The Davis Museum at Wellesley College presents Gendered Value: Curators’ Choice, a theme-based exploration of artworks in the permanent collections of the Davis Museum selected by eight members of the curatorial staff. The works cover a unique cross-section of the collections, highlighting interesting objects across periods, genres, and cultures, which have rarely been on view. Various media including painting, sculpture, photography, textiles, prints, and drawings are represented in more than 4o works of art. On view in the Joan Levine Freedman ’57 and Richard I. Freedman Gallery, the exhibition opens on February 10, and runs through June 5, 2016.

Particularly relevant at Wellesley, a women’s college, Gendered Value: Curators’ Choice places the permanent collections of the Davis Museum within the context of feminist art history and explores the contested matters of “gender” and “value” in works of art across cultures and time periods. By problematizing the notion of a masculine and feminine divide and the relative worth assigned to each term, this exhibition endeavors to illuminate the complex interplay of the two via little known artworks in the collections.

“Gendered Value is not only a fascinating examination of gender representation in art, and in relation to culturally located assessments of value, but also provides a glimpse into unseen parts of the Davis Museum collections, as well as illuminates the curatorial staff’s thought processes,” said Alicia LaTores, Curatorial Assistant and curator of the exhibition.

Drawing on individual scholarly interests and expertise, each curator examines works that encapsulate their personal conception of “Gendered Value.” The curatorial responses will form vignettes that focus on different representations of the theme. Examples include the strong division made between the genders in the work of the Künstlergruppe Brücke artists in 20th century Germany, the societal value placed on women as mother, the gendered production and consumption of textiles in Early Modern Europe, the juxtaposition of the themes of the male body in relation to disposability, and violence and the female body and its historical linkages with nature as portrayed by artists in the 1960s.

For example, Dr. Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Collections, captured the complexities of “gendered value” through depictions of the Biblical story of the woman of Samaria. In the works below, Straussman-Pflanzer says, “Jesus speaks to the nameless woman of Samaria despite her gender and low social status as a Samaritan. Jesus explains to her about the ability of water to wash away sin. It shows that value--numerical or moral--can be assigned to anyone based on their gender, but that we can all decide to wash these false constructions away and start afresh.

EXHIBITION-RELATED PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Spring Opening Celebration

Wednesday, February 10 | 5–7 p.m. | Davis Lobby and Galleries

The Davis and the Wellesley College community host a grand reception to celebrate the opening of the spring 2016 exhibitions, inviting visitors to view the Museum’s many new offerings. This event is free and open to the public.

Curatorial Gallery Talks

Tuesday, February 16, and Tuesday, April 26 | 4 p.m. | Davis Galleries

At each gallery talk, four Davis curators will present their personal selections for the exhibition and discuss their process for interpreting the highly-contested phrase, “gendered value,” as well as its implications for our understanding of art history. This event is free and open to the public.

Gendered Value and related programs are supported entirely through the generosity of the Wellesley College Friends of Art, now celebrating 50 years of giving.