Upcoming Exhibitions
October 2, 2008 – January 25, 2009 | Richard and Mary L. Gray Gallery for Special Exhibitions
Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River in China is a massive project entwined in controversy. When finally completed, it will stand as the world’s largest generator of hydro-electric power, with a yearly output equal to that of fifty million tons of coal or fifteen nuclear power plants. However, the Dam’s 375-mile reservoir has already displaced over one million people and submerged over one thousand towns and villages. This exhibition presents work that four leading contemporary Chinese artists— Chen Qiulin, Yun-fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui—have created in response to the Dam. Despite differences in backgrounds and artistic practices, these artists have engaged with the theme of displacement, responding to the movement of people, the demolition of old towns and construction of new cities, and the astonishing changes the project is bringing to the local landscape. The powerful works on view represent four major branches of contemporary Chinese art: ink painting, realist oil painting, conceptual photography, and performance and new media art. Moving beyond any single medium or trend, Displacement offers nuanced, thought-provoking perspectives on a project of great social, environmental, and global concern.
Exhibition Catalogue will be available.
Exhibition Tour: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, March 25 – July 18, 2010.
Curator: Wu Hung, Smart Museum Consulting Curator, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, and Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago, in consultation with Jessica Moss, Smart Museum Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, and Stephanie Smith, Smart Museum Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Contemporary Art.
This exhibition and related programs have been supported by Dan Bo, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, and the Women's Board of the University of Chicago. The accompanying publication was made possible by a generous gift from Fred Eychaner and Tommy Yang Guo.
November 18, 2008 – April 19, 2009 | Edward A. Maser Gallery for Art Before 1900
The "Writing" of Modern Life: The Etching Revival in France, Britain, and the U.S., 1850–1940
This exhibition examines the intertwined arts of etching and writing, from the polemical beginnings of the Etching Revival in the 1850s to its twentieth-century afterlife. During this period, etching was reinvented as an original art form that—like writing—was uniquely fitted to expressions of an artist’s individual personality and the experience of modernity. Printmakers and critics redefined the medium, creating a new critical language that was entwined with literary discourse. They emphasized the signature qualities of the etched line, encouraging the idea that each print bore the touch of the artist, and rediscovered an expressive medium suitable for gritty modern subjects as well as classical pastoral themes. Showcasing etchings by European and American artists like Haden, Meryon, and Whistler, the exhibition offers a new interdisciplinary perspective on the Etching Revival. The forty-five works on view are drawn in large part from a recent gift to the Smart Museum.
Exhibition Catalogue will be available.
Curators: Elizabeth Helsinger, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor of English Literature and Art History at the University of Chicago, in consultation with Anne Leonard, Smart Museum Curator and Mellon Program Coordinator.
This exhibition is one in a series of projects at the Smart Museum of Art which has been generously endowed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The exhibition catalogue was made possible by the Feitler Family Fund.
This exhibition coincides with an advanced University of Chicago Art History and English Literature course to be taught by the curator in winter 2009.
February 19 – June 14, 2009 | Richard and Mary L. Gray Gallery for Special Exhibitions
Your Pal, Cliff: Selections from the H.C. Westermann Study Collection
A central figure in post-war American art, H.C. Westermann (known by family, friends, and the art world as "Cliff") created a deeply felt and often disturbing body of sculpture, drawings, and prints. As an artist, Westermann defied categorization: he insisted on originality and was indifferent to artistic trends. Yet his singular art is imbued with autobiographical details and personal iconography, such as the "Death Ship" and other motifs related to his searing naval experiences in World War II. Offering unprecedented access to unstudied archival material and ephemera, this exhibition introduces the full scope of the H.C. Westermann Study Collection to scholars and the public alike. The collection—established at the Smart Museum through donations by the estate of Westermann’s wife, the artist Joanna Beall Westermann, and enhanced by many gifts from the artist’s family and others—includes not only finished sculptures, drawings, and prints, but also gift objects, sketchbooks, tools, printing blocks, workshop furniture, unfinished projects, personal papers, and correspondence from Westermann’s circle of artist-friends. This exhibition examines the intersection of Westermann’s life and art and gives special insight into his inspirations, signature imagery, and working methods.
Curator: Richard A. Born, Smart Museum Senior Curator.
July 9 – September 6, 2009 | Richard and Mary L. Gray Gallery for Special Exhibitions
Mid-Century Design: European and American Modernisms, 1850–1950
Progressive artists, designers, and architects decisively reshaped the everyday world of objects between 1850 and 1950. Advocating for design reform—and by extension, social reform—they promoted a host of competing ideologies that embraced aesthetic revolution and technical innovation. This exhibition examines the complex, ever-shifting course of modern design theory and its application in Europe and the United States. Mounted entirely from the Smart Museum’s collection, the exhibition takes a focused approach, offering close readings of masterworks such as Edmond Johnson’s facsimiles of medieval treasures made for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, furniture and leaded windows designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the historic Robie House, and Marianne Brandt’s rare modernist silver tea service, which was fabricated by hand in the metal workshop of the famed Bauhaus. Together, these and other works in a variety of media give insight into the interweaving history and iconic forms that defined the domestic world of modernism during the fertile one-hundred-year period between the mid centuries.
Curator: Richard A. Born, Smart Museum Senior Curator.
The Smart Museum's general operating funds have been provided in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. The Museum's exhibitions and related programs are generously supported by the Smart Family Foundation; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Alsdorf Foundation; Tom and Janis McCormick; Nuveen Investments; the Eloise W. Martin Fund; the Office of the Provost and the Visiting Committee on the Visual Arts, University of Chicago; and the members and friends of the Smart Museum. Education programs are supported by the Polk Bros. Foundation.