Broadway dancer and choreographer and Groh as director of the Stable Gallery. Together the couple built an important art collection, and many of the artists were their personal friends. Miller and Groh lived with their art in a brownstone apartment in New York City for decades before it was given to The Fralin, including two Joan Mitchell paintings. Artworks you see at museums might once have hung in someone’s living room, kitchen, or bedroom, and as such, are subject to environments that affect their physical condition. Over time, art can require additional care, cleaning, and preservation through professional treatments by a conservator.

Mitchell’s painting Neige is on view for the first time following the recent conservation of the entire work. On select days from mid-September to mid-October, visitors to the museum will be able to observe the conservation of Mitchell’s Untitled and talk to the conservator in the gallery.

This conservation program is made possible through support from The Fralin Museum of Art Volunteer Board.

Pour, drip, splash, stain, spray, soak, splatter—these words are often used to describe abstract artists’ experimental application of paint. The creative process of many abstract painters is highly visible in their finished artworks. Vigorous brushstrokes, saturated canvases, and atmospheric surfaces all demonstrate the expansive use of the medium. For over 100 years, abstraction has reigned as a major expressive form in painting with continuously changing techniques and styles. Abstract paintings are frequently interpreted according to their visual components, but their socio-political contexts are also vital for understanding.

This exhibition features large-scale abstract paintings from the museum’s collection spanning the mid-1950s to the late 2000s by Gene Davis, Sam Francis, Sam Gilliam, Sheila Isham, Suzanne McClelland, Joan Mitchell, Larry Poons, and Hedda Sterne. While not unified through a particular artistic movement or chronology, each artwork demonstrates the vast potential of paint.rk

This exhibition is made possible through support from The Fralin Museum of Art Volunteer Board. The Fralin Museum of Art’s programming is generously supported by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Thanks to our in-kind donors: WTJU 91.1 FM and Ivy Publications LLC’s Charlottesville Welcome Book.

Curated By
Adriana Greci Green, she/her, Curator of Indigenous Arts of the Americas and Dorie Reents-Budet, she/her, Research Associate, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

The homelands of the ancient Maya spanned a vast region that today includes central and south Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Maya peoples expressed their cultural practices and belief systems through distinct artistic styles and a hieroglyphic writing system. Over time, many pieces of pottery have been removed from ancient Maya sites without archaeological excavation. Even though knowledge of where vessels came from is lost, they can nevertheless offer many insights about Maya artistic production.

Drawing from The Fralin’s collection of Maya painted pottery made during the first millennium (250–900 CE), this exhibition highlights three approaches used by scholars today to understand and interpret these works. The two most established methods are epigraphy, meaning the study of the written texts painted on vessels, and the art historical analysis of visual characteristics such as shape, size, and composition of the imagery. The third approach—instrumental neutron activation analysis—is a more recent technique developed in the material sciences to determine the geographic locations of where the vessels were made. These three methods complement each other in restoring lost knowledge and help reveal the complex social networks within which Maya pottery was circulated.
Mayan Plate, from 700-750 CE, earthenware with slip paint.

This exhibition is made possible through support from The Fralin Museum of Art Volunteer Board. The Fralin Museum of Art’s programming is generously supported by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Thanks to our in-kind donors: WTJU 91.1 FM and Ivy Publications LLC’s Charlottesville Welcome Book.

Curated By
Adriana Greci Green, she/her, Curator of Indigenous Arts of the Americas

In the 1850s many artists from Boston, New York, and other eastern cities were establishing their reputations by painting landscapes of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Dedicated to capturing the natural beauty of Mount Washington and other regional high peaks, they rendered sweeping views of these rock formations from scenic vantage points such as the Intervale, or bottomlands, of North Conway and Lake Winnipesaukee. The rise of an American middle class with disposable income and the development of railroad travel during this period helped the region become a destination for artists and tourists who enjoyed the scenic charms of the White Mountains.

Though depicted as idyllic landscapes, the White Mountain terrain lays at the heart of N’Dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki (People of the Dawn Land). Since the 1600s Dutch, French, and English colonizers had violently contended Abenaki homelands. After the Revolution, Americans illegally claimed these territories through farming and logging. Although Abenaki families were displaced from seasonal subsistence routes and gathering places, they adapted to the new, touristic economy. Across the generations and still today, Abenaki people continue to call N’Dakinna their Homeland.

This exhibition is made possible through support from The Angle Exhibition Fund and The Fralin Museum of Art Volunteer Board. The Fralin Museum of Art’s programming is generously supported by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Thanks to our in-kind donors: WTJU 91.1 FM and Ivy Publications LLC’s Charlottesville Welcome Book.