Tyler, TX
What do miniatures, mammoth land mammals, and a bygone
technique of portrait-taking have in common? They're all a part of the
summertime attractions at the Tyler Museum of Art, as the venue gets
set to open a pair of new exhibitions: Shadowboxes and Silhouettes, and Into the Wild: Animal Art from Caldwell Zoo.
Both exhibitions open to the
public Sunday, June 8, and continue through July 13 in the Museum's
Bell Gallery. Admission to both shows is free.
Shadowboxes and Silhouettes,
organized by the Tyler Museum of Art, bears its title as a tribute to
the contributions of longtime TMA patrons Mildred H. Grinstead and Dede
Menking: the former as an artist, the latter as collector.
The shadowboxes of the
exhibition's title are designed and created by Mrs. Grinstead,
highlighting a popular way to display a room of miniatures without
utilizing an entire dollhouse. Also called vignettes or room boxes, the
shadowboxes allow the artist to play on different styles and moods for
each one. Mrs. Grinstead's love of miniatures began as a child, when
her father had a dollhouse built for her. Years later, after her own
children had entered school, she and her son, Jay, worked on dollhouse
kits and miniature rooms until the Wilton House in Virginia inspired
Mildred anew. Working in a full scale, in which 1 inch equals 1 foot,
Mrs. Grinstead recreated the Wilton House in miniature, in a process
that took almost six years.
"Several model houses later, I
had collected a large amount of incredible miniatures from builders in
America and Europe," Mrs. Grinstead said. "Looking for a way to display
the miniatures in small spaces, I began to create the room shadowboxes.
And I've just gone from there."
An added feature to the
shadowboxes on exhibit will be the inclusion of a miniature house and
furniture in the style of the Georgian period, donated to the TMA last
year by Mrs. Grinstead. The house, constructed c.1977 and modeled after
an 18th-century home in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, also features rugs
and other textiles hand-made by Francis Connally Morriss of Tyler
during the 1970s and '80s, with furnishings and household items donated
to the Museum by her family.
The silhouettes in the
exhibition represent the collection of Mrs. Perry Menking, a Houston
native who made Tyler her home five years ago. She said she began
acquiring them "one at a time" about 35 years ago, when Mrs. Menking's
home décor consisted mostly of American antiques and she became
fascinated by the silhouette process which was extremely popular in the
U.S. from about 1790 and 1840, prior to the advent of photography.
"Someone in those days wishing
to have an inexpensive portrait created of their loved ones would have
visited a silhouette artist," Mrs. Menking said. "Within minutes and
using only a pair of scissors, or sometimes ink, and a skillful eye, he
would have produced a little image with a remarkable resemblance to his
subject."
Though the invention of the
camera signaled the end of the silhouette as a widespread form of
portraiture, "their popularity is being reborn in a new generation of
people who appreciate the silhouette as a nostalgic and unique way of
capturing a loved one's image," she added.
SOMETHING WILD
Into the Wild: Animal Art from Caldwell Zoo is an exhibition
bringing art and animals together and indoors. This partnership
exhibition between the Tyler Museum of Art and Caldwell Zoo spotlights
the zoo's most prominent pachyderm painters, namely, elephants and
rhinos and showcases more than 20 of their works in acrylic.
"We also have a sampling of pieces created by Madagascar hissing cockroaches and a bearded dragon named Norbert," TMA Head of Education Katie Powell said.
The exhibition was inspired by the routine of "environmental enrichments," an integral part of the daily care for all animals at Caldwell Zoo. Enrichments stimu
late the animal to interact with its environment, encouraging natural be
haviors and simulating behavioral opportunities much like those an animal may encounter in the wild.
"Enrichments are in the best interest of the animal, reducing stress and ensuring not only physical health,
but also psychological well-being," said Linda Kunze, Caldwell Zoo curator of education. "Painting for pachyderms is certainly something that would not be a part of life in the wild, but it is an activity that they
seem to find enjoyable, even relaxing. Of course, it could be that the best part of the process is getting all the fruit and vegetable treats as
they paint."
FIRST FRIDAY ART TOUR
Also on tap this week at
the TMA is a First Friday Art Tour at 11 a.m. Friday, June 6, in conjunction with the new exhibition, The Eye of the Collector: The Jewish V
ision of Sigmund R. Balka.
TMA School Tour Coordinator Elnor
a Williams is scheduled to lead the tour, highlighting the history of some of the 86 works included in the exhibition celebrating more than five
decades of collecting and study of Jewish art by noted attorney and civic activist Sigmund Ronell Balka of New York.
First Friday admission is
free to TMA members plus one guest, and $3 for non-members. Exhibition a
dmission is free for The Eye of the Collector, which continues through August 10 in the North Gallery.
The Tyler Museum of Art is
located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave., adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus off East Fifth Street. Regular hours are 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1:00–5:00 p.m. Sunday. Light lunch is
available in the Museum Café from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday t
hrough Friday, and the TMA Gift Shop is open during exhibition hours. For more information, call 903-595-1001.