PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art welcomes the public to enjoy two new exhibitions beginning Tuesday, April 6.
“On the heels of our recent safe reopening, we are excited to announce two new exhibitions and two new virtual programs as we complete the spring semester,” said Ryan Hardesty, executive director of the WSU Schnitzer Museum.
The museum’s current hours are Tuesday through Friday, 1-4 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please check the Schnitzer Museum website for current guidelines to visiting in person.
The “MFA Thesis Exhibition” will highlight a culmination of two or more years’ of a fine arts student’s work. This year’s candidate is Stephanie Broussard, who will be featured in a solo exhibition in the museum’s Pavilion gallery as well as virtually through the museum’s online programming. Visitors are encouraged to meet the artist in the museum Friday, April 9, from 1:00-3:30 p.m.
On Friday, April 9, from 4–5 p.m., the museum will host a virtual program, “Livestreamed Artist’s Talk with Stephanie Broussard,” as she takes the audience on a tour of her thesis exhibition. Broussard will discuss her work which plays with the perception of space, while utilizing the language of paint. Through a series of contrasting themes, Broussard has constructed narrative paintings revolving around distance & closeness; interior & exterior; cityscape & landscape; spiritual & physical; and presence & absence.
In the second exhibition, “World Without Reason: Goya’s Los Disparates,” the museum showcases Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes’ (1746-1828) last major print cycle, Los Disparates (or Los Proverbios). Published in 1864, thirty-six years after the artist’s death, these masterful etchings are still considered to be enigmatic and ambiguous, eluding definitive explanation and interpretation. Los Disparates reference fanatic religious practices of the day; the plight of political prisoners; and the decadence of court life and the aristocracy. Within these remarkable etchings is a realm of witches, ghosts, and fantastical creatures that invade the mind – Goya’s troubled visions remain a potent warning against a world without reason, surprisingly as current today as in Goya’s time.
On Wednesday, April 21, from 4–5 p.m., the museum will feature a livestreamed lecture, “Los Disparates & Goya’s Late Works: Triumphs of Caprice,” a virtual program presented by internationally recognized authority on Goya, Janis A. Tomlinson. Tomlinson’s recently published biography, Goya: A Portrait of the Artist has received wide critical acclaim.
At some point between his 70th and 75th year, the Spanish artist Goya etched images published thirty-six years after his death as Los Proverbios. In her lecture, Tomlinson will discuss how the intriguing imagery of these works mark a new creative departure for Goya, to be continued in works to follow, including the well-known “black” paintings. Los Disparates and Goya’s Late Works: Triumphs of Caprice is a John Mathews Friel Memorial Art Lecture, named for John Friel, a 1962 WSU Fine Arts graduate.
Funding for these exhibitions has been provided by the Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Endowment, members of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU.
Media contacts:
- Debby Stinson, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 509‑335‑6282, debby_stinson@wsu.edu
- Ryan Hardesty, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, ryan.hardesty@wsu.edu
