{"id":99889,"date":"2015-01-21T09:33:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T14:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=99889"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:11:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:11:19","slug":"benton-sets-up-in-the-paint-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/01\/benton-sets-up-in-the-paint-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Benton Sets Up \u2018In the Paint\u2019 Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Oh<\/a>
‘Oh what a feeling …,’ by Awol Erizku 2014, now on display at the Benton Museum of Art. (Courtesy of the artist and Hasted Kraeutler Gallery, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Athletes have been depicted in works of art for centuries. The well known sculpture of the discus thrower was created circa 450 B.C., for example, and Olympic competitors in ancient Greece were often painted on ceramics.<\/p>\n

In the late 20th century, the addition of basketball to the modern Olympics, the expansion of the National Basketball Association, and the popularity of the NCAA Basketball Championships contributed to the globalization of the sport and increasing interest on the part of artists in the sport as a subject for their creative vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Paint: Basketball in Contemporary Art<\/a>\u201d is a multimedia artistic collaboration between UConn\u2019s two 2014 NCAA Championship basketball teams and the William Benton Museum of Art opening on Jan. 23 and continuing through March 29.<\/p>\n

The exhibition includes works by painters, printmakers, photographers, and video and mixed media artists exhibited in major galleries in New York City, California, and Florida. It also features two paintings made last summer by members of the Huskies men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams by dipping basketballs in paint to create their original works of colorful abstract art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took an art class in high school, but I would never consider myself an artist,\u201d says center Phil Nolan \u201916 (CLAS), of the men\u2019s team, who wrote his name in large letters on the canvas. \u201cI knew it was going to be fun painting with basketballs. It\u2019s definitely fascinating. I\u2019ll enjoy it, since my name is the biggest thing that will pop out on it. I just figured I should do something extra.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brianna<\/a>
Breanna Stewart, Saniya Chong, Kiah Stokes, and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis of the women’s basketball team, after painting the team’s work of abstract art. Teammate Moriah Jefferson described the painting as ‘a good team bonding experience.’ (Kevin DeMille for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adds guard Moriah Jefferson \u201916 (CLAS) of the women\u2019s team, \u201cIt was a good team bonding experience. I think it shows how much the basketball program means to the University that they would reach out and ask us to do something like that. It\u2019s an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with the dual championship basketball teams and celebrating their unique accomplishments is the kind of collaborative effort Benton director Nancy Stula says she is seeking across the University that will join art with academic pursuits, similar to the recent \u201cCHEM 101\u201d exhibition that explored the science of photography with the assistance of Challa Vijaya Kumar, professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

\n
\"William<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\"William<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Paintings made by members of the Huskies men’s (left) and women\u2019s basketball teams by dipping basketballs in paint to create original works of colorful abstract art, now on display at the Benton Museum. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe are open to collaborating with any department, just using the works of art as a launching pad,\u201d Stula says. \u201cThis is a bona fide contemporary art exhibition with the unifying theme of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeanne Ahern Mogayzel, manager of the Benton’s retail operations and visitor services, thought the student-athletes could create their own art in a manner similar to one made in 2013 by The Bean Team, a student organization that helps to promote art across the University through activities at the museum. The Bean Team threw darts at balloons filled with paint, exploding them on a canvas to create an abstract painting that now hangs framed in the museum lobby.<\/p>\n

Jean Nihoul, assistant curator at the Benton who organized the exhibition, says the art assembled for \u201cIn the Paint\u201d represents an exploration by artists of the concepts of performance, spectacle, gender, competition, branding, race, and class through basketball. The title of the exhibition comes from terminology that references the area from underneath the basket running from the baseline to the free-throw line that is often painted in a different color than the basketball court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe themes we try to touch upon are not things basketball fans always think about,\u201d Nihoul says. \u201cA lot of people really enjoy the game, but they don\u2019t think about what comes before that: a player\u2019s upbringing, their social and economic environment. For example, we have one very powerful photograph that depicts the Afghan women\u2019s basketball team. I\u2019m trying to tackle it from all different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Untitled,'<\/a>
‘Untitled,’ by Dario Excobar 2013, now on display as part of the ‘In the Paint’ exhibition at the Benton Museum of Art. (Courtesy of the artist and Mixografia Gallery, Los Angeles)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the works on display:
\n\u2022 A digital chromogenic color print by Hank Willis Thomas, \u201cAnd One, 2011\u201d from his series \u201cStrange Fruit,\u201d of two players jumping for a ball under a noose. The work references lynching of African Americans, and the image series takes its name from the 1939 Billie Holiday song that protested racism.
\n\u2022 Andrew Kuo\u2019s acrylic-on-linen painting \u201cTallboy\u201d of Jeremy Lin of the Los Angeles Lakers pondering the multimedia creation \u201cOne Ball Total Equilibrium Tank\u201d by Jeff Koons.
\n\u2022 Seriagraphs, a type of screenprinting, by Robert Indiana that served as models and designs for the court at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center.
\n\u2022 Various UConn basketball memorabilia coordinated by Tim Tolokan, special assistant to the director of athletics, who is curator of the J. Robert Donnelly Husky Heritage Sports Museum.<\/p>\n

Nihoul says some of the art may help museum visitors to better understand technical concepts of basketball. The video installation of Janet Biggs, in particular, places the viewer on the court as two players wrestle for control of the ball\u00a0\u2013 former Husky NCAA champions Morgan Valley \u201905 (SFS) and Maria Conlon \u201904 (CLAS) in a one-on-one contest at Gampel Pavilion. The video first was exhibited at UConn\u2019s Contemporary Art Galleries in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really gives viewers more of an opportunity to experience the game from the player\u2019s point of view,\u201d Nihoul says.<\/p>\n

The Huskies whose work will be displayed in the Benton hope fans who visit the museum will leave with a new perspective on the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t look at basketball that way,\u201d says All-American Breanna Stewart \u201916 (CLAS) of the women\u2019s team. \u201cThe fact that you can have art through basketball and create some kind of canvas is kind of cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Salon at the Benton series will feature a panel titled \u201cHoop Dreams\u201d on Friday, March 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Paint: Basketball in Contemporary Art\u201d will be on display from Jan. 23 through March 29, along with “Sweet Sensations: Inspired by the 2015 UConn Reads Book Selection, The Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma,” at the Benton Museum of Art, 245 Glenbrook Road, Storrs. For more information, go to the Benton\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An exhibition opening Jan. 23 at the Benton Museum features artworks that explore the world of basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":99932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-99889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 18:47:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99889"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100027,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99889\/revisions\/100027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/99932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99889"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=99889"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=99889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}