The University of Kansas
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KU museum revises spring art exhibits
The Spencer Museum of Art has announced a revised spring exhibition schedule. Here are the details:
• “Signs of Faith: Photographs from the Collection,” extended to Feb. 3. The nearly 50 photographs of architecture, devotional practices and objects in this exhibit incorporate aspects of Christian culture in Europe and North America. Some show a rarefied religious realm, while others show the blurred boundary between the sacred and the secular. The 19th- and 20th-century photographers include Berenice Abbott, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Diane Arbus, Gordon Parks and Andres Serrano. Organized by Elissa Anderson, museum intern in photography.
• “Form, Line and Light: The Work of Shinoda Toko and Park Kwang Jean,” through Feb. 24. Japanese artist Shinoda Toko was trained as a calligrapher, and her work reveals a fundamental interest in form and the expressive qualities of line. Works by Korean artist Park Kwang Jean are from her Yin-Yang series exploring the nature of light and dark and of simple geometric forms. Mary Dusenbury, acting curator of art, has joined their works in an intriguing exhibition.
• “Shouts from the Wall: Posters and Photographs Brought Home from the Spanish Civil War by American Volunteers,” Jan. 19-March 10. Organized by the American Federation of Art, this exhibition features posters that alerted the Spanish population to the dangers of fascism. The works, which are displayed along with dramatic black-and-white photographs of the time, were brought home by American volunteers who fought on the Republican side of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. Displayed in conjunction with the posters is the Pablo Picasso portfolio “The Dream and Lies of Franco” from the Spencer museum collection.
• “Tim Rollins/KOS and the Langston Hughes Project,” Feb. 9-May 26. Rollins will be artist in residence at the museum, collaborating with 24 at-risk Lawrence middle-school students to create a work based on Langston Hughes’ writings. This is the Spencer museum’s contribution to Lawrence Celebrates Langston Hughes, the university- and community-wide celebration of Hughes’ life and work. The public opening reception for the display of the students’ work is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9.
• “Contemporary Ceramics East and West,” Feb. 23-May 19. A selection of contemporary Asian, European and American ceramics from the collection of the Spencer Museum that will examine major trends in work of the past 30 years. Major pieces in the collection by Beatrice Wood, Vic Muniz, Richard Notkin, Diego Romero and Sheldon Carey will be exhibited alongside loaned works and promised gifts as well as pieces for possible purchase by the museum. The exhibition is in conjunction with the National Council on the Education of Ceramic Arts Conference scheduled for March 13-16.
• “Goltzius and the Third Dimension,” March 30-May 19. Organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, this exhibition of prints and bronze statuettes explores the relationship between the three-dimensional works of Delft sculptor Willem Danielsz van Tetrode and a selection of engravings and woodcuts by Harlem printmaker Hendrick Goltzius. Drawn from the collection of the Hearn Family Trust, the prints included in this exhibition date from around the 1580s. The accompanying catalog features essays by Stephen Goddard, senior curator of prints at the Spencer Museum of Art, and James A. Ganz, associate curator of prints and drawings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
• “Amish Quilts 1880 to 1940 from the Collection of Faith and Stephen Brown,” April 13-June 30. Organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art, this exhibition of 35 quilts from a single private collection offers stunning examples of quilts created by women from Amish settlements in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio. The show provides an overview of the varied approaches to quilt-making by quilters bound together by faith but separated by geography, economic status and the desire to either embrace the past or reach out to the future. Co-curators of the exhibition are Robert Shaw and Julie Silber, two of the foremost experts on Amish quilts.
