Andy Warhol, 32 Campbell Soup Cans, Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
Jackson Williams is an honors international studies and political science major who also happens to love art – he just added an art history minor to the mix. Jackson came to us with the idea of a pop up art show culminating in a panel discussion with artists, curators and local non-profits that use art to do good in the world. We’re in – are you?
Deconstructing Art is a week-long, pop-up art gallery hosted by the University of Arkansas Honors College. The gallery will run from February 19 – 23, 2018, and will feature a panel of arts professionals followed by a reception on the evening of February 22.
- What we’re looking for: Undergraduate student art that will help frame a conversation on the nature of art and the role art plays in society. We welcome any type of art—funky, traditional, modern, serious—to be installed for a week in Gearhart Hall. If you think you have something to offer, and you know you can install it with either your own supplies or our limited offerings, fill out the form below and let us see your work! We are looking for artwork for students from all disciplines, whether you view art as a hobby or a career.
- Need to know: If selected, you will be in charge of installing your work in Gearhart Hall on Sunday, February 18, 2018. The Honors College can only offer a limited amount of supplies – basically, hooks and a hammer.
- Submit your work here: Deconstructing Art Submission Form
- Final deadline: February 1, 2018
Art: A Love Story
Art can be weird. It can be primal, uncomfortable. It can seem easy. It can make you wonder, in a good way and a bad way. That’s the weird thing about art… it doesn’t really have a definition. Art can be seen, heard, felt, experienced. Art knows no boundaries.
It was not that long ago that I fell in love with art. We had been familiar for a long time. I had been a kid at the Metropolitan, I had been a preteen during the first weeks of Crystal Bridges, and I liked it. I really liked it. I may have even felt what I thought at the time was love, but I was older when I truly fell in love. Liking art had been a part of my identity for years; I would have ventured to call myself an art enthusiast. I was the kid that liked to visit art museums and take pictures and post them on Instagram, but I didn’t have that punch of falling in love.
Henri Matisse, Crouching Venus, 1918. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
It was fall break—I had chosen to visit a close friend at a university in the north. I had a free day to explore the city on my own, and I chose to spend it at the university’s art gallery. It was the first time I had explored a gallery or museum alone. It felt more intimate that way. Having the freedom to talk solely to myself allowed for a much better grasp and a lot of self-reflection. I’m not very systematic about my art viewing. Some pieces won several minutes of my attention, others were passed by with little more than a glance. I saw several pieces that day that gave me that punch. A William T. Williams that made my head spin, Matisse’s excellent bronze Crouching Venus, several of the contemporary masterpieces of Titus Kaphar. When I left the museum that day, it all felt a little different. The silence in my own head had allowed me to focus on what the things I saw meant to me, to the artist, to the world. I felt angry, sad, motivated.
Deconstructing Art isn’t about telling someone how they should look at art. Everyone will view an artwork differently, and everyone will react to it in their own individual way. Deconstructing Art aims to provide a forum to allow that intrapersonal reflection that makes viewing art so special, through the use of exclusively University of Arkansas undergraduate art. The event strives to bridge the gap between a diverse population of students by displaying a wide collection of work. It hopes to equip both audiences and artists to view both art and each other with tolerance, curiosity, and appreciation.