Encounters with the Collection: Art and Human Rights
The William Benton Museum of Art
The University of Connecticut
August 27, 2024 – July 28, 2025
The fourth in a series of annual collection gallery rotations that bring fresh perspectives to the interpretation of the Benton’s holdings. Spanning the 19th century to the present, the exhibition explores the ways that artists confront human rights abuses and make human rights visible.
One of the pieces featured in the exhibition is Michael Rakowitz’s (SMViS ’98) The invisible enemy should not exist (Plaque with three rows of reliefs), 2022.
The exhibition begins with prints from Francisco Goya’s influential series Los desastres de la guerra [The Disasters of War], an unprecedented eyewitness account of wartime atrocities in art. Other highlights include William Kentridge’s critical reflection on post-apartheid South Africa; a powerful installation by Alfredo Jaar that challenges the passive consumption of images, in this case a photograph of a refugee in Sudan; and a group of prints that show how Polish artists used metaphor to represent the contradictions of life under Communism.
