click here to visit the faculty resource Web site for this exhibition: http://mirrormirror.byu.edu

October 23, 2009 – May 8, 2010
Conway A. Ashton & Carl E. Jackman Gallery

For thousands of years the human race has created portraits. Traditionally artists created paintings and sculptures to reveal—and sometimes conceal—certain aspects of the portrait sitter’s distinct identity. Today, many artists are concerned with discovering ways to visually represent the true self, which springs from an amalgamation of influences that include daily rituals, cultural norms, religious practices, and social pressures, using a variety of media.

Mirror, Mirror: Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self features works of art from a broad range of international contemporary artists who are engaged in the examination of the factors that shape the ways in which we view ourselves, and how we choose to present ourselves to others. The exhibition will look at three different themes evident in the work of these artists that contribute to the formation of our individual identities: rituals; facades, mirrors, and masks; and the real self.

Discussion Questions:

1. How do these works reveal a departure from the traditional function of portraiture in art?
2. How does this exhibition examine the idea of what it means to be human in today’s society? What commonalities seem to be shared by the global community?
3. How do both ritual and social identification influence our sense of self?
4. What contemporary social networking mechanisms have undermined personal real-life interactions? How have these same networks contributed to social interfacing?

For more detailed information about this exhibition, visit the Faculty Resource Web site for this exhibition at http://mirrormirror.byu.edu

click here to visit the faculty resource Web site for this exhibition: http://typesandshadows.byu.edu

September 17, 2009 – March 13, 2010
Warren & Alice Jones and Paul & Betty Boshard Galleries

Just as parables and images help us understand religious doctrine, so symbols known as "types and shadows" (Mosiah 3:15) prefigure or "point to" the Savior and his mission. Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated, "It is wholesome and proper to look for similitudes of Christ everywhere and to use them repeatedly in keeping Him and his laws uppermost in our minds."

Using the structures of metaphor and analogy from the language ofthe scriptures, this exhibition of forty-four traditional and contemporary works of art will enlighten the hearts and the minds of museum visitors as they participate in the process of seeking out and pondering the types and shadows contained in these works that "point to" the Savior's divine mission.

Discussion Questions:

1. How does symbolic language convey important truths that transcend conventional language and culture?
2. What religious literary sources are mined in this exhibition?
3. How can the process of metaphorical “seeing” enhance one’s ability to recognize eternal truths?
4. How does this exhibition highlight and punctuate the individual nature of spiritual interpretation and understanding?

For more detailed information about this exhibition, visit our new Faculty Resource Web site for this exhibition at http://typesandshadows.byu.edu

click here to visit the faculty resource Web site for this exhibition: http://royalholloway.byu.edu

August 14, 2009 – October 24, 2009
Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery

The Museum of Art is honored to be one of seven American venues in this historic tour of a splendid collection of Victorian paintings from The Royal Holloway University of London. Thomas Holloway, a highly successful British entrepreneur, amassed the collection between 1881 and 1883 for the art museum at the women's college that he had just established.

All 60 works in this exhibition are painted in the meticulously realistic style popular in late 19th-century Britain. They include imaginative portrayals of historical events, picturesque landscapes, and dramatic scenes of Victorian urban and rural life. Visitors to this exhibition will see a remarkable cross section of British artistic achievements at the apogee of the Empire's prosperity and confidence.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the major social issues represented in the paintings? How are these issues similar to those encountered in the literature of the time?

2. How do these social concerns continue to have relevance today regarding such issues as homelessness, the difficulties of acquiring bank credit and loans, shifting family dynamics, the exploitation of women, environmental issues, and an interest in travel?

3. Why do you think the highly narrative style of the paintings fell out of favor at the beginning of the 20th century? What characteristics might have been rejected by early “modernists?”

4. Thomas Holloway purchased these works for a young women’s college focused on careers in public service. How might that intended audience have shaped the selection?

For more detailed information about this exhibition, visit our new Faculty Resource Web site for this exhibition at http://royalholloway.byu.edu

• Education Packet | PDF

• Education Packet | PDF
• Faculty Resource Web site

• Education Packet | PDF

• Education Packet | PDF

• Education Packet | PDF

• Beholding Salvation Study Guide | PDF
• Study Guide Appendix | PDF
• Exhibition Text Panels | PDF
• Exhibition Labels | PDF

• Education Packet | PDF
• Paths to Impressionism / William B. Post Comparisons | PDF

• Education Packet | PDF