Wichita — The vaults of the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art have been scoured for a new exhibition tracing major style shifts during the last century.
Works by such well known artists as Andy Warhol are included in "Connecting the Past to the Present: Modern and Contemporary Art from the WSU Foundation Collection." The installation of 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints will be unveiled Saturday at the Ulrich Museum at Wichita State University.
But much of the collection features gems by lesser-known artists, including a pastoral scene by Jan Matulka, a dark impressionist image by Paul Cornoyer and a boxing picture by California WPA painter Fletcher Martin.
The works were pulled from more than 7,000 works in the WSU Foundation Art Collection, housed at the Ulrich.
Besides tracing such major style shifts as Impressionism and Cubism, the exhibition also loosely chronicles the history of the United States as seen through artists' eyes.
"Art is not made in a vacuum," said Elizabeth Dunbar, the curator of the Ulrich Museum who organized the exhibition. "Artists are responding to not only the events that are going on around them but also the art of the past."
Dunbar, 32, arrived at the Ulrich Museum last May after stints at the Los Angeles County Museum in California and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
Putting together the installation, she said, helped her look at the strengths and weaknesses of the collection. She said she realizes that the museum will not be able to afford multi-million dollar pieces.
"But for more contemporary art we can really make a huge impact because works are not so expensive that we can't buy them," she said.
The exhibition features one such piece representing the new direction in collecting. A sculpture by Alan Rath, "Neo Watcher II," made in 2001, combines electronics and small computer screens to create a work that is both whimsical and disturbing.
"The piece has this sort of surveillance quality about it, which seems very apropos of the times we are living in right now," Dunbar said. "Artists today are using technology in ways they never have before. I think it is very appropriate that we start collecting art of this kind of media."
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