The first time Lichtenstein’s offered up his paintings for sale, he sold one “Crying Girl”, for $10, to a good friend of his.

In 2015 Lichtenstein’s work was sold again. This time, at a prestigious Christie’s auction. The winning bid? 95 million.

What makes a work of art worth more than another? Why are some works famous, and some unknown? Our exhibition, UN/SEEN, works to complicate the viewer’s understanding of these questions. 

With time, and with your help, we can begin to make this largely unseen student art a part of the conversation. Enjoy!

The exhibition juxtaposes two works of art at a time: one world renowned, and one student made and previously under the radar. Despite their differences in visibility, the works placed together often deal with some of the same images and themes.

 

Our first work comparison is a work Riku Nakano. Riku is from the class of ’25, and works in a variety of mediums such as graphite, oil paint, and collage. In both these pieces, the protagonist grapples with a dangerous adversary. Riku’s ramen coils like a snake, only barely able to be wrangled by skilled chopsticks. The piece captures the scene at a moment of tension, right at the crucial moment of the battle: will the hero come out on top, or will they be defeated?

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Next, a work from Coco Rhum. Coco primarily works in linoleum printmaking, but has recently branched out into oil paint and pastel. While these pieces were made almost 200 years apart, they use a nearly identical technique, that involves first carving the piece in relief, and then using ink to transfer the etched design to paper. In both, the feline’s claws are extended—lashing out in aggression or fear, it’s never quite sure.

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The bright colors of Ellie Iorio’s Hollyhock Reduction are striking, and hold in their composition a similar tension between the natural and the artificial as in Warhol’s flowers. Ellie is a class of ’25 artist and rower, passionate about exploring the natural world through artwork. Can an artwork be a statement on the nature of beauty, while also being beautiful? From these pieces, it seems clear the answer is yes.

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In Elsa Martin’s Masked Chaos Figure, an anonymous nude figure is almost consumed by the patterns that surround her. While the tone of the pieces is different, their look is affectingly similar: in Matisse’s work the face is also obscured, as if in the act of preservation in art some ineffable humanness is subsumed by the color. Elsa is from the class of ’25, and enjoys running and drawing from life.

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Finally, in this potent piece from Riku Nakano, the body consumes itself. Riku’s double self portrait mimics the gaze of Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Son, a grim doubling placed in high contrast by the dark backgrounds. As in Goya’s piece, found after his death in his kitchen, Riku’s piece is highly personal. The works are difficult, intense, and self-consuming.

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All art takes inspiration from and pushes past the art that came before. In today’s market dominated art world, these inspirations and visual rhymes can get lost in the noise. In our exhibition, we wanted to bring the focus back to the artwork, and in a world of difference, show how much is still the same. Thank you so much for viewing the exhibition, we hope you enjoyed!