Buswell, Rolled newspapers, silver galatin print, Montana. (Photograph by Eileen Rafferty)

Aicher, 1984 Official Olympic Poster, Los Angeles, California, lithograph on paper, Paul Thomas Collection. (Photo by Eileen Rafferty)

Anonymous, Senufo, Inland Ivory Coast, Rhythm Pounder, 1900-1950, mixed media wood and natural pigments, Tony Hoyt Collection. (Photo by Eileen Rafferty)

Richard S. Buswell: 50 Years of Photography

The Montana Museum of Art and Culture features “Richard S. Buswell: Fifty Years of Photography” from May 28 through Aug. 28 in the Paxson Gallery of UM’s Performing Arts and Radio/TV Center.

For over five decades, Richard S. Buswell has photographed Montana’s ghost towns and homesteads. This 50-year retrospective exhibition reveals the wide range and variety of his photographs. Beautifully crafted, always thought-provoking and sometimes unnerving, Buswell’s photographs of abandoned places, buildings and artifacts demonstrate his powers of observation and his affection for his home state.

“The exhibition, Buswell’s sixth solo show at MMAC, brings together 72 duotone photographs that span his long and productive artistic career,” said MMAC Director H. Rafael Chacón.

May 28 to August 28, 2021 at the Paxson Gallery.

Movement: Graphics and the Olympic Games

Since their creation in 1896, the modern Olympic games have become an important cultural phenomenon in our world. The games are an attempt to revive the ancient values of athleticism, sportsmanship and peaceful competition within a united global community. The graphic arts, primarily in the form of colorful posters, have been a prominent way of broadcasting those values and promoting the individual games hosted by nation states over the last 125 years. 

This exhibition brings together 35 compelling posters on loan from the collection of Paul Thomas representing the exciting history of the Olympic games and th epower of the graphic arts to articulate important social movements. In addition to revealing the evolution of graphic design, these posters also highlight the importance of global events amd the development of mass culture across the 20th and 21st centuries. 

The MMAC wishes to thank Paul Thomas for the loan of these works. We also greatly appreciate the efforts of Curatorial Intern Ashley Rickman and UM Student Gallery Attendants Kain Brauneis, Hannah Davis and Ronin Hoffman for assisting in the installation of the exhibition. Additionally, we thank Humanities Montana, the Montana Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and a private donor whose generous financial contributions have made this exhibition possible.

Announcing the Virtual Docent Tour to "Movement: Graphics and the Olympic Games" at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture.

July 9 to August 28, 2021 At the Paxson Gallery.

Homage to Africa: The Tony Hoyt and Molly Shepherd Collections  

“These two Montana-based private collections reveal the richness and splendor of African art in the post-colonial period and the diverse world views of the distinct societies that created it,” said MMAC Director H. Rafael Chacón.

UM alumnus Tony Hoyt has collected African art since his youth. A large part of his collection was acquired by his mother, Dorothy Hoyt, a founder of the Ithaca College Museum. Much of the collection – particularly sculptures of ancestral figures and spirits, as well as masks used in elaborate masquerades – came from his time in the Peace Corps in Liberia during 1967-69. Another portion came from Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal member Doug Allard, a long-time collector and purveyor of art from beyond the Western tradition. The Hoyt Collection, focused on the centrality of art in its ceremonial context, has been researched and studied extensively by UM art history students over the last decade.

UM Law School alumna and textile artist Molly Shepherd has collected African art for over 30 years. At the core of her collection are exquisite textiles created by the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of Congo and other functional items such as baskets and headrests from Ethiopia and eastern central Africa. Shepherd said she prefers “the abstract to the representational … the challenge of ambiguity, unpredictability and surprise” in African art. “Some quality in the work touches us and sustains our attention, resonates within us in a way that may be difficult to articulate or resist,” she said. “It’s not unlike falling in love.”

February 5 to May 8, 2021 at the Paxson Gallery.

Take a virtual docent tour of this exhibition online. For the Tony Hoyt Collection, click on:
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=br4D2fSaFqj and for the Molly Shepherd exhibition, visit: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=U4skjFWs3KJ.

Art Under Pressure: Function and Form in Prints from the MMAC Collection