The Mapmakers’ Art: The Bishop Collection of Antique Maps - 1608-1863.
Works on paper
January 4 – March 20, 2009
This month the Art Museum will display its collection of vintage maps, part of the Museum’s permanent collection, in an exhibit titled The Mapmakers’ Art: The Bishop Collection of Antique Maps - 1608-1863.  The collection, a 1999 gift from Mrs. George Bishop in memory of her late husband, a local entrepreneur, includes 15 maps illustrating what has been termed the golden age of cartography plus a selection of complementary historical prints.

Following the discovery of the New World in the 15th century, European mapmakers scrambled to document and map the new territories, using centuries-old technology. In contrast to today’s mass-produced, utilitarian maps, early European cartographers recruited renowned painters and miniaturists of their times who created maps that were truly works of art, richly colored and intricately decorated.

Since early maps often relied on unverified and often unreliable information from native populations, unsubstantiated reports and hearsay, the maps illustrate the evolution of both exploration and documentation of geographical information – and misinformation.

Among the historic gems included in the collection is An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina by Henry Mouzon, an enormous copperplate engraving of four joined sheets created in 1775.

The earliest map in the collection, produced in 1606 by Gerard Mercator and engraver Jodocus Hondius, was based on a 1590 map of Virginia and a 1591 map of Florida. The 1825 map of Horry District by Robert Mills, considered the first American architect, and a map created by naturalist Mark Catesby for his celebrated 1731 work A Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands are other highlights.

Among the historical prints accompanying the maps are four Civil War scenes from Harper’s Weekly and a collection of steel engravings from The Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans, published in 1863, which include our country’s founding fathers.

Tools in Motion: Works from the Hechinger Collection
Sculptures, works on paper and mixed media
January 15 – March 28, 2009
Opening reception: Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009, 1–3pm
Anthropologists consider the use of tools a major step in human evolution. Imagine what they’d say about a collection of artworks about – and made from – everyday tools and hardware. The exhibit, comprising 56 witty, light-hearted works by prominent and emerging contemporary artists, is called Tools in Motion: Works from the Hechinger Collection, and it opens January 15, 2009.

The collection is drawn from Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection, amassed by a former DC-based hardware and building-supply company owner who began collecting the artworks in 1978 to decorate the family business. Spanning a wide range of styles, the exhibition spotlights the dignity of everyday tools where form and function are inextricably linked.

The clever content and style and visually intriguing works will prove thought-provoking for visitors of all ages, allowing them to explore new art and introducing them to important contemporary artists, such as Arman, Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine.

Through the hands and the vision of the artists, common utilitarian objects take on a whole new existence. The works offer such mind-bending visual experiences as an image of a man happily sawing himself off a high perch or a huge “school” of vise grips swimming in the ocean. Light bulbs are transformed into butterflies and rusted tools morph into birds or the sails of a wooden boat.

The collection features a series of “kodaliths” by acclaimed designer Ivan Chermayeff: striking black and white photographs with no halftones that display various hardware items in an almost abstract fashion. Also included is Tool Box, a set of silkscreen prints by renowned artist Jim Dine, which juxtapose real and invented objects in a playful blurring of art and life.

Who knew a collection of tools could be so much fun?