Most of my internship with Georgia Museum of Art Director William U. Eiland has been dedicated to preparing “Echoes from Abroad,” an exhibition of paintings from the collection of Barbara Guillaume. Opening Saturday, this selection of works features American artists from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the name of the exhibition would suggest, these artists were inspired by artistic movements in Europe, Latin America and Asia. At the beginning of my internship in January 2020, Dr. Eiland handed me a list of the artists’ names and told me to get started researching all the information I could find on them.
With little exposure to the history of American art, I approached this topic cautiously. I was intimidated, of course, to be thrown into the professional world with little idea of what I was doing. I was grateful, however, that my classes with the art history department here at the University of Georgia taught me the fundamentals of research. Additionally, the museum offered endless resources and a supportive network of professionals.
Naturally, I began with basic searches for biographical information on these artists. This proved to be the most frustrating aspect of the project. Because some artists are more discovered than others, the availability of information on them varied greatly. Most of my work in the art history department involved canonical artists who were well established in scholarly literature. For the works in Guillaume’s collection, some artists had multiple books published about them and their work, while other artists barely had a sentence entry in the Marquis Who’s Who publication. Solving this dilemma required a more creative approach to my research. I looked at numerous digitized primary documents detailing submissions to local competitions or even handwritten letters. I also found it useful to contact various libraries or archives that, every so often, provided one more piece to the puzzle.
I also read books and articles on general trends in American art. This type of research allowed me to take a different approach to the lesser-known works and fill in the gaps. When it came to writing wall labels for these works, I was able to shift my focus and direct more attention to the work’s composition, genre, medium or subject matter. I am ecstatic that I was able to shine more light on these lesser known artists, and this experience has helped me tremendously in my academic research skills.
At the tail end of writing wall labels for the exhibition, the COVID-19 pandemic started. In accordance with the government mandate, I was not able to return to the museum and finish my work. This unique situation called for a drastic change in my research methods. I could no longer run to the library to find a book or walk down the office hall to ask a question. The viability of the exhibition itself was at stake. Fortunately, due to the museum’s adherence to guidelines, I was able to come back in-person for the fall semester of 2020 and find that the exhibition was scheduled to be on view in summer 2021. I was able to get direct feedback from the curator of American art, Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, and Dr. Eiland made sure I was involved in the process as the exhibition came to fruition.
I am eternally grateful for this experience, as it taught me lots about what museum work is and showed me what meaningful research could look like. With the help of the museum staff, I learned the importance of synthesizing information and communicating the value of art to a public audience. I cannot think of a more exciting way to end my undergraduate career.
