“By Way of These Eyes: The Hyland Collection of Photography” at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

“By Way of These Eyes: The Hyland Collection of Photography” opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon on Saturday, September 28. The exhibition, on view through Sunday, December 29, presents more than 100 photographs drawn from the collection of Christopher Hyland, president of one of the world’s leading firms specializing in luxury residential fabrics and founder of the digital lifestyle magazine “HYLAND.”

Credit: Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison (b.1968 & 1964), Edison’s Light, 1998, Photogravure, 16.5 x 61 cm, 6½ x 8⅝ in.

The exhibition opens with a free public reception on Friday, September 27, from 6 to 8 p.m. Christopher Hyland leads a tour of the exhibition on Saturday, September 28, at 2 p.m.

“By Way of These Eyes” features works by noted American and European photographers, including Shelby Lee Adams, Bill Armstrong, Michael Brown, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Scott Frances, Horst P. Horst, Kenro Izu, André Kertész, Marcus Leatherdale, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Brian Oglesbee, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, John Szarkowski, and Edward Weston. Works from Hyland’s collection have been featured at the New Britain Museum of American Art, CT (2009), and the American Museum, Bath, England, during the 2012 Olympics and the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s 60th Jubilee.

Unique to the exhibition at the JSMA are works by Bill Armstrong and Michael Brown that Hyland commissioned as well as the “Transformation Series” by Hyland, himself, which explores manipulated digital portraiture.. Armstrong’s recent triptych of “The Last Supper,” commissioned by Hyland, was accepted into the Vatican Museum’s permanent collection. Brown’s work features the image of a Campbell’s soup can infused with a kinetic representation of the color spectrum. Also featured in the exhibition is a photographic image of Hyland by royal portrait artist Ralph Heimans, who recently came to media attention when his portrait of Elizabeth II, while on exhibition at Westminster Abbey, was defaced.

"In photography,” notes Hyland in the catalog for the exhibition at the American Museum in Britain, “I seek poetry, panache and beauty. I am also looking for something new, something remarkable, something transformational. By way of your eyes, your mind computes where the subject is placed in negative or positive space, the use of light and dark, and whether the resulting image speaks to the ages. If a photograph resonates with you, it is truly something wonderful – a bit of the divine in the resulting emotions you experience as a viewer."

The son of a New England lawyer and sculptress, Christopher Hyland has pursued a range of interests as well as a business career that have taken him into the worlds of travel, architecture, fabric and interior design, and home furnishings. Hyland studied at the Ecole Nouvelle de la Suisse Romande and graduated from the American School in Lugano, Switzerland. He received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Washington, D.C. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia, one of the world’s premier schools of design and architecture.

While still in his twenties, Hyland founded his own company, now known as Christopher Hyland, Inc., a firm known for its fine collection of worldwide fabrics, wall coverings, rugs, lighting, custom-designed case goods, and other home furnishing products that serves the needs of designers, architects, and decorators throughout the world. Headquartered in New York City, Christopher Hyland, Inc. has showrooms in Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA, Scottsdale, AZ, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mr. Hyland is an avid furniture designer, photographer, and a collector of African art, American art, and photography. His collection has been reviewed extensively, including in the prestigious Critic’s Choice page of the “London Financial Times.”

“By Way of These Eyes: The Hyland Collection of Photography” is made possible at the JSMA by the Coeta and Donald Barker Special Exhibitions Endowment, The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, and JSMA members.

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, America, Europe and elsewhere as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of six museums in the state of Oregon—and the only university museum--accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

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