THE GIFT Exhibition Opens This Month at Godwin-Ternbach Museum

A new exhibition at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum (GTM) at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), THE GIFT: Queens College Collects, on view from February 23 through May 25, 2023, will explore works from the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, QC Fashion and Textile Collection, QC Art Department, Louis Armstrong House Museum, Queens College Library, and Daghlian Collection of Chinese Art.

A public opening reception will take place on Thursday, February 23, from 6 to 8 pm at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum. Please RSVP for the opening by February 20, 2023 by emailing gtmuseum@qc.cuny.edu. Visit www.gtmuseum.org for museum hours, location, and directions to campus.

Historically, Queens College began officially acquiring art and artifacts from 1937 on to be utilized as a teaching collection for students and faculty interested in examining art and material culture. This formed, in part, the core of GTM founded in 1981, developing over time into the world class institution the museum is today, and holding the largest collection in CUNY of over 7,000 works of art and artifacts. As a teaching museum (and the only museum of its kind in Queens), GTM makes selected objects available to students for a unique "hands-on" experience within the museum itself or in its art storage facility. Additionally, GTM holds the Daghlian Collection of Chinese Art given to the college in 2012, spanning 5,000 years of Chinese history in about 1,600 objects in a variety of media including ceramic, wood, stone, jade, textiles, paper, ivory, and bronze. This comprehensive, didactic collection is used to illustrate Chinese art and art history, as well as Chinese history, culture, anthropology, religion, philosophy and language.

GTM will highlight little seen works by 20th century and contemporary artists Louise Nevelson, Hale Woodruff, Alberto Burri, Robert Kipniss, Andy Warhol, Miguel Conde, Robert Wilson, Pat Lasch, Marcel Duchamp, as well as historical works by Lesser Uri, Antoine-Louis Bayre, an Egyptian sarcophagus fragment illustrating the Book of the Dead, and panels from a 16th century French devotional shrine depicting the Deposition given by Metropolitan Museum of Art donors Mr. and Mrs. Jack Linsky.

Other collections include the Louis Armstrong House Museum given to QC in 1991, comprising the contents of Louis and Lucille's home and archives, of which selections from 500 home recorded reel-to-reel tape boxes and 86 scrapbooks collaged by Louis will be on display.

Loans from the QC Fashion and Textiles Collection founded in 1950 include selections from over 2,000 dress and textile items from 19th century day dresses to 20th century West African dashikis to couture evening wear by designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, and Mary McFadden. Some notable donors include the Brooklyn and Metropolitan Museums, Jayne Wrightsman, Kate McNally Cote, Marie-Josee Kravis, and William Lipton.

Loans of artworks from QC Library and Special Collections & Archives Department including 20th century modernist works on paper by Man Ray, Pierre Bonnard, Reginald Marsh, Jacques Villon, and Grant Wood, an oil on canvas by Fairfield Porter, as well as artists' books by Yoko Ono, LaMonte Young, and Nam June Paik, Kara Walker, John Baldessari, Guerrilla Girls, billy o'callaghan, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Barbara Kruger.

QC Art Department holds important modern and contemporary prints by Jose Bedia, Phillip Guston, K.O.S. and Tim Rollins, and H.C. Westermann.

THE GIFT: Queens College Collects is funded in part by the Friends of the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Kupferberg Center for the Arts, and Queens College, CUNY. Educational programs and initiatives are supported in part by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with NY City Council.

About the Godwin-Ternbach Museum

The Godwin-Ternbach Museum, a part of Queens College's Kupferberg Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, presents contemporary and historical exhibitions and programs that provide exciting educational opportunities and aesthetic experiences to the college community and residents of Queens, Manhattan, and Long Island. As the only museum in the CUNY system, and the only encyclopedic collection of art and artifacts in the borough housing over 7,000 global objects that date from ancient to modern times, the museum introduces visitors to works they might not otherwise encounter. Virtual and in-person programs complement and interpret the art on view to serve the needs and interests of local and international communities. All exhibitions and programs are free.

About Queens College

Queens College enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs. With its graduate and undergraduate degrees, honors programs, and research and internship opportunities, the college helps its students realize their potential in countless ways, assisted by an accessible, award-winning faculty. Located on a beautiful, 80-acre campus in Flushing, the college has been cited by Princeton Review as one of America's Best Value Colleges for five consecutive years, as well as being ranked a U.S. News and World Report Best College and Forbes Magazine Best Value College thanks to its outstanding academics, generous financial aid packages, and relatively low costs. Visit our homepage (www.qc.cuny.edu) to learn more.

Photo Credit: Alberto Burri Muffa T, 1952 collage, plastic, cement, resin, and oil on canvas Collection Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Gift of David G. Thompson, 58.21