While in Haiti working for the United States International Communications Agency between 1972 and 1976, Mary Lou and Harry Hughes developed a deep admiration for the arts and artists of Haiti, building a collection of well over 90 works. Prior to their assignment in Haiti, the Hughes were assigned to Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin), where Mary Lou acquired a knowledge of and sensitivity to the African aesthetic that permeates Haitian art.
Organized by Amanda Martin-Hamon, the Spencer’s Public Outreach and Special Events Coordinator and Sean Barker, Education Intern, Haitian Art from the Hughes Collection covers the range of Haiti’s leading painters and sculptors, including Rigaud Benoît, Murat Brierre, Célestin Faustin, Jasmin Joseph, Philomé Obin, André Pierre, and Robert St. Brice. The Hughes Collection includes a variety of styles, depicting historical and religious subjects and scenes of nature and everyday life.
Works from the collection have been included in exhibitions at the Musée d'Art du Collège Saint Pierre, Port-au-Prince Haiti; The Brooklyn Museum, The Milwaukee Art Center; Ramapo College of New Jersey; Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria; Davenport Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; Staatliche Kunsthalle, Berlin; City Hall, Washington D.C. and in many publications, for example Ute Stebich’s Haitian Art and Seldon Rodman’s Where Art is Joy, Haitian Art: the First Forty Years.
This selection of photographs, prints, and drawings from the Spencer’s permanent collection documents aspects of westward expansion and development as it emphasizes the notion that we treat nature as a commodity. The exhibition, organized by Kate Meyer, Curatorial Assistant for Prints & Drawings at the Spencer, draws inspiration from the teaching and scholarship of Professor Donald Worster, Joyce & Elizabeth Hall Professor of U.S. History at the University of Kansas.
One theme that drives the exhibition and is integral to Worster’s research is the notion that American environmental history can best be understood as a function of political and economic culture. Natural resources are identified and exploited through diverse practices: mining, irrigation, cultivation, excavation. The marks we make upon the land take many forms: offices, reservoirs, parking lots, furrows, fences. These marks reveal the challenges, failures, and aspirations of a destiny made manifest in the land west of the Mississippi.
Expanding on Robert Rauschenberg's playful curiosity with new materials, Marcel Duchamp's concept of the "ready-made," and Jeff Koons' modus operandi of art as readily accessible, Stephen Johnson's An Abstract Alphabet explores new ways of pulling abstractions from the real. Originally developed as a concept for a children's book in 2001, this alphabet series has evolved into a body of work that uses a range of materials and interchanges collage, painting and sculpture. For each letter of the alphabet, Johnson has taken an ordinary object and made it unfamiliar, removing functionality to reveal the metaphorical associations that lie within. The Spencer is delighted to present the public debut of this work. The accompanying book, A is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet, will be published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Children in fall 2008.
Best known as a painter and theatre artist, Roger Shimomura explores his Japanese American identity through a vibrant and provocative stylistic combination of 20th-century American pop art and traditional 18th- and 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints. Through viewing his printed works, one discovers a number of firsts, among them the artist's first examination of place; his first attempt to combat racist stereotypes by appropriating racist caricatures; and his first use of explicitly sexual imagery.
The Prints of Roger Shimomura features selections from more than 30 years of Shimomura's printmaking. The exhibition is offered in conjunction with the May release of The Prints of Roger Shimomura: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1968 - 2005. The book, co-published by the Spencer and the University of Washington Press, features color reproductions of more than 135 prints, along with an introductory essay and artist's notes. It is the first publication to examine systematically a specific body of work within Shimomura's larger oeuvre. Written by PhD candidate Emily Stamey, designed by Professor of Design Patrick Dooley, and supported by the Marilyn J. Stokstad Publications Fund, the book represents a collaboration of KU talents.
This exhibition is made possible by the support of corporate sponsor Morgan Stanley, www.morganstanley.com
The art of Japan’s Meiji period (1868-1912) reflects a story of transformation, adaptation, and rapid change set against a world of increasing globalization. Literally meaning “enlightened rule,” the Meiji period began after the forced opening of trade by American Commodore Matthew Perry and his fleet of “black ships” in 1853. After two and a half centuries of near isolation, the opening of Japan’s borders created both opportunity and internal conflict. To successfully transition into a world of growing globalization, Japan adopted many institutions and practices from Western nations, with the government employing foreign experts to assist in education and training of professionals, government officials, and the military. At the same time, many Japanese felt it crucial to maintain their traditions and culture in the face of rapid national transformations.
This exhibition was organized by guest curator Alison Miller, KU graduate student in art history.
