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Soon after students voted to make the bobcat the official Bates mascot in 1925, the Varsity Club stated its eagerness "to see a monument erected which will consist of a granite shaft with a life-size Bobcat in bronze before the present college year is ended."

That year passed, as did 83 more, before Bates commissioned and happily dedicated, during Reunion 2009, the bronze Bobcat seen in this slide show. Designed by Maine artist Forest Hart, it's atop a boulder near Leahey Field, where it exchanges greetings with people along the walk to and from Merrill Gymnasium and Underhill Arena. (more...)

Codraro uses painting to focus on spatial relationships in the human form. "I am challenged by its many connections and its inherent landscape. Places where vertebrae meet, where the human body hinges, these are the areas that continue to inspire me," she explains. "I have come to realize that like the human form, whose shapes and shadows constantly change, my work can only be about moments."

View Slideshow: Josh Holdeman '93 has his clients in focus during a landmark Christie's sale

It's Dec. 16, and they're coming. Scores of visitors stream into the Manhattan headquarters of Christie's, the purveyor of highbrow art and culture, for the two-day sale Icons of Glamour and Style: The Constantiner Collection.

The 320 photographs on the block represent the "most important collection of fashion photography that we know of," says Joshua Holdeman '93, international director of 20th-century art at Christie's.

Despite the collection's significance, Holdeman and his Christie's team at 20 Rockefeller Center are concerned about the sale. The economy is imploding, and buyers are skittish. (Later in the winter, Christie's and rival Sotheby's would both announce layoffs.) Will these fashion and celebrity images, made by photographic legends such as Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, and Irving Penn, actually sell? (more...)

Atsuko Hirai

Many breathtaking specters have descended upon the Bates campus in recent years, but few can top the apparition of Chairman Mao cloaked in his legendary, larger-than-life jacket.

We are told that this piece of public art was the creation of a sculptor both famous and influential in his home country of the People’s Republic of China. But what makes an artist famous and influential in that country? And on which side of that fame and influence do he, the artist, and Bates, his host, stand? (more...)

Dennis Grafflin

Campus reaction to Mao Jacket is a variant of what was expressed in the anonymous note that lay beside the sculpture until destroyed by rain: "Why is this man honored who killed so many of our men. Shame on our college."

My guess is that if the piece were by a contemporary American sculptor, displayed a Western suit coat, and was titled George W. Bush, the near-universal reaction would be that representing the president as a rigid hollow metal shell was an act of savage critique. (more...)

Studio art major Jessica Kase '09 of Chappaqua, N.Y., works in her Olin Arts studio on an oil painting that will be part of her senior thesis project, an exploration of the intimate nature of creating portraits of strangers.

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"Voting Day," Minneapolis, 2006, gelatin silver print by Abdi Roble.

The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away, a touring exhibition of photographs chronicling the migration of Somali refugees to Maine and other U.S. locations, opens at Bates College with events beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

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Above: "On the Wall, Haikou 6" by Weng Feng, 2003. Below: "Shanghai Series, No. 8" by Gu Zheng, 2004; "Phantom Landscape I, No. 5" by Yang Yongliang, 2006.

Closing Dec. 13 is a major photographic exhibition at the Bates College Museum of Art offering alternative perspectives on the intriguing, dynamic Chinese cityscape. Stairway to Heaven: From Chinese Streets to Monuments and Skyscrapers showcases work by 17 Chinese artists who examine how economic reform, a new influx of personal wealth and rapid industrialization have changed the urban environment.

Open to the public at no cost, the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is closed on major holidays. For more information, please call 207-786-6158 or visit the museum Web site. The museum is located at 75 Russell St. (more...)

"On the Wall, Haikou 6" by Weng Feng, 2003.

Closing Dec. 13 is Stairway to Heaven: From Chinese Streets to Monuments and Skyscrapers, a major photographic exhibition at the Bates College Museum of Art depicting the intriguing, dynamic Chinese cityscape.

(more...)