Past Exhibitions
The Image as Homage: Portrait of the Artist
November 21, 2006 – April 8, 2007
Highlighting European and American works on paper and two sculptures from the Smart Museum's collection, this exhibition considered the challenges that arise when one artist tries to commemorate another, and the many forms such portraits take.
Drawing as Process in Contemporary Art
October 5 2006 – January 14, 2007
This exhibition offered a behind-the-scenes look at the working process of some of today’s leading artists: Mark Dion, Julia Fish, Carol Jackson, Kerry James Marshall, Richard Rezac, Erwin Wurm, and Zhang Huan.
Adrian Piper: The Mythic Being
September 16 – December 10, 2006
In 1973, Adrian Piper created an alter-ego, the Mythic Being, who became the basis of a pioneering series of performances and photo-based works.
Mark Turbyfill: Works on Paper
June 17 – September 10, 2006
Although remembered today mainly for his contributions to the worlds of avant-garde poetry and dance, Mark Turbyfill was also an accomplished visual artist.
The Colors of Identity: Polish Art at Home and Abroad, 1890-1939
May 25 – September 17, 2006
This exhibition traced the complex expression of national identity and international perspective that define Polish modern art.
Revisions: Modernist Sculptures by Rodin, Lipchitz, and Moore
May 9 – November 5, 2006
Auguste Rodin, Jacques Lipchitz and Henry Moore each championed sculptural innovations in European modernism and challenged notions of representation that had informed Western art since the Renaissance.
GRAPHIKÉ: Writing/Drawing in the Ancient World
March 18 – June 11, 2006
This exhibition examines the relationship between word and image in more than a dozen Greco-Roman objects from the Smart Museum and comparative Egyptian objects from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum.
One/Many: Western American Survey Photographs by Bell and O’Sullivan
February 2 – May 7, 2006
William Bell and Timothy H. O'Sullivan, two photographers who joined survey expeditions in the 1860s and 1870s, helped open the eyes of nineteenth-century Americans to the western frontier.
Collecting for the Cause: Activist Art in the 1960s and ‘70s
December 17, 2005 – March 12, 2006
In the 1960s and early '70s, many American artists actively questioned the artist's role and responsibility in the public sphere. As they sought political relevance for their work, the relatively easy duplication and dissemination of works on paper made printmaking a choice medium.
Whose Land?: European and American Landscapes, 1600-1900
November 22, 2005 – April 23, 2006
Featuring European and American masters from the Smart Museum collection, this exhibition focused on exchange among landscape traditions, while questioning the usefulness and limitations of conventional geographic classifications.