New Hillstrom Exhibitions Now Open

The Hillstrom Museum of Art at Gustavus Adolphus College will present two exhibitions and another of its FOCUS IN/ON projects from Sept. 14 through Nov. 8.

The first exhibition, titled Winds of Inspiration, Winds of Change, is an invitational exhibition that will consider thematically and aesthetically wind turbines and their precursors, windmills, inspired by the growing presence of turbines across the Minnesota countryside.

The exhibition presents wind turbines both as environmentally sensitive objects and as objects with a powerful, aesthetic, sublime presence. It will also draw on the idea of the earlier windmill as a well-established element in art with various symbolic meanings, including as an inspirational symbol and as an indication of humankind’s dominion over nature.

Winds of Inspiration, Winds of Change is presented in anticipation of the expected installation on campus of one or more wind turbines, and is expected to raise awareness of turbines and their value as an alternative energy source by considering them in a cultural, historical, and artistic context.

Around 50 artists from across the state will participate in the project, including invited faculty from Minnesota colleges and universities and a number of local artists from St. Peter and Mankato.

Concurrently with the wind turbines exhibition, the Museum will present Cuadros from Pamplona Alta: Textile Pictures by Women of Peru, featuring around 50 textile works sewn by groups of women living in destitute Pamplona Alta, a shantytown outside of Lima.

The cuadros (“pictures”) depict Peruvian life, especially in Pamplona Alta, where conditions have been mostly very poor, due to economic hardship and political instability

In addition to the concurrent exhibitions, the Museum will present another of its FOCUS IN/ON  projects. These projects feature a single work from the Hillstrom Collection that is the subject of in-depth, collaborative analysis made by the museum director and colleague from across the curriculum. Dry Creek Bed, Kansas, a 1912 oil painting by Swedish-American artist Birger Sandzen (1871-1954), will be considered in an essay co-written with James Welsh, chair of the Department of Geology.