Exhibition Stars ‘This Green Earth’

Friday, January 13, 2012

“Autumn by the Lake,” oil, 1863, by Sanford Robinson Gifford. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. F. Torrey to the Sweet Briar College Permanent Collection.“This Green Earth: Landscapes from the Permanent Collection,” will open with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20 in Sweet Briar College’s Pannell Art Gallery.

The exhibition’s title is taken from “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” a poem by William Wordsworth:

“ … Therefore am I still/A lover of the meadows and the woods,/And mountains; and of all that we behold/From this green earth; of all the mighty world/Of eye, and ear, — both what they half create,/And what perceive; well pleased to recognise/In nature and the language of the sense,/The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/Of all my moral being. …”

Karol Lawson, director of Sweet Briar galleries, noted the landscapes selected for the show represent a variety of styles and dates. “The exhibition will take viewers from nineteenth-century Hudson River School painters to contemporary abstract interpretations of the world in which we live,” she said.

Two related events also will be hosted in Pannell Gallery this semester. On Feb. 16, associate professor of environmental studies Rebecca Ambers will present “In the Eye of the Beholder: An Earth Scientist Views the Landscape” and on March 1, Tom O’Halloran, a visiting assistant professor of environmental studies, will discuss ways in which plants affect and are affected by climate change. Both will be held at noon.

These informal “gallery conversations” are designed to encourage an interdisciplinary appreciation for, and alternative approaches to, viewing art. Additionally, Sweet Briar’s academic village is nestled among more than 3,000 acres of rolling fields and forests. The built and natural environment is intentionally incorporated into every aspect of campus life — most especially academics, where disciplines as disparate as art history and biology can make use of the land as an “outdoor classroom.” This semester’s exhibition is inspired by the College’s own “landscape for learning.”

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (434) 381-6248 or e-mail klawson@sbc.edu.