Albany Museum of Art exhibits in their final weeks

Dec. 11—ALBANY — Three art exhibitions, including "European Splendors: Old Master Paintings from the Kress Collection," are in their final two weeks at the Albany Museum of Art.

In addition to the exhibition of Renaissance and Baroque paintings on loan from the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina, "Horse Power," featuring work by Georgia artist Cedric Smith, and "Essay Topic: Write Down the Word WOMAN One Hundred Times!," featuring works by Iranian native Sanaz Haghani will have their final exhibition day on Dec. 23.

"It has been an honor for the AMA to share these phenomenal art works with the Albany community," Executive Director Andrew J. Wulf said. "These three shows serve also as a symbol of the mission of the AMA, to share the arts of the South with the world, and the arts of the world with the South. We hope visitors will take one more opportunity to see these shows before they close."

For those celebrating the Christmas season as a religious observance, some of the artworks in the exhibition may be of special interest. Religion was a major theme during the Renaissance period, and "European Splendors: Old Master Paintings from the Kress Collection" includes a number of paintings that depict images associated with Christmas. The exhibition includes five paintings of the Virgin and Child, two paintings of the Annunciation to Mary, one of Mary adoring the baby Jesus, and a depiction of the adoration of the Christ Child by the magi.

"These are beautiful works of art that illustrate parts of the familiar Christmas story," AMA Director of Education and Public Programming Annie Vanoteghem said. "Some visitors may find them particularly inspiring during the Christmas season."

A viewer can get more information about each painting by using a smart phone to read the QR code on a painting's object label, which will call up a PDF about the painting in the phone's internet browser.

"We have incorporated 'European Splendors,' as well the exhibitions by Cedric Smith and Sanaz Haghani, in our education curriculum for our school and organization visits, as well as our Homeschool Day and Toddler Takeover programs," Vanoteghem said.

Also, visitors can go to AMA social media to see videos of artworks by Smith and Haghani that are now on exhibition at the AMA, and hear the artists talk about their respective exhibitions. Links to the videos may be found on the artists' respective exhibition pages at the AMA website, www.albanymusuem.com.

Smith's Horse Power, showing in the East Gallery, focuses on the overlooked roles that black American men have played in the nation's equestrian industry. The idea for the exhibition came from a conversation Smith had with a young boy who visited his studio in Macon and remarked he did not know black people rode horses.

The self-taught artist who was inspired to start his career as a professional artist by William Tolliver, himself a self-taught professional black artist, says he hopes his work will inspire others.

"That was the inspiration that showed me it was possible," he said. "That's the root of my painting. If you can see it, you can be it, in a sense. If people can see there are black jockeys, maybe that's an inspiration to a kid who has a fondness for horses and never knew about that."

Haghani, who came to Georgia via Minnesota after she and her husband moved from Iran, has her screen-print artworks on exhibition at the AMA. Her work examines the roles of women in Iranian culture, and how the hijab, social class and other forces keep women's freedom and behavior in check.

The exhibition is named for its title piece, "Essay Topic: Write Down the Word WOMAN One Hundred Times!" That artwork, which repeatedly loops from the ceiling rafters to the floor of the upstairs McCormack Gallery, is on a single 100-foot-long stretch of Kozo-shi paper. On a dark background, a woman's image is repeated 100 times, along with the word "woman" in red in Persian script.

A graphic artist who has an MFA from the University of Georgia, Haghani said she and her brother were encouraged by their father from an early age to find the talents they had inside and to pursue them.

"When I was making the piece, I was thinking about the title as well," Haghani said in an interview. "For this piece, I think the title talks about the whole piece. It's about the essay and homework, and someone asks you to write down an essay. When you write an essay, you need to use your own imagination. You need to use your own words."

The rules of the society in which she grew up determined many of the facets of women's lives.

"They decide about your life," she said. "They decide when you have to get married, about your children, even about how you should go out, how you should be in society. The dictate your life, and you have to follow it. That is what I wanted to show. When I made that piece, I wrote down the word 'woman' one-hundred times."

Still, Haghani said she wanted to show some creativity in the piece.

"It's going up and coming down," she said. "And it is two-sided. I wanted to show you cannot control other people's imagination. Even if society forced you to control your thoughts, you always find some way to be creative and to find your own way to live. That is what I wanted to show with this."

Haghani takes photos of women she knows and meets, and with their permission incorporates the images into her art. The image used for "Essay Topic: Write Down the Word WOMAN One Hundred Times!" is that of a friend of hers.