Of Accidental Origin: Works from the Lamont Gallery Collection

  Since September, the Saltonstall curatorial team has worked to shed light on the Lamont Gallery’s permanent collection. Kept in the archives for years, the collection is home to a wide variety of prints, paintings, masks, and musical instruments, many of which mysteriously found their way to the gallery, hence the name “Of Accidental Origin.” Previous Gallery director John Wharton penned the exhibition’s title in a 1977 letter to the Art Advisory Committee captioned “Argument for the Sale of the Permanent Collection.” He believed “the collection as a whole is, in fact, too random and disjointed to contribute to shows to the Lamont gallery which might have general educational value.” “Of Accidental Origin” aims to counter this by embracing the range of work available in the Gallery. The exhibition combines a wide variety of art into a show the curators believe both cohesive and reflective of Exeter’s diverse community. Displayed in Principal MacFarlane’s dining room, the exhibit ho

Want to see what painting, print, or 3D work you'd be in Of Accidental Origin ?  Take the BuzzFeed quiz here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/oaosaltonstall/which-of-accidental-origin-painting-are-you-2yub1 BuzzFeed Quiz thanks to Ellie '18 and Belle '18

At the beginning of fall term, Ms. Durand, the Lamont Gallery Manager, reached out to us because of our displayed interest in the gallery and/or from our prior work with the gallery last spring.  She proposed the idea to Principal MacFarlane of curating her dining room in Saltonstall house with pieces from our immense archive. Principal MacFarlane, eager to customize the home, accepted and funded our project (after we came up with a budget, of course). "Watermelon Sleeves," or more properly known as The Red Death , by Federico  Castellón .  For the next few months, Ms. Knauss, the Collections Assistant and Archives Coordinator, supervised our meetings.  Fueled by pizza, we first reviewed most of the items in the archive digitally, noting the pieces that evoked strong emotions from us. As we reviewed the collection, we began to notice themes and nicknaming the pieces such as ‘Watermelon sleeves’ and ‘MS Paint’. There was a section of about a dozen po