Exhibition Status: Past

Hard Bodies: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Sculptures

Hard Bodies: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Sculpture

“Appreciation of lacquer is a taste which has to be acquired, but which, when acquired, grows upon one, and places the best lacquer in the category of almost sacred things.”

– Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese (1890)

“These sculptures are one-of-a-kind, the artists bold and brilliant, and it became our goal to assemble a compelling collection of these works and present them to the public, which has not been done before.”

– Dr. Andreas Marks, Curator

It’s a tradition nearly as old as civilization itself. Since the Neolithic era, artisans in East Asia have coated bowls, cups, boxes, baskets, and other utilitarian objects with a natural polymer distilled from the sap of the Rhus verniciflua, known as the lacquer tree. Lacquerware was—and still is—prized for its sheen: a lustrous beauty that artists learned to accentuate over the centuries with inlaid gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, and other precious materials.

However, since the late 1980s, this tradition has been challenged. A small but enterprising circle of lacquer artists have pushed the medium in entirely new and dynamic directions by creating large-scale sculptures, works that are both conceptually innovative and superbly exploitative of lacquer’s natural virtues.

To create these new forms and shapes, artists bend tradition to their needs. Creating lacquer art continues to challenge contemporary artists, who must master the medium’s demanding techniques and also choose whether to continue established traditions or pursue new forms of expression. In the latter category are a number of individuals who have successfully altered the age-old perception of lacquer by expanding boundaries and defying expectations. These 33 works by 16 artists constitute the first-ever comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Japanese lacquer sculpture, and range from the playful to the sublimely elegant to the fantastic. They have all been drawn from the Clark Collections at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the only collection in the world to feature this extraordinary new form.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

 

L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters

L'Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters

“Our visitors responded enthusiastically to L'Affichomania. Surprised and delighted by the large scale of posters they had usually seen only in smaller reproductions, they were thrilled by their color and dynamism."

– Lynne D. Ambrosini, PhD
Deputy Director and the Sallie Robinson Wadsworth Chief Curator
Taft Museum of Art

"I have always been enamored by this style of French advertising, so was ecstatic to see an entire exhibit dedicated to this - outside of Paris."

- Exhibition Visitor

Showcasing the remarkable work of five master printmakers, including Jules Chéret, Alphonse Mucha, Eugéne Grasset, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters features approximately 65 posters and ephemera dating from 1875 to 1910, the spirited era in France known as the Belle Époque. These pioneering artists reigned in Paris during this period of artistic proliferation, defining a never-before-seen, and never forgotten, art form.

At the end of the 19th century, France witnessed the first great era of poster art, sometimes called its golden age. Bright and bold and found everywhere along the boulevards of fin-de-siècle Paris, the color posters were heralded as a new art form, a brilliant fusion of craft and commerce. The sudden popularity of posters fueled a passion for collecting them, called affichomania. As pedestrians encountered this lively new scenery posted on the walls and kiosks of Parisian neighborhoods, the pulse of modern life seemed to beat faster.

Drawn from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts, L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters explores the eruption of the poster craze in Paris, bringing to life the exuberant spirit of the Belle Époque.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

The Art of Seating

The Art of Seating: Two Hundred Years of American Design

“The collection, spanning the 200 years between 1810 and 2010—from the aesthetic movement to the arts-and-crafts movement to the more recent modern movement—tells the story of who we are as Americans, a young country brimming with inventiveness, energy and dreams of endless possibility.”

– Cabeth Cornelius, Jacksonville Luxury Living

The Art of Seating, organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville and the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, presents a survey of exceptional American chair design from the early 19th century to the present day. The chair is experienced not only as a functional item, but as sculptural in view—the chair as art.

Each of the approximately 40 chairs in the exhibition are chosen for their beauty and historical context with important social, economic, political and cultural influences. Selections from The Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation are joined by contemporary designs offering a stylistic journey in furniture with show-stoppers by John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, Herter Brothers, Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles & Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, and Frank Gehry among others.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami

Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami

“To most, the real beauty of origami lies in its simplicity, allowing everyone to create their interpretation of the world in paper.”

– Vanessa Gould, director, Between the Folds

“Even DNA is folded—you and I are born from folding”

– Paul Jackson, Above the Fold artist

Above the Fold is the first traveling exhibition to bring origami installations from around the world to North American audiences. Paper is transformed into breathtaking sculpture, large-scale installations and conceptual works that express contemporary social, political, and aesthetic ideas.

Nine international artists—Erik Demaine and Martin Demaine (Canada/USA), Vincent Floderer (France), Miri Golan (Israel), Paul Jackson (UK/Israel), Dr. Robert J. Lang (USA), Yuko Nishimura (Japan), Richard Sweeney (UK) and Jiangmei Wu (China/US)—push the boundaries of paper as a medium to create bold, provocative works.

These artists redefine a traditional Japanese craft as a modern global genre, inventing unexpected forms of artistic expression. Their works can be found in the permanent collections of prominent museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Exhibition highlights:

  • These nine celebrated master folders comprise a cross-section of contemporary origami artists: they range in age from 29 to 71, hail from four different continents, and work in six different countries.
  • Each artist will create pieces specifically for this tour—their collective works have never been seen before anywhere in the world.
  • Their origami creations present original “above the fold” commentaries on diverse aspects of modern life and art.
  • Six of the artists were featured in Vanessa Gould’s Peabody award-winning documentary film Between the Folds.
  • Vanessa Gould, director of Between the Folds, and all of the Above the Fold artists are available for symposia, lectures, and exhibition-related events at your venue.

Above the Fold was developed by International Arts & Artists and independent curator, author, and educator Meher McArthur, former curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California. McArthur was also the curator of IA&A’s traveling exhibition Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami.

American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection

American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection

“The Daytons were likely the most significant collectors of fine art in the history of West Virginia.”

– John Cuthbert, Director and Curator, West Virginia & Regional History Center

Drawn from the collection of the Huntington Museum of Art, American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection features 41 elegant American paintings, originally from the private collection of Arthur Dayton and Ruth Woods Dayton. The Daytons (whose family surnames combine to form “Daywood”), were prominent art patrons in early 20th century West Virginia who acquired over 200 works, 80 of which were oil paintings. Active at a time when art patronage played a major foundational role in the growth of many museum collections, the Daytons sought to preserve and share artworks that they felt captured the essence of American life.

This exhibition showcases work from a transitional time in American art, approximately the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when artists abandoned the rigors of academic styles and subjects. They turned instead to intimate scenes of the cultivated countryside and figure studies of friends and neighbors that reflected the more modern influences of the Barbizon School, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Robert Henri, George Inness, George Luks, Homer Dodge Martin, Gari Melchers, John Sloan, John Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir are among the notable artists featured in the exhibition, which serves as a luminous window into one couple’s experience in the world of art patronage.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.