DAVIS MUSEUM

Erich Buchholz, Abstract Composition, 1920.

John Singer Sargent. Campo S. Agnese, Venice, ca. 1890.

Emile Bernard. Confirmand's Procession, 1891.

The Permanent Collection: Perceiving Space in Art

Perceiving Space in Art is an inquiry into the depiction and perception of space in art. Artists construct meaning through the ways they organize space, pictorially or physically, and their choices affect our experience as viewers. This gallery brings together art in the Davis collection that comes from across eras and cultures. It asks viewers to consider how space is conceptualized in a range of media, including painting, sculpture, video, performance art, and music. By paying attention to the spatial aspects of these artworks, we can become more aware of how experiencing art is also an act of perceiving—perceiving not only our relationship to art, but also our place in the broader world.

Explore a work of art on view in the Perceiving Space in Art installation online:

Click here for a Faculty Favorites podcast about Shusaku Arakawa’s Impressionable Stretching

© 2004 - Davis Museum and Cultural Center
Provider Name: Jim Olson - jolson@wellesley.edu
Created: January 14, 2003
Last Modified: April 10, 2009
Expires: March 19, 2010

above: Erich Buchholz, Abstract Composition, 1920. Oil on canvas, 59 x 54 in. (149.9 x 137.2 cm). Gift of Theodore Racoosin, 1957.31.

above: John Singer Sargent, Campo S. Agnese, Venice, ca. 1890. Oil on canvas, 18 in x 25 5/8 in. Gift of Strafford Morss in memory of his wife, Gabrielle Ladd Morss (Class of 1958), 1969.5.

above: Emile Bernard, Confirmand's Procession, 1891. Oil on canvas, 21 x 28 1/2 in. (53.3 x 72.4 cm). Gift of Chester D. Tripp in memory of his wife, Madeline Hanson Tripp (Class of 1907), 1966.15.