Franklin Evans at the Nevada Museum of Art

Manet to Maya Lin

June 9, 2018 - September 2, 2018  
John Hawley Olds LaGatta Gallery 

The Nevada Museum of Art is the largest provider of arts education in the State of Nevada. As such, one of our primary goals is to give Museum visitors the opportunity to see masterful artworks in an intimate setting and facilitate fluency in the language of art. Manet to Maya Lin presents artworks drawn from the collections of the Nevada Museum of Art, augmented by select loans from private collections. These include paintings by artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Mark Rothko, among others. Visitors are encouraged to experiment with visual arts literacy tools known as close looking; recognizing technique; and discussion to develop a deeper connection to these extraordinary artworks.

We live in an increasingly visual world, where images are superseding words as our primary form of communication. The ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from images impacts our capacity to successfully navigate language, communication, and critical human interaction. As one of the older forms of human communication, the language of art has always been a vital component for navigating our own visual literacy. In this light, constructing meaning from art becomes less an elite skill reserved for the halls of academia and more of an essential aptitude to succeed in a digital world.

Through personal engagements with both historically significant and experimental contemporary artists, we learn to look for details and we recognize important artistic processes and techniques. Most importantly, we learn to actively construct meaning through conversation.  Manet to Maya Lin has the power to show us the ways we create meaning from art: By walking through the galleries and experiencing the works of art on display, we open ourselves to the possibilities of a visually literate society.

This exhibition is made possible by the generosity of these sponsors:

Sponsor: Louise A. Tarble Foundation