CONF 24.10.2014

Sylvan Cemetery (New York, 25 Oct 14)

New York City, Columbia University, Schermerhorn Hall, 25.10.2014

Elisabeth Rochau-Shalem

Symposium
Sylvan Cemetery: Architecture, Art and Landscape at Woodlawn

(Free and open to the public; galleries will be open from 1–6 pm)

Authors for a new book published on the occasion of the exhibition by
Columbia University's Avery Library and The Woodlawn Cemetery, will
present their original research on the changing ideas about memorial
monuments and commemorative landscapes. Speakers will include: Woodlawn
Cemetery's historian Susan Olsen; Professor Andrew S. Dolkart, director
of Historic Preservation, Columbia University; Alice Cooney
Frelinghuysen, curator of American Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum
of Art; and Charles D. Warren, architect and architectural historian.

Curated by Janet Parks, Susan Olsen, and Charles D. Warren


PROGRAM

1:00
Welcome
Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library

1:15
Commemorating an Anniversary: Woodlawn at 150
Susan Olsen, Director, Historical Services, Woodlawn Cemetery

1:45
Garden Necropolis: Planning Woodlawn's Landscape
Charles D. Warren, Architect

2:15
Designing Woodlawn: Buildings and Landscapes
Andrew S. Dolkart, Professor of Historic Preservation, Columbia
University GSAPP

2:45
Behind Closed Doors: Notable Stained Glass at Woodlawn Cemetery
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Curator of American Decorative Arts, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art

3:15
Curating the Woodlawn Archive & Exhibit
Janet Parks, Curator of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine
Arts Library

3:30 Q&A

4:00
Welcome to the Sylvan Cemetery exhibition
Jeanette Silverthorne, Associate Director, Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art
Gallery


The exhibition "Sylvan Cemetery" at the Wallach Art Gallery is
co-curated by Janet Parks, Charles D. Warren and Susan Olsen.

Sylvan Cemetery: Architecture, Art and Landscape at Woodlawn coincides
with Woodlawn's 150th anniversary celebration, and is an outgrowth of
the Cemetery's 2006 gift of its archive—the most complete set of 19th–
and 20th–century cemetery records held in the public trust–to the Avery
Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. The
exhibition marks the first time selections from this archive will be
displayed.

Sylvan Cemetery highlights the renowned architects, artists, artisans
and landscape designers whose work has come to define Woodlawn Cemetery,
which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011 for the
significance of its art and architecture. Through the display of
preparatory and design drawings and sketches, maps, building elevations,
early photographs, maintenance records and letters, the exhibition will
examine Woodlawn's creation in 1863, its response and adaptation to
changing ideas about memorial monuments and commemorative landscapes
since then and its role in defining the art, architecture and landscape
of American cemeteries.

Key objects in the exhibition include: a door from the Straus
Mausoleum–the final resting place of Isidor and Ida Straus, who perished
during the sinking of the Titanic–created by metalworker Samuel Yellin;
a maquette of the Vernon Castle Memorial by sculptor Sally Farnham and a
stained glass window by Tiffany Studios, from the Harbeck Mausoleum.

Woodlawn exemplifies the landscape-lawn style of cemetery that became
popular after the Civil War. The park-like setting encouraged the
creation of freestanding monuments and mausoleums, which wealthy New
Yorkers commissioned the leading architects to design and the era's
best-known artists and craftsmen to embellish. In the process, fine art
sculpture, metalwork and stained glass became central to Woodlawn's
landscape and influenced memorials at other American cemeteries.
Featured in Sylvan Cemetery will be the work of landscape designers
Beatrix Farrand, the Olmsted Brothers and Ellen Biddle Shipman;
architects McKim, Mead, & White, Carrère & Hastings and John Russell
Pope; as well as craftsmen and artists Rafael Guastavino and son Rafael,
Jr., Louis Comfort Tiffany, John LaFarge, Samuel Yellin and Alexander
Archipenko.

"The creation of Woodlawn is a classic New York story of money, real
estate, art and familial relationships," said exhibition co–curator and
Woodlawn Cemetery's historian Susan Olsen. "It is also a national story,
which started in the industrial age and goes through today, as prominent
Americans continue to choose Woodlawn as their final resting place. This
story is written into our landscape and is on view for anyone who visits
our monuments and gravesites."

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue,
co-published by Columbia University's Avery Library and The Woodlawn
Cemetery, which includes an introduction by Susan Olsen and essays by
Andrew S. Dolkart, director of Historic Preservation, Columbia
University; Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, curator of American Decorative
Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art; the late Cynthia Mills, Smithsonian
Historian Emeritus, and Charles D. Warren, architect and architectural
historian. The catalogue also features previously unpublished images of
memorials and mausoleums.

Quellennachweis:
CONF: Sylvan Cemetery (New York, 25 Oct 14). In: ArtHist.net, 24.10.2014. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/8620>.

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