This year marks the 250th anniversary of the United States’ existence as a nation. To celebrate, the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut established an exhibition called “Exploring America at 250.” On Sunday, Feb. 15, curator Amanda Douberley led a walk-through of that exhibition.
“Exploring America at 250” features three sections that represent three ways of perceiving America. The sections are place, identity and an idea.
Before exploring the sections of the exhibition, Douberley presented artwork by Robert Indiana, an American artist. The work contained five photos that were mostly identical.
All five photos had a black and white circle with a red star engraved in them. Within the star were three golden fives engulfed within one another. The difference between the five photos was that each had different words on the border of the circle.
The borders read: “Die,” “Err,” “Eat,” “Hug” and finally, “American Dream 1928 – 1963.” Combined, all five photos contribute to the American Dream, which has long been a debated subject.
After the presentation of Indiana’s piece, Douberley moved on to the first section of the exhibition, which describes America as a place. In this section, there are paintings and photographs that depict different places in the United States.
One piece that Douberley described was called “Cochetti’s Fish Market,” an oil on canvas by George Benjamin Luks. The artwork’s a representation of immigrant communities in New York City in the early 20th century. Other notable works from the section included “Niagara Falls, NY” by Tseng Kwong Chi and “Louisiana” by Sarah Sense.
