Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera Comes to the Thorne

From Jackie Hooper, Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery:

The Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery opens a photography exhibit that examines African-American history and culture while preparing to close an Art of Africa exhibit. “Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera” opens Saturday, October 23, and continues through Sunday, December 12. “Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins,” which depicts how life and art come together in African culture, closes Sunday, October 31.

Two Keene State College art faculty members will speak about each exhibit at an opening/closing reception, hosted by the Friends of the Thorne, on Friday, October 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the gallery. Stephen Lucey, who teaches art history at Keene State College, will talk about the “Art of Africa” exhibit and Jonathan Gitelson, who teaches photography at KSC, will speak about the “Double Exposure” show.

Hank Willis Thomas, a photographer whose work is in “Double Exposure,” will speak and show slides of his photographs that deal with the language of advertising on Tuesday, October 26, at 7 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room of the Young Student Center on the KSC campus. This lecture is sponsored by the Thorne Gallery and the KSC Office for Diversity and Multiculturalism.

“Double Exposure” explores the African-American cultural experience through photographic works from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries and includes photographs, albums, cased images, and contemporary artwork that incorporate vintage photographic imagery. Photographic techniques include daguerreotypes, tintypes, cartes de visites, traditional silver prints, Polaroids, digital prints, and photographs printed on linen, wood, and felt.

The exhibit, organized by The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Inc. in Hartford, Connecticut, features the work of early known and unknown photographers, who pushed the boundaries of the medium to represent a black world of hope and dignity.

Also showing at the Thorne is the complementary “Art of Africa” exhibit, which presents sculpture, textiles, beaded clothing, and jewelry showing the creativity and diversity of artistic expression of nearly 30 cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. Accompanied by a video on African masks and dance, the exhibition illustrates the broader cultural context in which these art forms were created and used.

The gallery’s new hours are Sunday to Wednesday, noon to 5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, noon to 7 p.m.; and Saturday, noon to 8 p.m. It will be closed November 11 for Veterans Day and November 24–28 for Thanksgiving break. The exhibits, reception, and lecture are free and open to the public.

For information, call 603-358-2720 or visit www.keene.edu/tsag.