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Nearly two years ago, Wayne Franits centered his senior seminar class’ exhibit on 19th century painter Winslow Homer’s engravings. When it came time for him to teach the seminar again this school year, the Syracuse University art history professor decided to focus on children in art.

After a year of planning and researching, “Days of Future Passed: Children in World Art” will open on Thursday and run until May 24 in the Shaffer Art Building’s Wiezel Gallery. The exhibit will feature 21 pieces relating to children in different historical time periods, such as a 19th century Japanese photograph and a vibrant Dutch print created by painter Karel Appel in 1971. For their senior seminar, students created wall texts that explain each piece and will be set alongside the works.

Franits said exhibits normally take two to five years of planning, but he began prepping last spring. Emily Dittman, SU Art Museum’s associate director, and other staff members helped the professor whittle down the museum’s over 45,000 piece collection to just 21 during the summer.

“If you just look for children in artwork, probably, there’s much more than 21,” Dittman said. “(Franits) wanted a wide array of representations.”

Within the first weeks of his senior seminar during the fall, Franits divided up the 21 pieces and gave each student three to do research on. Over the semester, students visited the museum and looked at their assigned pieces, with students going into the study rooms for half-hour to an hour appointments, using magnifying glasses and lights to further examine the pieces.

Works students researched range from wood carvings to Japanese photographs. Christopher Scarglato | Asst. Culture Editor

One student in Franits’ class, SU senior Giovanna Veiga, wasn’t sure about what to look for in each piece. She handled one of her assigned pieces, a ceramic from Molela, a village in Rajasthan, India, carefully with gloves.

“Every time you look at it, you find anything,” she said.

Veiga, along with other students, reported their findings through presentations and eventually created a research paper at the end of the semester. Each student also wrote an approximately 200-word wall text for their assigned works.

Franits worked with Dittman on creating a title for the exhibit, going back and forth over email for a week during the late fall. Dittman recalled the professor not being sold on his initial title, something along the lines of children and art masterpieces. But at the last minute, Franits decided to name his class’ exhibit after the progressive rock album “Days of Future Passed,” by The Moody Blues, which discusses life’s passage and contains a section on childhood.

Exhibits normally take two to five years of planning, but Franits began prepping for his senior seminar class last spring. Christopher Scarglato | Asst. Culture Editor

When Franits told the museum’s designer Walker Masiclat about the reason behind the name, Masiclat looked at the “Days of Future Passed” cover and noticed the juxtaposition between the album’s clean font and its borderline-psychedelic artwork. He tried to emulate the same contrast when it came to making the exhibit’s graphics.

For the past few weeks, SU Art Museum staff members have worked on setting up the exhibit. Because of the pandemic, the staff is trying to space out each piece for social distancing.

On Monday, Dittman and preparator Dylan Otts stood inside a nearly complete exhibit, scoping out what was next. Paintings sat on styrofoam, waiting to be installed, and “Madonna and Child,” a diorite statue, had to be pulled from another room. Trying to group different themes together, the two agreed on setting the sculpture with other similar works in the same row.

“That would be nice,” Dittman said.

Otts nodded. And with that, they were one step closer to Thursday’s opening.

Published on April 7, 2021 at 11:57 pm

Contact Christopher: [email protected] | @chrisscargs