Surprise! Columbia is actually a bit more cultured that you might think: we have a gallery! Bwogger Peyton Ayers brings you a detailed review of  Columbia’s very own Wallach Art Gallery’s latest exhibition.

Not many people know about The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery. You’re probably thinking: “The what? That has an unnecessarily long name.”  Yes, though it may come as a surprise to many, Columbia does actually have an art gallery — see, we’re cultured, too! The gallery may not be on the same caliber as those at Yale, Harvard, or even Brown, but it’s a beautiful space, has wonderful exhibitions, and is extremely close by (for all you homebodies).

Wallach is located in the Lenfest Center for the Arts in Manhattanville, just a short trek from Columbia’s main campus. The exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today, which was curated with assistance from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, opened on October 24th, 2018 and recently closed on February 10th. If you missed the show, no worries, because we’ll fill you in on everything you missed.

Posing Modernity explores the role of the black body and identity in modern art, examining the way in which the representation of black individuals has shifted over time. The exhibition features a lot — and we do mean a lot — of big names in modern art. To name a few: Henri Matisse, Édouard Manet, William H. Johnson, a number of other revered modern and contemporary artists. While you can see works by any of these artists hanging on the walls of The Met or National Portrait Gallery, Wallach was able to collect some the lesser known works by these artists. Many of the works were flown in from museums, galleries, and private collections that span the world, as close to home as The Met or as far as the The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.
The history of the black figures, specifically females, in art history is often misrepresented in traditional museum settings — with many museum collections publicly exhibiting only a small number of works featuring black individuals. Posing Modernity allows visitors to see a broader scope of black representation throughout history and directly observe how the relationship between artists and black communities in the United States and Europe evolved over time. The exhibition begins with Edouard Manet’s paintings Laure, a model, and of actress Jeanne Duval, all of which were painted between 1862 and 1863. These works acknowledge the often forgotten relationships between the Impressionists and the growing community of free black Parisians during this time. The collection goes on to explore the works of Degas and Bazille, later honing in on Matisse’s depictions of the Harlem Renaissance’s greatest figures. The exhibition later culminates in a collection of contemporary pieces focusing on the black identity in the modern world. Collectively, the works come together to provide an in-depth look at the representation of black figures from the 19th century to the present day.