In the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s Ellen Johnson Gallery, a series of textiles with fluid black silhouettes line the walls. These quilts honor the life and findings of Henrietta Leavitt, a female astronomer who studied at Oberlin from 1885 to 1888. Through her work as a “computer” in the Harvard College Observatory, Leavitt discovered thousands of variables of stars, and her research was vital to understanding several fundamental rules of the universe.
This series is part of the solo exhibition “Anna Von Mertens/Henrietta Leavitt: A Life Spent Looking,” which highlights the long relationship between the AMAM and Boston-based artist Anna Von Mertens, whose practice offers a new perspective on events and figures throughout history. Von Mertens’ work combines technology and scientific research with traditional materials such as fabric and thread. Each work represents the position of stars at various points of time, from different points of view in the 10,000 galaxies that comprise our home supercluster, Laniakea.
Von Mertens’ meticulous hand embroidery is captivating. Dots of white light suck visitors into the spiraling, black hole-like quilts displayed around the room. These textiles allow the artist to embody an event, experience, or person’s life through one of the most tangible storytelling methods: textile art.
The relationship between the AMAM and Von Mertens began in 2015, when Driek Zirinsky, OC ’65, and spouse, Michael Zirinsky, introduced the museum to the artist’s work with their donation of “6:01 pm until 7:05 pm, April 4, 1968, from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee (looking in the direction shots were fired)” from the series “As the Stars Go By” (2006). This quilted work, also currently on display in the exhibition, depicts the movement of the stars between the time shots were fired at Martin Luther King, Jr. and the time he was pronounced dead. King was the commencement speaker at Driek’s graduation from Oberlin in 1965, and Driek and Michael donated the piece at the 50th reunion of the ceremony.
“As you’ll have noticed, probably from the Martin Luther King, Jr. quilt, which is part of a series about moments of tragedy in American history, [Von Mertens is] really interested in the intersection between the macro and the micro,” John G. Cowles Director Andria Derstine said. “So she shows these really big, important events or discoveries, such as Henrietta Leavitt’s, on a very personal scale. If you think about her stitch work or her drawing, it’s very intimate, but what she’s dealing with is really vast. I think there’s a really nice interplay between … the huge and the vast, and then the really small and intimate.”
Adjacent to Von Mertens’ work in the Ellen Johnson Gallery is an exhibition titled “Everything is Stardust: Artmaking and the Knowability of the Universe.” This exhibition, organized by Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Sam Adams, expands on Von Mertens’ quote “We are stardust. Everything is.” These pieces were pulled from the museum’s collection to further the conversations on astronomy, science, and observation introduced by Von Mertens’ work on Henrietta Leavitt.
“I really feel like this is a moment to celebrate certainly the pioneering and important work of Henrietta Leavitt, but also, you know, women artists, and we’re trying to do that through showing Anna’s work, but also through a lot of the other things that are on view throughout the museum right now,” Derstine said.
On Oct. 5, Von Mertens will speak at the AMAM about her practice and Leavitt’s life. This presentation will be followed by a reception open to the public.
