Power, beauty, strength found in art as simple and as revealing as a cosmetic boxBy Susan Williams | |
 A section of the exhibit will explore women’s activities in the household. Greece and Rome were patriarchal cultures that believed the home was the center of a woman’s universe. Two highlights are the scent bottles (below) and a Medusa image (above) on the cover of a cosmetic box. The image has snakes for hair and a deadly white face meant to avert the evil eye and give the user a sense of power.
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What exactly does a museum curator do?
“The curator is, in her own way, like a documentary film scriptwriter, manager and director, all in one,” said Adriana Calinescu, curator of ancient art at the IU Art Museum since 1984. “She develops the concept, puts the narrative together and shows the story.” In the case of “The Spindle and the Shrine: Daily Life of Women in Classical Times,” an exhibit opening at the museum on Saturday, Oct. 7, think of Calinescu also as a cruise director for a “voyage of discovery.” The price is right; admission is free. And you’ll not have to pack formal wear. This is a populist exhibit. “Most of the objects in the show come from our storage holdings and are on view for the first time,” said Calinescu. “Indeed, if everything were exhibited at all times, the phrase ‘use of the collections’ would be meaningless. “Our ancient collection is of great variety, and in a way, the history of how a collection has been formed accounts for this show’s structure. I drew many pieces from the gifts of Burton Y. Berry,” she continued. “He was an alumnus who was a diplomat in v arious Mediterranean countries in the ’30s and ’40s of the last century, and he assembled a vast collection of artifacts that were ‘of the people,’ as he liked to put it, not only of high culture.” Consequently, Calinescu said, the breadth of IU’s collection allows her, as a curator, to present this show as an American first, but not because it focuses on women—that’s been done before. This show is unique in its juxtaposition of high art with humble r objects, a contrast that allows museum goers a more encompassing voyage toward discovering antiquity. “I am able to present from the point of view of the life of women, domestic utensils—lighting devices, home security implements like keys and padlocks, and market utensils such as scales and weights—and also charming toiletry articles and adornments for d ress, body and hair,” she said. “It is very interesting how women adorned themselves, from the glamorous gold jewelry of the rich to the glass, bronze and base metal jewelry of the poor.” Calinescu’s background is in art history with a specialization in Greek vase painting. She has organized several shows from the IU collection, including a major exhibit of ancient jewelry that traveled the U.S. and Europe, and has directed an internationa l conference on ancient jewelry and the archaeological context. But despite her extensive knowledge of ancient art, revisiting the objects from the perspective of a woman’s daily life was newly revealing. “I became fully aware of the interplay of images, meanings and correspondences between high art and popular decorative or domestic artifact only in preparing this exhibit,” she explained. “Daily life objects sometimes reveal links to cultural icons seen i n famous works. This mutual illumination is illustrated nicely, to give just one example, by a woman’s cosmetic box we are showing. Rather than featuring the face of a beauty, it carries the image of the snake-haired Medusa, a symbol of the awesome power and strength of the feminine. “This has been particularly enriching for me in my work on this show.” |
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Publication date: September 29, 2000
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