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The 'baily Iowan - Iowa City, Iowa • Friday August 31 , 2001 - 58 ·· ~
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Spruced-up museum ready to art out
ByJIIIIIRolpll
The Dally Iowan
In an attempt to attract students
when it reopens today,
the UI Museum of Art has reinstalled
some co11ections, added
a coffee bar and a museum
store, and extended its hours.
Museum Director Howard
Collinson and the museum staff
have devoted more space to the
university's collection "in a way
that makes it more accessible to
people without a prior knowledge
of art," he said.
While other museums don't
explain art as a whole, he said,
he wants the museum to be
about art, not a museum of art,
focusing instead on the functions
art plays in life.
"The museum's works have
been installed in a different
visual style to make it a little
more modem," Collinson said.
Within the different galleries,
works have been placed
together by theme rather than
by medium. By putting similar
pieces together, people can
compare the pieces and understand
the art better, he said.
Themes within the European
and American Art gallery
include geometric abstraction,
abstract expressionism, antirational
art, cubism, expressionism,
and the human figure.
Halogen lights have also been
installed throughout the museum,
changing the appearance of
paintings, said Pamela Trimpe,
the museum's curator of painting
and sculpture.
"It brings out the blues and
yellows," she said, especially in
Jackson Pollock's Mural.
A new gallery is devoted to
Native American art, featuring
Hopi, Navajo, and Pueblo
works. The African Art gallery
has doubled in size with an
open storage display, allowing
for all new installation of more
pieces, including furniture.
"The co11ection was strong in
arts with religion and ritual,"
said Victoria Ravine, the curator
of Arts of Africa, Oceania,
and the Americas. "I'm interested
in arts with a function
that anyone can understand."
New pieces include a palace
wan plaque from the kingdom
of Benin, a Nigerian door, and
a Nigerian mask. The African
collection has also been divided
by themes, including ideal
beauty, divination, abstraction,
and masks, Ravine said.
The museum has expanded
into computer art and video art,
with a new projection room continually
playing artists' videos.
Currently on display is a temporary
exhibit - Gillian Wearing's
Drunk, a video presentation
using three screens.
While only about 20 percent
of the university's 12,000-piece
collection is currently on display,
the museum is "getting out
a larger percentage of the collec-
Nick TremmeVThe Daily Iowan
A vlsHor views one of the Ul Museum of Aft's new galleries.
tion," Trimpe said.
Introductory videos to African,
European, and American art as
well as an overall introduction to
the museum will be available in
the Focus One Gallery during
museum hours, she said.
A new coffee bar overlooks
the Iowa River, offering coffees,
other beverages, and snacks.
Located next to the coffee bar,
a new museum store offers
posters, cards, and books,
among other items.
The Division of Performing
Arts will hold Friday night concerts
in the sculpture area beginning
Sept. 28.
Collinson said he hopes the
changes "make the museum
more lively, intellectually and
visually," while being able to
"integrate the museum into
the life of the university."
Students will go to the museum
if interesting art is presented
in interesting ways, he
said. Art student Emily McFarland
agreed.
"It's always been a great
place," she said. "' think a lot of
people would like that kind of
surrounding, with the coffee
shop. It's a nice place to get
away from things."
Admission to the museum is
free. Beginning today, and
every Wednesday, Saturday,
and Sunday, the museum will
be open from noon-5 p.m.
Thursdays and Fridays .it will
be open noon-10 p.m.
E-mail 0/ reporter Jlale Rolph at
lessie·roiphCuiowa.edu
The D'oh of God & 'The Simpsons'
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Domestic
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By Rlcllanll. Ostling
Associated Press
How God appeared in a
dream: "Perfect teeth. Nice
smell. A class act all the way."
The family religion: "You
know, the one with all the wellmeaning
rules that don't work
in real life. Uh, Christianity."
Church signboard slogan:
"God Welcomes His Victims."
This is just a very small sample
of one-liners about religion
from "The Simpsons."
For 12 seasons and counting,
the animated series has mined
religious subjects for laughs
like no other show on television.
The staple of the Fox network
has sometimes been
called sacrilegious - rather
than satirical - for its jabs at
clergy and the faithful alike.
But religious commentators,
especially this year, have
looked at the animated series
and found plenty to like.
In a rare coincidence, two
leading Protestant magazines,
the liberal Christian Century
and conservative Christianity
Today, simultaneously ran
friendly cover stories on the
show. Christian Century said
it's appreciated in religious eircles,
while Chris~iq.nJJy 1bday
hailed the good-guy characterization
of the Simpsons' evangelical
neighbor, Ned Flanders.
An anthology, "The Simpsons"
and Philosophy: The D'oh!
of Homer (Open Court), reported
religion was an element in
70 percent of randomly selected
episodes and the major theme
in 10 percent.
The latest analysis, which
will be published Saturday,
asserts that - strange as it
might seem - the cartoon
"more accurately reflects the
faith lives of Americans than
any other show in the medium."
(1he Slmpsons] more accurately reflects
the faith lives of Amettcans than •Y other
show In the medium.
In The Gospel According to
"The Simpsonii" ~We~tmi~ster
John Knox), Mark Pinsky
notes that the characters regularly
pray, attend worship, and
discuss humanity's inescapable
religious questions. God's existence
is unquestioned, and He
sometimes intervenes directly
in the preposterous plots.
Pinsky, the religion writer for
the Orlando Sentinel, also notes
that, despite ridiculing everything
in sight, the show is basically
pro-family and usually
lets a rough morality triumph.
According to Pinsky's estimate,
80 percent of the show's
writers over the past dozen
years he,ve been either skeptics
or atheists. Several, however,
have called themselves believing
Christians.
For all its barbs, however,
"The Simpsons" rarely mentions
Jesus and steers clear of
explicit Christian teachings,
Pinsky says. He says that, in
the end, the show may actually
cloak a "sacred essence in
the guise of profane storytelling."
He concludes that
"whether the series, once
considered so anti-authoritarian,
is subversive or supportive
of faith is largely in
the eye of the beholder."
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