The Zimmerli
seeks to educate, inspire, and challenge diverse audiences by
providing them with the direct experience of art in its many
forms. The museum supports Rutgers’ educational mission by
collecting, researching, preserving, and displaying works of
art, and by making its unique collections and archives
accessible for study and enjoyment by the Rutgers community
and visitors from throughout New Jersey and beyond. The
Zimmerli aspires to reach all ages through its exhibitions,
publications, and educational programs.
Highlights:
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art
Museum houses more than 60,000 works of art, ranging
from ancient to contemporary art.
The permanent collection features particularly rich
holdings in:
·nineteenth-century
French
art;
·Russian art,
from icons to the avant-garde, and Soviet nonconformist
art from the Dodge Collection; and
·American art with notable holdings
of prints.
One of the
largest and most distinguished university-based art museums in
the nation, the Zimmerli is located on the New Brunswick
campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Established in 1766, Rutgers is America’s eighth oldest
institution of higher learning and a premier public research
university. The Zimmerli is located on the College Avenue
campus of Rutgers University, a short walk from the NJ Transit
train station in New Brunswick, midway between New York City
and Philadelphia.
Underground Art
from the Soviet Union
Ongoing
The
Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from
the Soviet Union, donated to the Zimmerli in 1991, underwent
an extensive reinstallation in spring 2012. Museum staff took
the opportunity to rotate works on display, as well as compose
more in-depth translations from Russian to English of some of
the key artists' texts and interpretations to create a more
comprehensive cultural context for visitors. The refurbishment
continues the Zimmerli's commitment to preserving the artworks
in its trust, one of the cornerstones of the museum's
strategic plan, and presenting these groundbreaking artworks
that document a key period in the 20th century. All media
are represented, including paintings on canvas and panel,
sculpture, assemblage, installations, works on paper,
photography, video, artists’ books and other self-published
texts called samizdat.
This encyclopedic array of nonconformist art extends from
about 1956 to 1986, from the beginning of Khrushchev’s
cultural “thaw” to the advent of Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika. Work
created during the Gorbachev era (through 1991) is also
represented. In addition to art made in Russia, the
collection includes many examples of nonconformist art
produced in 12 of the Soviet republics. A recent generous gift
by Claude and Nina Gruen extends the Zimmerli’s Russian art
holdings to post-perestroika
work produced since 1986.Many of these artworks were made by former Soviet
artists now living in the diaspora.
Featured 2012-13
Exhibitions & Events
Art=Text=Art:
Works by Contemporary Artists from the Sally and Wynn
Kramarsky Collection September 4, 2012 to January 6, 2013
Celebrating
the dynamic dialogue between art and language from 1960 to 2012,
Art=Text=Art
presents more than 100 American drawings, prints, conceptual
works on paper, and artists' books selected from the
internationally respected collection of Sally and Wynn
Kramarsky, noted New York collectors. In this major exhibition,
48 artists explore the form, function, and multiple
interpretations of language. Juxtaposing both the verbal and the
visual aspects of individual words, passages of text, numbers,
and symbols, these works prompt insights into wide-ranging
subjects. Among the artists represented are: Carl Andre,
Alice Aycock, Jill Baroff, Suzanne Bocanegra, Mel Bochner,
Trisha Brown, Stephen Dean, Elena Del Rivero, Jane Hammond,
Christine Hiebert, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Stefana McClure, Ed
Ruscha, Karen Schiff, and filmmaker John Waters.
Mary Cassatt
Prints: In the Company of Women
September 29, 2012
to March 3, 2013
Initially trained in
Philadelphia, Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) pursued her artistic
career in Paris, where she was invited to join the Impressionist
group of painters in 1877. Inspired by the experimental prints
being made by her artist friends Edgar Degas and Camille
Pissarro, Cassatt made her first prints during the late 1870s
and early 1880s. This exhibition of 23 works features the
Zimmerli’s holdings of Mary Cassatt’s prints, including a rare
complete set of 12 drypoints from 1890, which showcases a wide
range of technical effects. Also featured are five of Cassatt’s
innovative color prints; her major technical achievements in
color intaglio printmaking sealed her reputation among the
world’s most gifted printmakers.
Le Mur at the Cabaret des
Quat’z’Arts
October 13, 2012 to
February 24, 2013
Between
1894 and 1905, a group of artists and poets who frequented the
Cabaret des Quat’z’Arts in the Montmartre district of Paris
produced Le Mur
(The Wall), a
changing display of drawings, poems, and newspaper clippings
that were mounted on a wall of the cabaret. The Zimmerli’s
collection features 1,500 sheets from this unique journal, in
which contributors satirically commented on current events,
literature, and art. Organized to complement the special
exhibition Art=Text=Art,
this installation of approximately 50 sheets from Le Mur evokes
the experience of this journal, which crossed the boundaries
between the verbal and the visual.
