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Past Exhibitions : 2007

Installation view

Cosmophilia: Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen

February 1 – May 20, 2007

Covering a millennium of Islamic history in regions extending from Spain to India, this comprehensive exhibition surveyed the extraordinary range and visual virtuosity of one of the world's great artistic traditions.

Tokuriki, Tomikichiro, The Cherry Blossoms of Mt. Shigi in Nara Prefecture (The Eight Views of Japan), n.d. (c. 1950s), Color woodblock print (oban). Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of Brenda F. and Joseph V. Smith, 2004.178b.

Exported Visions: Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints

March 17 – June 10, 2007

When the traditional art of the Japanese color woodblock print was pushed near extinction at the turn of the twentieth century, a few enterprising young artists and publishers revived the old-fashioned art form.

Peter Cornelius, from Twelve Illustrations to Goethe's Faust by Peter Cornelius, 1816 (plate, this impression 1845), Engraving. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of Stephen and Elizabeth Crawford, 2006.102.h.

Majestic Nature/Golden History: German Romantic Art

April 24 – October 21, 2007

This exhibition of paintings, drawings, and prints from the private collection of Stephen and Elizabeth Crawford and from the Smart Museum surveyed the artistic currents of German-speaking lands in nineteenth-century.

Marianne Brandt, Tea Service: Tea Infuser (Pot), Creamer, Sugar Bowl, and Tray, 1924 (design, manufactured between 1924 and 1929), hammered sterling silver and ebony. Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Anonymous Gift in memory of Liesl Landau, 20

Living Modern: German and Austrian Art and Design, 1890-1933

June 7 – September 16, 2007

This exhibition looked at the “Modernisms” that together contributed to the richness of life in Germany and Austria during a remarkable period of cultural redefinition, social transformation, and political reorganization. 

Hendrick Goltzius, Pietà (Lamentation of the Virgin), 1596, Engraving. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Purchase, Paul and Miriam Kirkley Fund for Acquisitions, 2006.99.

The World Writ Small: Early Northern European Prints

June 16 – September 8, 2007

The diminutive engravings and woodcuts made by northern European artists in the first half of the sixteenth century may not be monumental in scale, but they contributed to nothing less than a revolution in printmaking. 

Objects of Inquiry: The Buckley Collection of Japanese Art

September 15 – December 16, 2007

Featuring paintings, sculpture, woodblock prints, temple maps, sutras, and religious talismans collected between 1886 and 1892 by Edmund Buckley, this exhibition delved in to the history of museum collections and religious studies at the University of Chicago.

Installation view

Master Drawings from the Yale University Art Gallery

October 4, 2007 – January 6, 2008

This exhibition, organized by the Yale University Art Gallery, provided a compelling survey of European draftsmanship, with masterworks by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Edgar Degas, Guercino, Jacob Jordaens, and Jean-Antoine Watteau, among many others.

Honoré Daumier, Four lithographs from the series The Comet (on original newsprint), 1857-1858, Smart Museum of Art, Purchase, Paul and Miriam Kirkley Fund for Acquisitions, 2005.31.3.

Looking and Listening in Nineteenth-Century France

November 6, 2007 – March 23, 2008

This exhibition combines prints, paintings, drawings, sculptures, as well as music from nineteenth-century France to examine the habits and fashions associated with looking and listening.

Installation view

Drawn from the Home of Henry Darger

December 22, 2007 – March 16, 2008

For forty years, the self-taught artist Henry Darger lived and worked in a cluttered one-bedroom apartment on Chicago’s North Side.