The Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery has partnered with the Wartburg Community Symphony and the Waverly Arts Center to present Pictures at an Exhibition.
The exhibit is open to the public through Nov. 7. The Waldemar A. Schmidt Gallery, located in the Bachman Fine Arts Center on the Wartburg campus, is open daily 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Pictures at an Exhibition features works thematically connected to the scenes portrayed in each movement of Modest Mussorgsky’s composition by the same name. Visitors are encouraged to bring headphones and a device that can scan QR codes and play music so they can listen to each movement of the piece while viewing the related works of art.
The Wartburg Community Symphony performed Mussorgsky’s piece at its Oct. 17 concert. The original 1874 piano suite was a musical depiction of Mussorgsky’s tour through an exhibition of works by his friend, Viktor Hartmann, who died suddenly at 39. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual painting, half of which are now lost. In 1922, Maurice Ravel created the orchestral adaptation of Mussorgsky’s work that was performed by the symphony.
As with Mussorgsky’s tribute to his late friend, the works in this exhibition include late artists with connections to the Wartburg Community Symphony and Wartburg College, including internationally renowned illustrator Gary Kelley and fine artist Arthur C. Frick II.
Kelley was actively involved with music and the Wartburg Community Symphony. Frick taught at Wartburg from 1976 to1994 and was instrumental in starting the Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery and the college’s permanent art collection of more than 500 pieces.
The exhibit also includes work from the Wartburg Permanent Collection, Dennis Peterka, Paula Survilla and others. The Wartburg Community Symphony hosted a community competition seeking pieces that highlighted the connections between art and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Top Wartburg student and community submissions, as determined by a panel of judges, are included in the exhibit. In addition, the Waverly Arts Center and Angie Steuer, an elementary art teacher in the Waverly-Shell Rock schools, worked with more than 290 students to create works inspired by five of the movements, many of which are on display.
Select works by artists will also be for sale through the artist’s agents. For more information, please visit www.wartburg.edu/gallery.
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