February 17 – May 20, 2007 | Kress Gallery, North Balcony & South Balcony
A Saint in the City presents the art and culture of Islamic West Africa through a dynamic popular religious movement in Senegal known as the Mouride Way, and in doing so encourages dialogue about Islam's commonalities as well as its multiple forms throughout the world. Inspired by the teachings of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, a Sufi pacifist, poet, and saint who lived from 1853 to 1927, Mourides have galvanized contemporary Senegal and its Diaspora through hard work and peaceful, steadfast devotion. The vibrant visual arts of Mourides provide a unique opportunity to examine the origins, impact, and varying perceptions of Islam and Sufism, Islam's mystical core.
A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal was organized and produced by the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, and curated by Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts and Dr. Allen F. Roberts in collaboration with Senegalese community leaders and artists in both Dakar and Los Angeles. It was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, promoting excellence in the humanities. Additional support was provided by the UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center.
The Spencer Museum of Art venue is supported in part by the Breidenthal-Snyder Foundation, Dave and Gunda Hiebert, and the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground: Xu Bing's Book Works
March 3 - April 29, 2007 | White Gallery
The arts associated with bookmaking (calligraphy, writing and printing) have played a central role in the career of Xu Bing, one of the most significant artists to emerge from China in the years following the Cultural Revolution. Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground provides an inclusive overview of Xu Bing's involvement with the book as a format for artistic exploration. The exhibition will also include two computer workstations with interactive programs developed by Xu Bing that elaborate his language-based Book Works. Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground: Xu Bing's Book Works has been organized to coincide with Xu Bing's Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Graphics Council during the group's annual meeting in Kansas City (March 21-25, 2007). A planned publication about the exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Arthur V. Neis. An April 26 lecture at the Spencer by Xu Bing is made possible by the Franklin D. Murphy Lecture Fund.
November 18, 2006 – February 4, 2007 | North Balcony
Made in China offers a unique window on the world's manufacturing epicenter, as seen through the eyes – and digital cameras – of 24 multidisciplinary KU students and two Department of Design faculty members who made a month-long pilgrimage to China in summer 2006. The exhibition installation diverges from what may be perceived as a typical museum presentation—rather than labeling each work and identifying the artists individually, the photographs are clustered in profusion, affixed to deep red walls with ordinary pushpins, as are dozens of yellow tags with personal quotes revealing students' experiences and observations while abroad.
Organized by design professors Pok-Chi Lau and May Tveit, Made in China: Observations and Understanding represents the latest collaborative effort between the Spencer and the School of Fine Arts, featuring striking photographs and commentaries by KU students who traveled to China last summer for a study abroad program. The exhibition, which may travel to other venues around the state of Kansas, is the creative result and synthesis of two courses offered in the KU School of Fine Arts, Department of Design: "Understanding China through Photography," taught by Lau, and "Made in China: Dismantling the Mantra—Understanding China through Industrial Culture and our Consumer Society," taught by Tveit. The students represented a variety of disciplines, including design, art, anthropology, political science, linguistics, architecture, history, and art history.
"Eyes half closed, they arrived in Hong Kong with luggage from America bearing many personal effects that were made in China—this was an authentic experience for each individual of dragging things back and forth between the manufacturing and the consuming cultures," Lau writes in his essay for the gallery guide. "....Confidence, awareness and compassion came gradually in every step of their journey, and extended beyond those 26 days. In doing so, we all moved closer to understanding the complex and evolving dimensions of the human experience."
It Starts with Art! An Exhibition of Children’s Work
May 12 – July 1, 2007 | Entryway Gallery
Saturday Children’s Art Appreciation Classes are an exciting part of the Spencer’s regular educational programming. Since summer 2002, the museum has offered classes combining an hour of discussion in the galleries and an hour of art making. With a wide variety of class topics, the program offers something of interest to any child aged 5-14. Each semester features classes related to special exhibitions as well as the permanent collection.
Organized by Lauren Kernes, Youth & Family Outreach Coordinator, this special exhibition features student artwork from the spring semester art appreciation classes. Original books, sculptures, prints, and paintings are on display, as is a video slideshow of students in their classes. For more information regarding It Starts with Art! or upcoming art appreciation classes, contact smakids@ku.edu or call 785.864.0137.
2007
A New York Picture Post: Gotham in the 20th Century
Dias de los Muertos
Haitian Art from the Hughes Collection
An Abstract Alphabet: New Work by Stephen Johnson
Meiji: Japan's Transition into a Global Society
Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground: Xu Bing's Book Works
It Starts with Art! An Exhibition of Children’s Work
Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist
From the Way of Writing to the Weight of Writing
Claimed: Land Use in Western America
The Prints of Roger Shimomura
A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal
Made in China: Observations and Understanding
