Fisher exhibit explores cultural and generational issues


In its permanent collection exhibit, “Changing Values, Changing Times,” the Fisher Museum of Art offers USC students access to a thought-provoking, eclectic selection that spans centuries and various cultures.

After entering the museum’s main doors, the viewer enters the exhibit’s central room, which displays “Warhol as a Catalyst for Change.”  This exhibition features a collection of the artist’s portraits of prominent political and social figures, including Richard Nixon, Paloma Picasso and Sitting Bull. As the text panel to the portraits’ left notes, Warhol’s avant-garde identity and revolutionary interpretation of visual representation is prominent in these works, with his trademark use of abstract shapes and pops of color.

The works also draw attention to the unique characteristics of each individual. Warhol subtly encodes individualism into each work, with details in the way the subjects’ features are juxtaposed with abstract shapes and contrasting colorations. For example, though the portrait of Sitting Bull is given a contemporary stamp with Warhol’s vivid block colors, his personality of power and dignity is conveyed through his red attire and grave expression.

To the right of the central room is the exhibition “Family, Society, Migration, and Changing Values.” This exhibition continues the theme of change by examining the definition of community throughout spans of generations and different cultures. For example, “Implosion” by Mexican visual artist Selma Guisande is comprised of ceramic figures connected to one another by hemp string, with a female figure in the center. All of the figures are tied to a cutout in the woman’s stomach, thus hinting at the perception of the female identity in society as nurturing and dynamically maternal.

The wall to the left of the room’s entrance features the 18th century painting “View of Rome” by Giovanni Pannini. This painting depicts the crumbled ruins of ancient Rome with a more modern community of tourist gentlemen and gypsies, thus contrasting old communities with newer generations.

The third and final room of the exhibition is called “Depictions of the Individual through Changing Times.” Whereas the family-themed room examines values and viewpoints through the motif of community, “Depictions of the Individual” does so through the individual. The walls to the right and left of the room’s entrance feature individual portraits from all eras, classes and races. The left wall features “Lost in Thought,” a portrait of a woman in a contemporary dress, surrounded by female portraits from the 18th century. The right wall mirrors this format by featuring a contemporary male portrait “Tyrone,” surrounded by 18th-century portraits. This juxtaposition draws attention to the differences in the portrayal of the individual — whether that difference be pastel versus oil, modern versus 18th-century wardrobe, or middle class versus upper class. A series of photographs across from the room’s entrance continues this examination of how the self is interpreted. Four prints by photographer Rena Small use hands as their subject. This choice calls attention to how the emotion and personality of the self can be expressed through the synecdoche of texture and shape. Similarly, the sculpture “Torso of Hercules” by Antoine Bourdelle expresses the essence of an ancient heroic figure through a single portion of the body.

The way in which “Changing Values, Changing Times” unconventionally weaves the styles, subjects and traditions of various eras and cultures together throughout its galleries creates several effects.

As curator Stephanie Kowalick states, “With this show we deliberately chose to mix both older and newer works best seen with the walls of British portraits and the Sam Goodsell works. This was done to both expand on the theme that while time might move forward certain things (portraiture in this case) remain the same but to also emphasize that portrait making takes on a new direction by tackling issues of class and race in this particular instance.”

The exhibit is, on one hand, a commentary on the power of time. Old master paintings, as well as the beliefs and traditions embedded in them, are contrasted with a more contemporary world that experiments with different mediums and social commentary. The exhibit’s blended approach, however, creates a subtle message concerning the stability of certain basic human traits, regardless of era, class or location. The attention of the audience is drawn not only to the differences between the female portraits of “Depictions of the Individual” but also to the similarities in curved lines and color palettes. Though Guisande’s “Implosion” deals with a vastly different era and culture from Pannini’s “View of Rome,” both works are commentaries on how isolated individuals can be united. By disorienting, and thus recontextualizing, works through a unique juxtaposition, “Changing Values, Changing Times” becomes both a commentary on the power and the passivity of time; the diversity of cultures and the basic qualities of humanity.

The exhibit’s arrangement of its collection provides the Fisher Museum with a unique intellectual edge. “This is not your typical Permanent Collection exhibit,” Kowalick said. “Usually exhibits like this focus on a singular time period or present things chronologically The hope is that we can inspire discussions around the works, have viewers understand that a compelling narrative can be built with what a museum holds in their collection and does not just have to come from a blockbuster traveling exhibit.”

One key message created by the exhibit is that the portrait is an enduring form. An overarching message provided by “Changing Values, Changing Times” is that the visual representation of the self, whatever cultural or temporal context it depicts, will always continue to provide humanity with a tool for introspection.

“Depictions of the individual will always be relevant to us as people because [they comprise] a record of the idea of the individual in history portrait making and taking today has moved to an egalitarian form with smart phones and digital cameras being so prominent,” Kowalick said. “The sense of self may be more individually curated and a freer in terms of expression taking a portrait is open to any one with access to the technology to do so.”

This exhibit will run until March 7, and will be available during the museum’s hours of 12 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays and 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.