The Art of Fright

Frightening people. That’s what Juan Lopez had in mind when he put his exhibit together.

“My goal was to scare people, as well as be able to use a new version of magic lanterns to project the material,” Lopez said. “The idea was to reflect the pictorial qualities of the phantasmagoria.”

The exhibit in question was Impression & Projection: The Phantasmagoria in the Art of Goya, Robertson, and Méliès, on display in the UW-Milwaukee library recently. Lopez is a graduate student studying art history; the exhibit is part of a final portfolio for his master’s degree.

The exhibit opened on April 24, at a ceremony where Lopez discussed the material, and was on display near the Grind in the library until the end of finals week.

Phantasmagoria is a style of theater from the 18th century popular in France. It would use magic lanterns to project frightening images, ghosts and demons, onto a wall or screen.

There are two tracks for art history graduate students, curating and researching. Lopez is pursuing both tracks. Lopez moved to Milwaukee in 2001 to go to school. He has family in Milwaukee and could not afford to pay for school in Mexico. After earning his bachelor’s degree in art history at UWM, he said he is planning on graduating with his master’s degree next year. He is planning on working as a curator and an art researcher.

“This exhibition is my thesis project,” Lopez said. “One of the requirements in order to graduate is to curate a show in a subject that is most interesting to me.”

Lopez took these three artists, Francisco Goya, Étienne-Gaspard Robertson, and George Méliè into his thesis. He then applied it the framework of phantasmagoria.

“These artists first got me into the subject. Then I made it into the concise thesis of phantasmagoria,” Lopez said.

His favorite piece in the collection is one where a woman is either sleeping or dead. There are also about a dozen demons or ghosts floating around her, which is how the exhibition is supposed to feel, ominous.

“The original phantasmagoria theaters were the like a modern haunted house and that is what I’m trying to create in this space,” Lopez said.

The area near the library is normally reserved for studying at this time of year. The gallery in the Art History department that normally holds these events was under construction. That has allowed these exhibitions to get more attention on the campus. Lopez realized this was great space for exposure for this exhibition.

Talor Snyder is a junior business major and regularly studies in this area. He was impressed by the exhibit’s subject matter.

“This stuff is really interesting,” Snyder said. “You wouldn’t expect to see demons and things of that nature on display in this space.”

Although Lopez is not native to Milwaukee, but he does feel like this is his home now.

“I am originally from Mexico,” Lopez said. “It’s a tiny village outside the capitol of Jalisco, called Capilla de Guadalupe.”

All of the material in this exhibition is owned by the university. It is all housed in the library special collections. Lopez did have to print off some of the prints himself. All of this is not rare for these types of galleries on campus.

The gallery was in the library until May 15.