What's New at Oglethorpe University Museum of Art

This exhibition, Slow Painting: A Deliberate Renaissance, explores a new art movement focused on highly skilled figure painting harkening back to the Old Masters of Europe. The exhibit brings together over 40 contemporary paintings and drawings by 22 artists. These New Realism artists intend to lead contemporary art into the future. With its attention to detail and beauty, slow painting is very rapidly gaining recognition as a bold new movement and is being lauded as New York’s new "fast".

This exhibition, Portals to Shangri-La: Masterpieces From Buddhist Mongolia, marks the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's founding of the United Mongolian State. The exhibition focuses on Mongolia's image as a portal to the mystical land of Shambala, the source of James Hilton's concept of Shangri-La. These works by Mongolian masters are considered to be tunnels or portals to a higher reality.

OUMA’s permanent collection represents the diverse and international exhibitions the museum has held over the past twenty years. Among the works in the collection are: Todd Webb’s dramatic photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe, etchings by Camille Corot and August Rodin, realist paintings by Americans Richard Maury and D. Jeffrey Mims and Spaniard Francisco Roa, and the classic 14th century Japanese Kamakura Buddha “Amitabha.” Recent gifts to the museum and acquisitions include: watercolors by Francis Augustus Silva and Sondra Freckelton, Chad Awalt’s finely carved torso, and Gail Wegodsky’s oil interior scene.

Nicholas Roerich:
The Unspilled Chalice

OUMA has been honored to host the truly magnificent exhibition, Nicholas Roerich: The Mystical Journey, running from September 19 through December 19, 2004.

Thirty-five of Roerich's paintings from private American collections have been on display for the first time in America. The exhibition has brought together a stunning group of the master’s mystical works, including the first Western paintings of Tibet and Central Asia, a painting for the opera, Sadko, and a hauntingly iconic painting of the Queen of Heaven.

Exhibition Catalog
Available

Press Release in English

Press Release in Russian

Top

Masterpiece Painting of 20th Century U.S. Presidents to Be Displayed at Oglethorpe

"A Meeting in Time" depicts 20th century Presidents of the United States gathered in the cross halls of the White House. The 13' x 20' canvas is a masterpiece by the Bulgarian artist, Rossin, who now resides in Atlanta. The work took nearly four years to complete. Prior to his move to Atlanta in 2001, Rossin enjoyed a varied international career in Japan, France, Germany, England and Belgium. Born in 1964, he graduated from the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. His growing portfolio of noted clients and works includes a double portrait of President George W. Bush and President George H. W. Bush for the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas. Beginning January 2005, "A Meeting in Time" will be displayed at Oglethorpe University in partnership with the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art.

Top

Broadway Producer Edgar Lansbury Speaks on Roerich at OUMA

On Saturday, November 13, OUMA was honored to welcome Edgar Lansbury, acclaimed Broadway producer, and President of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York. As part of a special fund raising event for the Museum, Mr. Lansbury presented an enlightened lecture on the paintings and mystical insight of Nicholas Roerich to an audience of more than 75 Museum patrons. The event took place in conjunction with the OUMA exhibition, Nicholas Roerich: The Mystical Journey.

Mr. Lansbury has produced a score of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including "The Magic Show," which introduced Doug Henning to audiences, and the London and New York productions of "Gypsy," starring his sister, Angela Lansbury. His international productions have included "Godspell" and "American Buffalo," which won the Critics' Circle Award.

Top

Fourth Graders Visit OUMA

On Nov. 4-5, 2004, seven classes of Paulding County fourth graders visited the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, along with the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, for a day of the arts. The children toured the Museum and learned about the current exhibit, Nicholas Roerich: The Mystical Journey. Museum Director Lloyd Nick greeted the young visitors and shared background information with them about the Museum and the university. Next, museum docents spoke to the children about Russian master Roerich's paintings. The children asked insightful questions and impressed museum staff with their knowledge of art and global facts.

To arrange school tours with the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, please contact Betsy Ayers at (404) 364-8551, or use our online response form to contact her by email.

Top

CLICK HERE to purchase from our Online Store

Glenn Mullin's brilliant book, Female Buddhas: Women of Enlightenment in Tibetan Mystical Art was recently chosen 2003 "Book of the Year" in the Religion category by ForeWord Magazine. Representatives from the small press community joined ForeWord editors in Chicago at BookExpo America on June 4, 2004 to announce the winners in each of 47 categories. Female Buddhas was written by Glenn in conjunction with OUMA's 2002-03 exhibition, The Female Buddha: Women of Enlightenment in Tibetan Mysticism, and served as catalog for that exhibition. Glenn was also curator of the exhibition.

Established in 1998, ForeWord's Book of the Year awards program has become one of the most prestigious honors for independent presses and their authors. Congratulations to Glenn and to all whose contributions helped to make this wonderful achievement possible!

Top