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In addition to water, fertile soil, and a pH level of about 6.5, corn loves sunlight. But perfecting the combination of these resources fundamental to the development of corn can be quite tricky. Great variation in growing conditions can exist within meters of each other, let alone from the Farm to the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center (VAC). The current partnership between Davidson College, Nicholas Galanin, and the Catawba Nation involves growing corn at the Davidson College Farm, the Van Every/Smith Galleries, and the Pat Peroni Greenhouse: three very different environments with very different outcomes. The corn grown...

Alice Neel (American, 1900-1984)The Youth, 1982Lithograph in colors on Arches paper38 x 25 inGift of John Andrew MacMahon '95 In this portrait, a young man sits directly in the middle of the painting. Sitting on an unpainted seat, the figure leans forward with his arms crossed over his legs and looks straight at the viewer. On the unpainted background, only the head and the arms are bathed in color. The figure in the painting wears a striped gray button down shirt and gray pants. The background is all canvas besides a patch of white to the right of the head,...

In the fall of 2021, Davidson College released a Call For Qualifications for the creation of a commemorative work of art to honor the contributions of enslaved people and others whose labor was exploited. The call was open to professional artists, architects, landscape architects, and design teams with experience managing, designing, and completing public art commissions. The jury identified the most highly qualified artist(s)/architects/teams for this opportunity, and selected five finalists, including Radcliffe Bailey. Radcliffe Bailey | Photo by LaMont Hamilton "I've always felt like the only way I can heal myself is to go back through my memory, learn...

From my limited experience with painting, I have often used water for cleaning my brushes and occasionally thinned my paint. However, when it comes to Nicholas Galanin’s work, Unshadowed Land, those two common art terms have vastly different meanings. Rather than experimenting with new aesthetics or creating contrasting layers within a work, the thinning recently done to the corn grown in the outline of Andrew Jackson involved selectively removing plants from the soil. Despite the glaring differences in action, the function of thinning plants relates to thinning paint in one beautifully efficient way: creating more with less.  On a gorgeous...

Eugène Delacroix (French, b. 1798)Juive d'Alger (Jewish Woman of Algiers), 1830 EtchingGallery Purchase 1830's, North Africa. Eugène Delacroix and his friend, Count de Mornay, are on a good-will, diplomatic mission to the Sultan of Morocco. Delacroix’s drawings fill countless pages of his sketchbooks, depicting his observations of Arab life. An encounter greatly influences Delacroix’s practice; assigned as the dragoman for the travels is Abraham-Ben-Chimol of Tangiers, who introduces Delacroix to his wife and daughter. The trajectory of Delacroix’s etchings shifts to depicting young Jewish women in modest interiors. In Juive d’Alger, a young Jewish woman in traditional dress sits in...