Stephen Alcorn’s works reveal Florence
Showing from Feb. 17-28 in the morning.
Stephen Alcorn is a professor with VCU Arts Communication Arts department. He spent his formative years in Florence, which influenced his artistic style and created a lasting desire to share the experience with others. The Florence Revealed program provides the opportunity to spend an entire month in Florence, Italy drawing both the city and countryside. Alcorn and his students absorb Florentine Renaissance tradition and technique.
The time spent gives Alcorn a chance to delve into the works of the Florentine Renaissance and the larger historical context of Florence. The Florence Revealed program is an “experience shows that the practice of drawing by hand can bring us a stronger connection to a given subject. The richly illuminated journals that we create are a testament to the power of the sketchbook to chronicle the development of ideas through text, annotation, and drawing.”
The exhibit is made up of Alcorn’s personal sketches from his time in Florence. He uses a mix of media, like paints and pencil, to capture the historic architecture and art of Florence.
Artist statement:
“Why Florence? Because the Florentine Renaissance artists continue to amaze to this day with the freshness of their thought, their willingness to experiment, and their modernity. However, civilized culture depends not solely on innovation and modernity, but also on a critical and imaginative assimilation of the past. In Renaissance Florence, we can see the reintegration of the Classical worldview into Modern life in not only the erudition, the pagan humanism, but also the rich mythological themes of its pantheism and the profound psychological insights it has to offer. What we experience to this day in Florence is what was made of that tradition. A continued, renewed interpretation of this tradition is a necessity for the west, if it is to understand its own. This is why I believe it is important to experience firsthand the wonders of the history of art, and the wealth of physical media that gives it its form. If I speak of the Italian Renaissance with passion, it is only because I witnessed firsthand the power of that flowering.”
Categories Faculty Work, study abroad