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Davenport Dining Room Scene
Davenport Dining Room Scene, 2018. Oil on panel. Left panel: 58 x 42 in. Right Panel: 58 x 39 in.
This “dining room within a dining room” portrait, depicting diverse members of the Davenport College community, was commissioned by Yale University and is permanently installed in the dining room at Davenport College.
ARTICLES
Davenport unveils dining hall portrait, by Brianna Wu
A portrait of nine diverse members of the Davenport College community was unveiled on Friday, a result of the college’s push to widen the range of people represented along its walls.
Redefining Portraiture: The Real Faces of Davenport, by Canning Malkin
The subtle details of each painting demonstrate the authenticity of the scenes. Angelina wears a MEChA de Yale – Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, a national organization of students of varying minority and ethnic groups dedicated to fighting injustice – jacket, Glaston a Davenport flat-cap. Schottenfeld engages in discussion, his hands held out as if he is recounting a recent scientific breakthrough; Haller’s gentle smile and slightly ruffled quarter-zip emanates the familiarity she was known for; Chang’s pensive gaze mellows Kennedy’s cross-armed stare to the onlooker. The artist, Brenda Zlamany, Schottenfeld, and Witt all worked together to evoke this exact sense of ease and closeness to conclude Dr. Schottenfeld’s tenure within Davenport.
Brenda Zlamany Comes Home, by Lucy Gellman
The artist estimated that she photographed each living subject 600 times, in sitting and standing positions. Then just as she had for the Sterling portrait, she made large paper cutouts of each figure…, “and I moved them around like chess pieces” to figure out the relationships that each subject had to Schottenfeld, to each other, and to the portrait.
“And I think it is important for students and communities, and for people to see iconography that represents who they are … I wanted it to not be about social hierarchies, but really about the feelings that people have for each other.”
