Exhibition Status: Past

Tools In Motion

Tools_motion

Tools In Motion

Works from the Hechinger Collection

“Tools are what make us human and allow us to build civilization; they make work possible, they make ideas possible.”

— Charlie Brouwer

“Men have become the tools of their tools.”

– Henry David Thoreau

A selection of dynamic works from John Hechinger’s collection of tool-themed art, Tools in Motion celebrates the dignity of common tools and the intrinsic beauty of their design, where form and function are inextricably linked.

This one-of-a-kind exhibition features fifty stand-out pieces based on familiar forms—hammers, saws and wrenches—transformed into art of great imaginative power using a wide range of materials and techniques. Some of them, by way of texture, color, and the vigor of their design, evoke the rhythm and force of tools in action; others, like Maria Josephy’s whimsical “Prometheus,” meld history, wit, and common hardware into lighthearted odes to the timeless, panhuman nature of tools themselves. Other remarkable paintings and sculpture twist everyday tools into surreal forms or flesh-like configurations, highlighting the origin of tools as extensions of the hands and dreams of their human inventors. The artists in the exhibition range from emerging to world renowned, including notable figures such as Arman, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, and Jacob Lawrence.

Tools As Art

Tools_art

Tools As Art: The Hechinger Collection

“A worker may be the hammer’s master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea.”

– Milan Kundera

“[Tools] have a history. In many of the religious panels of the Renaissance, you see the same tools as carpenters use today. They haven’t changed at all since then, so they’ve become a symbol of order and aspiration to me.”

— Jacob Lawrence

The Hechinger Collection celebrates the ubiquity of tools in our lives with art that magically transforms utilitarian objects into fanciful works of beauty, surprise and wit.

Unprecedented in its scope and singular appeal, Tools As Art explores the unsung elegance of tools with sixty-five highlights from the unique holdings of hardware pioneer John Hechinger. From a painting of a giant hammer pulling out a misplaced nail to a full-scale stepladder made entirely of paper, this landmark exhibition covers an astonishing range of media, materials, and themes, all of which invite us to look at everyday objects with new eyes. Some of them celebrate the quotidian grace of tools as instruments of creation that are beautiful in themselves; others transfigure the familiar with abstract or fanciful distortions, assemblages, or collages, melding tools into animal forms or landscapes or highlighting their tragic anomaly in a technological age.

The exhibition showcases emerging talent as well as renowned artists and photographers such as Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Estes, Wayne Thiebaud, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, and William Eggleston. All share a deep affinity for everyday things, and it is this quality that makes their work so evocative.

Purchase the 92-page exhibition catalogue here

Structures of Nature

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Structures of Nature: Photographs by Andreas Feininger

“I am both overwhelmed and enchanted by the infinite richness of form, which even humble manifestations of nature can assume. I am awed by the degree of perfection of their structural elements relative to their functions, and moved by the exquisite beauty of many of their forms.”

– Andreas Feininger

“With all that’s big and new, the work of the past can still astonish us. Seashells, insects, and animal bones are objects of fascinating beauty in ‘Structures of Nature,’ a collection of work by Andreas Feininger.”

– Miranda Crowell, American Photo

“The diverse, surprising set of works by 20 photographers acts as an antidote to ignorance, presenting an alternative to the facile or anachronistic images transmitted by the American media.”

– Kevin J. Kelley, Seven Days: Vermont’s Independent Voice

The tiny veins of a leaf, the conical chambers of shells, the curve of a snake’s spine—these are the elements explored in minutest detail in Andreas Feininger’s nature photography.  He captures the beauty, structure, and function in the smallest attribute of animal and plant forms to reveal patterns of symmetry and order.

Raised in Germany and trained at the Bauhaus in the 1920s, Feininger worked as an architect under the legendary Le Corbusier before turning his energies and passion to photography in the early 1930s. After moving to America in 1939, he won fame for his monumental black-and-white urban portraits, notably those of Manhattan’s skyline, which he portrayed as both canyon-like and exquisitely ordered.  A brilliant technician as well as visual innovator, Feininger built his own customized telephoto lenses for his city photos, in addition to a number of close-up cameras for peering into the secrets of the natural world. Fascinated by nature since childhood—especially the intricate structures of organic forms—Feininger soon turned his architect’s eye to the minuscule but no less stunning vistas hidden in a shell or a bone or a leaf, and in the years following published, to much acclaim, his nature photography collections Trees (1968), Shells (1972) and Leaves (1972).

