New Exhibit: Ethereal Creations
Offit Gallery
Bright and unsullied lives the ethereal flame
And 'mid those scenes unchanged, unchangeable,
Why should it ever die?
– Samuel Rogers, from “Meillerie”, The Complete Poetical Works, 1816.
Delicate, light, airy, fragile, or tenuous in tone, many artworks from the historical collections of Teachers College evoke beauty, grace, and the sublime. From the natural to the “other” world – animals, flowers, landscapes, the elements, fairies, angels, dreams, and states of being are depicted to inspire wonder and awe – of children’s drawings and paintings, art created by students for their courses at Teachers College, and prints by well known artists. Classic pieces invite our aesthetic experience, imagination and memory, and reflections on thinking and perceiving at a time when many artworks challenge the traditional.
Ethereal Creations complements Timeless Beauty: Select Works from the Ellen Walters Avery Collection, on display for the first time in the nearby Curiosity Cabinets. Paired with a beloved young woman’s aesthetic sensibilities and poetic mind, this exhibit draws upon the Ziegfeld Collection of International Children’s Art; Ukrainian Children’s Art Collection; Passow Collection of Israeli Children’s Peace Art; Students of Arthur Wesley Dow Collection; and the Federico Castellon Memorial Print Collection. Miss Avery curated her late nineteenth century interests in the natural sciences and the humanities, joining topics together with fresh delight. So we join art from different decades in the 20th century, offering a glimpse into the ethereal to spark creative learning and appreciation for beauty in similar subjects.
With thanks to the continuing generosity of the Myers Foundations, Ethereal Creations is designed by Kai Oh, Library Associate / Art and Design and curated by Jennifer Govan, Library Director and Senior Librarian.
Thou far-off spring, O coming spring,
I long for thee thro' wintry hours,
How can it be but thou wilt bring
My heart her olden share of flowers?
When thou dost call to every tree
Its bird that sings in sun and rain,
Then to my heart, how can it be
But thou wilt give her birds again?
– from Foreboding, by Ellen Walters Avery, circa 1893.
Where: Offit Gallery
When: October 17 - November 14
Poster Image: Birds in a Wood, 1955, from the Ziegfeld Collection of International Children's Art, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.