M2 Presswire
January 28, 2005
Kansas State University: K-State student Union features Smithsonian
photography exhibit
M2 PRESSWIRE-JANUARY 28, 2005-Kansas State University: K-State
Ttudent Union features Smithsonian photography exhibit ©1994-2005 M2
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MANHATTAN – The William T. Kemper Art Gallery at Kansas State
University’s K-State Student Union is now featuring “Antoin Sevruguin
and the Persian Image,” a photography exhibition from the Smithsonian
Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
The exhibition will be on display in the gallery through Friday,
March 4.
The gallery, on the first floor, is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. and admission is free.
The exhibition includes 35 black-and-white photographs made from
original negatives and vintage prints housed in the archives of the
Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art. It
presents a glimpse into the history of Iran through the eyes of one
of the nation’s most creative photographers, Antoin Sevruguin.
Sevruguin, an Armenian Christian, lived most of his life in Tehran
traveling among the diverse worlds of Iranian society. His
photographs document Iran’s struggle at the turn of the 20th century
to balance an ancient past with the modern present. His work included
a great diversity of themes. Street scenes, images of common people,
ceremonies, palace officials, archaeological studies and mountain
landscapes fill the numerous plate-glass negatives he shot throughout
his career.
Sevruguin’s patronage was equally diverse. He served the royal court
of the shahs and he ran a portrait studio open to the public. He also
journeyed to sites of early Persian civilization to photograph the
ruins of the Iranian past.
Most of Sevruguin’s work was destroyed as a result of the Iranian
constitutional crisis of 1906 and the transition from the Qajar to
the Pahlavi dynasty. Today, the Myron Bement Smith Collection of the
Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art
archives houses one of the world’s largest collections of surviving
work by Sevruguin. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and adjacent Freer
Gallery of Art together form the national museum of Asian art at the
Smithsonian. More information is available online at
Each year, the Smithsonian Institutions Traveling Exhibition Service
shares the Smithsonian’s collections and research programs with
millions of people outside Washington, D.C. One of the Smithsonian’s
four National Programs, the exhibition service makes available a wide
range of exhibitions about art, science and history. Exhibition
descriptions and tour schedules are available at
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