Exhibitions
Collection Galleries
Exhibitions Archived in: 2004
Illuminations: Sculpting with Light
January 22 – April 4, 2004
This exhibition examined three distinct moments in which American artists devised innovative ways to use this elemental, immaterial medium. Beginning in the middle of the last century with Charles Biederman's classic modern construction #9, New York, 1940, one of the first known sculptures to incorporate artificial light (acquired by the... more »
The Uses of Art in Renaissance Italy
March 9 – August 22, 2004
Colorfully decorated earthenware, ornately cast bronze, and masterfully painted wood panels from Renaissance Italy still catch the attention of modern museum visitors many years after they were made. While each artifact was certainly created with a keen eye and an artist's hand, many factors, beyond beauty, influenced its form and... more »
Incisive Vision: The Prints of James Abbott McNeill Whistler
April 2 – June 13, 2004
Active in England and France, the American-born painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) is one of the giants of nineteenth-century printmaking. He was a leader in the revival of etching at this time. This exhibition featured a selection of the 25 prints by Whistler donated to the Smart Museum in... more »
Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and Deco
April 22 – June 20, 2004
As western "Jazz Age" mores and styles jostled with traditional Japanese values of tranquility and harmony, the reign of Emperor Taisho (1912–1926) was an era of transition in Japan when the vastly different cultures of the native past and the seemingly foreign future emerged in stark contrast. Japanese designers... more »
Smart Collecting: A Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration
July 8 – September 5, 2004
For thirty years the Smart Museum has been a focal point for the visual arts at the University of Chicago and in the city. Part of a year-long series of projects that celebrate the Museum's anniversary, this exhibition highlighted outstanding additions to the Smart's collection. Provocative groupings displayed throughout... more »
Medieval Art and Medievalisms
September 7, 2004 – January 2, 2005
From the Early Christian material culture of Egypt and the Eastern Roman empire and the devotional art of Gothic Europe to the Celtic revival of the nineteenth century, medieval art shifted from iconic religious image to historical tribute. Drawn from the Smart Museum's holdings, this exhibition looked at key... more »
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China
October 2, 2004 – January 16, 2005
This exhibition was the first to comprehensively consider the outpouring of photo-based art that has taken place in China since the mid-1990s. Ambitious in scale and experimental in nature, the photographic works included in this groundbreaking project offered a range of highly individual responses to the unprecedented changes in... more »
Upcoming Exhibitions
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June 19 – August 26, 2012
Drawing Inward: German Surrealist Richard Oelze -
July 5 – September 9, 2012
From the Land of the Morning Calm: Traditions of Korean Art -
September 4 – December 9, 2012
Renewal and Revision: Japanese Prints of the 1950s and 60s -
October 4, 2012 – January 20, 2013
Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints -
February 14 – June 9, 2013
The SAHMAT Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989
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