The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art is beginning the new year with homage to the old. To commemorate Pepperdine’s 75th anniversary, the museum is showcasing an exhibit from the Dahesh Museum of Art in New York, titled “The Epic and the Exotic: 19th Century Academic Realism,” which contains pieces that portray the heritage and tradition of classicalism. This collection of 32 paintings are storytelling pieces that emphasize values and traditionalism, something that the museum director, Michael Zakian, thought was a fitting addition to the University’s anniversary celebrations.
“These works place special importance on values and heritage,” Zakian said. “So I thought it would be a fitting way to honor Pepperdine’s anniversary.”
These works have an emphasis on telling a story, compared with more modern works which tend to focus primarily on form. This will be the first time that the Weisman museum will display an exhibit with work from such an archaic time period.
The exhibit is composed entirely of work created by artists who studied at the art academies in Europe during the 19th century. The art was based on classical realism, which preserved the traditional styles and techniques used in Renaissance art.
The paintings often portray scenes from history, such as pharaohs in ancient Egypt or politicians in ancient Rome, and depict many mythological stories as well. Some of the other paintings follow a different style known as orientalism, which illustrates many scenes from typical life in Middle Eastern countries, such as Palestine and Turkey.
“Europeans were fascinated by the parallels of life that they found in the Middle East,” Zakian said. “The scenes they painted were very familiar to them but at the same time very foreign. It was a completely different world.”
The group of artists represented in the exhibit were known as the Academics. Their instruction at the official art academies of Europe taught them to paint historical scenes as the way they idealized them to be, without including the harsh realities and difficulties of typical life in the past.
“They were very much escapists,” Zakian said. “Versus the Realists, who showed life as it truly was, the Academics felt they needed to improve upon reality.”
In addition, these European schools emphasized a mastery of the Renaissance craft and discouraged originality. Their goal was to create perfect images on traditional and noble themes. Therefore, each of the paintings contains symbols for eternal values and conveys some kind of moral or lesson.
Many of these works and artists are not as well known because the modernist movement, which occurred at the end of the 19th century and continued into the 20th, overshadowed the,. These rebellious artists, such as the Impressionists, highly valued originality, and the 19th century Academics were soon seen as old-fashioned and out of date.
The exhibit’s home is at the Dahesh Museum, but before coming to the Weisman, it was in storage for the time being. Zakian, who had visited the Dahesh Museum several times before, decided this was the perfect opportunity to showcase work that would otherwise be hidden from view.
Some of the better-known pieces from the collection are “The Water Girl” by William Adolphe Bouguereau and “Working in Marble” by Jean-Leon Gerome. Bouguereau’s work typifies the reimagined rural lifestyle, portraying an idealized reality rather than honest history. Gerome’s painting is a type of self-portrait, depicting the artist working not in his present time, but in ancient Rome.
For the exhibit’s opening Saturday night, artists from the Los Angeles area who study 19th century art were invited to view the exhibition. These artists actively study these works to complement and perfect their own craft.
“The Epic and the Exotic” will be on display at the Weisman Museum through April 1.
