Overview

Vanishing Point: Director Selects examines the untold stories behind works of art in the Wellin Museum’s collection. Whether it’s how a work joined the institution’s holdings, a resulting creative collaboration, or a story about the impact of its development on an artist’s practice, this show aims to unpack the lives of the objects and their makers. This large survey marks a departure from approaching art through a purely analytic lens. Rather, it marks the moments and people who have been instrumental in the creation and collecting of the works on view. It unveils the process of creation itself. 

Since its founding in 2012, Tracy L. Adler has led the Wellin Museum as the Johnson-Pote Director. This exhibition is a rare opportunity to display select works of art that together tell the story of the museum, its history, and the ongoing development of its collection. The title “Vanishing Point” is inspired by the construct of single-point perspective, a Renaissance artistic development that revolutionized the pictorial representation of depth of field and receding space. It also infers the prospect of what exists beyond the visual picture plan, or the world outside what is depicted.
 

Image Credit: Elias Sime, Tightrope: Familiar Yet Complex 2, 2016. Reclaimed electronic components and insulated wire on panel, 83 x 87 1/2 in. (210.8 x 222.3 cm). Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Purchase, William G. Roehrick ’34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund.