AMERICAN WOMEN

JAN 10

TWO PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION CELEBRATE AMERICAN WOMEN AS ARTISTS, HISTORIANS

CBS/ssw set Dec 31 #543830

HANOVER, N.H. — The Hood Museum of Art will have two special photographic exhibitions in January – “Ambassadors of Progress: American Women Photographers in Paris, 1900-1901” and “Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project.” Although conceived almost a century apart, these two shows are linked by their spotlight on women photographers and the connection of both exhibitions to renowned photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952).

“Ambassadors of Progress: American Women Photographers in Paris, 1900-1901” will run through March 9. This exhibition investigates the central role of American women photographers within the international pictorialist movement and is a partial reconstruction of a historic exhibition organized by pioneering photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston for the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris. It features breathtaking landscapes, intimate portraits, scenes of everyday life and still lives by 29 notable artists, including Gertrude Käsebier, Amelia van Buren, and Zaida Ben-Yusef.

The exhibition in Paris more than a century ago demonstrated the key role American women photographers played in the development of photography, particularly the self-consciously artistic movement known as Pictorialism. The accomplishments of these professional and amateur photographers clearly showed their mastery of the medium and made a strong impression on those in attendance. Each of the 29 artists in the current exhibition is represented by a selection of breathtaking works, evocatively and delicately composed using a variety of photographic techniques from the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection at the Library of Congress of the National Museum of American History.

The show was organized by the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny in collaboration with the Library of Congress, which houses the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection.

“Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project” opens January 18 and continues through March 9. It features an installation by contemporary photographer Carrie Mae Weems, along with a selection of photographs from Frances Benjamin Johnston’s historic Hampton Album of 1900. The work of these two women, although distanced by time and race, is joined in their discipline and focus on the history and legacy of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University), founded with the mission to educate African Americans, and later, Native Americans.

Since the late 1970s, Weems has produced art that addresses the formal and political issues impacting African American culture and focuses upon the persuasive power of the visual image to identify and define perceptions of race, gender and class. Her newest commission is a direct response to turn-of-the-century images of Hampton, as well as to the university today.

The historical portion of The Hampton Project features images by Frances Benjamin Johnston, a well-established photographer commissioned in 1899 to document the Hampton Institute for the Contemporary American Negro Life exhibition at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1900. Johnston’s photographs illustrate the progress Hampton had made since its inception, pursuing its mandate to assist the children of slaves and, after 1878, dispossessed Native Americans in becoming “proud and useful citizens.”

“Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project” was organized by the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Mass., with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and others.

The Hood Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, with evening hours on Wednesday until 9 pm; Sunday, noon to 5 pm. Admission is free. For information on the exhibition or related programs visit www.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2808.