The Object Show: Discoveries in Bowdoin Collections
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Read a fascinating post by Peter Follansbee about our 17th-century Box with Drawer carved by William Searle (School of Thomas Dennis) Thank you, Peter, for visiting Bowdoin and sharing your knowledge about the construction of this incredible object in our collection. Please return soon!
Winslow Homer’s Watercolor Box and Brushes, 1900–1910 Gifts of the Homer Family 1964.69.191 and 1964.69.193.a–.b In anticipation of Winslow Homer’s birthday on February 24, seen here are some tools of his trade: two paintbrushes and his watercolor box. The acclaimed American artist (1836-1910) is best known for marine landscapes depicting both rugged work and quiet leisure, […]
Bowdoin College Museum of Art 2014 Winter Open House. Video and editing by Kiyomi Mino ’16, Student Assistant to the Curator
French, probably Paris Coffer (book box?) with woodcut depicting the Monogram of Christ, ca. 1490–1500 wood, paper, metal, and red canvas Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund 2008.8 In the 1480s King Louis XI of France passed laws that required travelers to carry identification while traversing roads and entering city boundaries. This […]
Fang (Gabon) Bieri (reliquary) figure, 19th century wood Museum Purchase, Florence C. Quinby Fund, in memory of Henry Cole Quinby, Honorary Degree, 1916 1969.70 This figure was created by the Fang people, a historically itinerant group living in Gabon in central Africa. Figures like these were meant to sit on a reliquaries: bark containers or baskets […]
Luke Drabyn ‘15 The ornate nineteenth-century Chinese cribbage board and the twentieth-century Easter Island chess set were both objects crafted for commercial purposes and sold as exotica to foreigners. As civilizations from both East and West increasingly merged as a consequence of imperialism, demand for “traditional” goods—desirable due to their foreign label—intensified, thus creating a […]
Last Thursday afternoon we gathered in Kresge auditorium for an illuminating panel led by notable artists and craftsmen whose methods are closely linked to pieces shown in The Object Show. Sharing their creative processes and sources of inspiration, these makers helped us to better appreciate techniques that are rarely practiced today and require intensive hands-on […]
Melanesian (New Ireland) Malagan Masks, 19th century polychrome, wood, natural fiber Gift of Harold M. Sewall 1898.67-69 The Malagan ceremony takes place among the tribes of New Ireland, an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The ritual is meant to complete the cycle of mourning for those who have died, sending off their […]
Micronesian (Republic of Kiribati) Shark Tooth Sword, 19th century shark teeth, wood, coconut fiber, leaf, and human hair 14.2013 Micronesian people have inhabited the Gilbert Islands, a chain of sixteen atolls in the Pacific Ocean, for more than two thousand years. The Gilbertese traditionally made a variety of weapons for use in tribal warfare and violent […]
Click on images for a slide show tour of The Object Show: Discoveries in Bowdoin Collections
