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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> A local exhibit featuring large, panoramic landscapes of Alergia is currently on display at Skidmore College.
Titled, “Inhabited Landscapes: Bougault’s Algeria,” the exhibition is available to view through April 23 at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, located on the Skidmore College campus in Saratoga Springs.
The panoramic landscapes of this current exhibit were created during the late-19th and early20th centuries by the French photographer Alexandre Bougault.
The photographs circulated among European and North American audiences through the tourist industry.
The images feature a variety of scenes that at first glance recall the French Romantic Orientalist vision: stoic Arabian Camels amid an endless Saharan expanse, large groups of cloaked figures kneeling in prayer, a sea of low slung clay buildings, and women gathering water in a palmfilled oasis.
This project invites a new reading of the photographs as spaces where the notions of identity, loss, presence, and power shape the complex relations between the Algerian terrain and its inhabitants. The landscapes can be seen to reveal a series of paradoxes, making visible the conundrum of European Imperialism – the desire to modernize a “primitive” land, while at the same time longing to experience and represent it as untouched by Western modernization.
As part of the Tang’s Family Saturdays series, an all ages event about this exhibit will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on March 25.
Attendees will look at Inhabited Landscapes: Bougault’s Algeria together. After talking about the landscapes in his photos, event-goers can make oases with palm trees, some camels, and whatever else you might wish for as you cross the desert.
Family Saturdays are meant to foster multigenerational creative cooperation through looking at artwork, discussing it, and engaging in a hands-on art activity. All materials are provided.
This programs is free and open to the public, and suitable for children ages five and older, accompanied by their adult companions. Reservations are required.
Inhabited Landscapes: Bougault’s Algeria is curated by Ana-Joel FalcónWiebe, lecturer in Art History, and is supported by Accelerate: Access and Inclusion at the Tang Teaching Museum, a project of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Friends of the Tang.
Falcón-Wiebe will give a tour of the exhibition at noon on Wednesday, April 1. This tour is free and open to the public.
This exhibit is part of The Tang Teaching Museum’s ongoing effort to be a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning.
More information on Inhabited Landscapes: Bougault’s Algeria and other happenings at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College visit tang.skidmore.edu.
For additional information or to reserve a spot at Family Saturday, call the Tang’s Visitor Service Desk at (518) 580-8080.