Leonid Sokov:
Ironic Objects
January 26 to July
14, 2013
This exhibition of
approximately 50 works is the first major show in the United
States of one of the most significant Soviet nonconformist
artists, Leonid Sokov. Soviet nonconformist artists deviated
from the officially prescribed patriotic style of Socialist
Realism, creating their “unofficial art” following Stalin’s
death in 1953 until Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika in the late
1980s. Sokov is associated with Sots Art, one of the most
influential developments within Soviet nonconformist culture and
prominent during the 1970s and 1980s. Sots artists mocked the
regime’s efforts to control all forms of creative expression by
distorting and defacing recognizable elements of Soviet
propaganda in their work. Sokov’s multi-layered visual and
verbal puns provide the viewer with a deeper insight into
contemporary culture, politics, and life in general. Born in
1941 in the village of Mikjaliovo, Kalinin (now Tver) region,
the artist has lived and worked in New York since 1980. Sokov’s
work has been exhibited in galleries and museums
internationally; he also represented Russia in the 2001 Venice
Biennale.
Henri-Gabriel Ibels
March 2 to September
8, 2013
The
Zimmerli’s collection is rich in works by Henri-Gabriel Ibels
(1867-1936), who worked in Paris as a prominent printmaker,
illustrator, and poster designer. Like his friend and
collaborator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ibels often featured
performers from the theater, café-concert, and circus in
his works, capturing their gestures using his signature vigorous
line. Prints, drawings, pastels, posters, and books illustrated
by Ibels are featured in this special presentation,
demonstrating the artist’s range and his prominence in the
Parisian art world of the late nineteenth century.
Stars:
Contemporary Prints by Derrière L’Étoile Studio
March 24 to
September 29, 2013
Featuring
contemporary prints by many of the artists who defined
the American art scene after 1980, this is the first survey
exhibition of prints produced by Derrière L’Étoile
(Behind the Star). Founded in New York in 1978 by Maurice
Sánchez—the master printer behind the creative stars—the
studio has produced extraordinary prints in lithography and
other traditional printmaking media, as well as with the latest
photographic and digital technologies. Selected from the
Zimmerli’s extensive print collection, Part I showcases prints
created between 1980 and 1995 by such artists as John
Baldessari, Sarah Charlesworth, Agnes Denes, Leon Golub, Yvonne
Jacquette, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Robert Longo, Robert
Mangold, Susan Rothenberg, and Laurie Simmons, among others. In
fall 2013, Part II presents prints created between 1995 and
2012.
Leningrad’s
Perestroika: Crosscurrents in Photography, Video, and Music
April 20 to
September 13, 2013
This exhibition
highlights the unique photographic, video, and musical
innovations that shaped the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)
unofficial art culture during the period of glasnost and perestroika. With
works by 20 artists – the majority of which have never been
exhibited – it presents photographers, musicians, and video
artists as active members of groups, rather than individual
producers, to underscore their collective goals as a larger
counter-cultural phenomenon in the city. The eclectic body of
material produced over the span of a transformative decade
shared a common goal: to stimulate the audience’s imagination
and disrupt everyday social interaction. Photography and video
crossed the boundary between the present and the past, becoming
an important tool for fostering reflection. Their documentary
character was exploited to reveal the city to its inhabitants,
connecting individuals to the rapid transformations of Soviet
society, while opening an anticipatory window into the future.
In the Search of an
Absolute: Art of Valery Yurlov Through
April 4, 2013
Moscow artist Valery
Yurlov (born 1932) worked in the 1960s and 1970s when Soviet
nonconformist artists were forming movements and grouping into
collectives. Yurlov, however, worked alone, beyond the confines
of politics and ideologies, his work standing out as one of the
earliest examples of geometric analytical abstraction within
Soviet nonconformist art. This exhibition continues a series of
one-man shows devoted to early nonconformist artists.
Lynd Ward Draws
Stories: Inspired by Mexico’s History, Mark Twain, and
Adventures in the Woods
Through
June 30, 2013
The Zimmerli Art
Museum at Rutgers pays tribute to one of America’s great
illustrators of the 20th century with Lynd Ward Draws Stories.
A gifted artist-storyteller, Ward illustrated more than 100
books, most of them for children and young adults. Featured in
the exhibition are 37 of Ward’s captivating original and printed
illustrations selected from the Zimmerli’s collection. This
exhibition is open to the public on Fridays, Saturdays, and
Sundays, as well as during first Wednesday evenings of the
month. To reserve a class or group tour Tuesday through Sunday,
please contact the Education Department at 732.932.7237 at least
two weeks in advance.
Art After Hours:
First Wednesdays
Art After Hours
invites the Rutgers community and the general public to engage
in a multifaceted approach to the arts on the first Wednesday
evening of the month (September – July) from 5 to 9 p.m. A
current exhibition is central to the evening, which leads off
with a curator- or docent-led tour, followed by a performance,
artist talk, or participatory workshop, and the opportunity to
socialize. Seasonal specials in the Museum Store and
complimentary light refreshments are also available. Free with regular admission.
Hours:
Tuesday through
Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m.,
and the first Wednesday of each month (except August), 10 a.m.
to 9 p.m.
The museum is closed Mondays, major holidays, and the month of
August.
Admission:
$6 for adults;
$5 for adults 65 & over;
and free for museum members, Rutgers students, faculty and staff
(with ID), and children under 18.
Admission is free on the first Sunday of every month.