Structures of Nature was the first major exhibition of his nature studies in more than 25 years. All of the photographs in the exhibition were part of the permanent collection of the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, generously given by the Feininger family and the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York.

In Stabiano

in-Stabiano

In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite

“Once the most luxurious corner of the Roman Empire, Stabiano boasted a string of opulent villas overlooking the Bay of Naples where the Roman elite summered, entertained, and conducted business while strolling in elaborate courtyards.”

— Mary J. Loftus, Emory magazine

“[A] magnificent opportunity to experience the fruits of both ancient art and modern archaeology.”

— Donald Dusinberre, EU Jacksonville

“The diverse, surprising set of works by 20 photographers acts as an antidote to ignorance, presenting an alternative to the facile or anachronistic images transmitted by the American media.”

– Kevin J. Kelley, Seven Days: Vermont’s Independent Voice

In Stabiano presented the art objects and artifacts found in four ancient Roman villas located on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Naples. Stabiano (Stabiae in Latin) was a summer enclave for the moneyed elite of the Roman Empire, who competed with each other in establishing lavish country homes with rich furnishings, frescoes, mosaics, stuccos, statues, and other amenities to awe their guests and outshine their political and business rivals. The villas were buried by the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which also preserved the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The long-lost resort village is a recent archeological find, relatively unknown in Italy and the US but as well-preserved as its two Vesuvian neighbors and a fascinating window into the lives and tastes of Rome’s sybaritic beau monde.

The exhibition contained 72 objects—including frescoes, stucco artworks, sculpture, and other artifacts—that showcased the immense size, innovative design, and luxurious decoration of these villas.

In Stabiano was organized by the Superintendent of Archaeology of Pompeii, with assistance from the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation and International Arts & Artists.

SOARING VOICES

Soaring-Voices

Soaring Voices: Recent Ceramics by Women from Japan

“The vast and varied range of remarkable ceramics comprising Soaring Voices is a testament to the strong female clay-making culture that developed in the Jōmon period and grew to encompass generation upon generation of Japanese women artists.”– Susanna Brooks Lavallee, Morikami Newsletter

“To anyone who follows ceramics—especially Japanese ceramics—this is a not-to-be-missed show

– Janet Koplos, American Craft

For thousands of years, women in Japan have been involved in the making of ceramics, but with few exceptions their names have not been preserved. Soaring Voices bears powerful witness to a still-evolving renaissance of female preeminence in the medium.

Until the mid-twentieth century, ceramic studios in Japan were by tradition family-run establishments in which men controlled most aspects of production, from the processing of clay to the crafting and marketing of the finished works. This began to change in the 1950s, when the cultural upheavals of the post-war era—and the wide availability of mass-produced clay—ended male dominance in the field and launched a generation of self-taught female ceramists, who managed their own studios and brought a new sensibility to the ancient craft. This exhibition showcases, through 87 works by 25 women artists, contemporary interpretations of a traditional art form by way of a range of motifs inspired by the natural world: plants, shells, mountains, rivers, and the delicate play of light and shadow.

The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, organized and debuted the exhibition in collaboration with hus-10, Inc., Tokyo, Japan. The exhibition traveled to the New Otani Art Museum, Tokyo, and to Shizuoka Art Gallery, Shizuoka, Japan, in 2008; then to the Musée National de Céramique in Sèvres, France, in 2009, before traveling to the US.

The exhibition was generously supported in part by the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the S&R Foundation.

Making your Mark: Prints and Drawings from the Hechinger Collection

Making Your Mark: Prints and Drawings from the Hechinger Collection

“Because my eyes are old and have helped my hand dream of the thrill of making marks on paper, I can say I know more.”

– Jim Dine

Making Your Mark: Prints and Drawings from the Hechinger Collection presents 50 works on paper, including drawings, intaglio, planographic, photographs, screen prints, and reliefs. Exploring the intricacies of each medium, this exhibition highlights the rich variety of materials and methods used when making a print or drawing. Artists have nearly an infinite choice of media and techniques—charcoal vs. graphite, soft pastel vs. oil pastel, etching vs. engraving, drypoint and aquatint, to name a few—all of which can be adapted and manipulated to execute the artist’s vision.

Some of the most influential artists of the twentieth century are featured in Making Your Mark, including Berenice Abbott, Jim Dine, Richard Estes, Walker Evans, Howard Finster, Ke Francis, Jacob Lawrence, Hans Namuth, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Lucas Samaras, Aaron Siskind, and Wayne Thiebaud. Each of the techniques showcased in the exhibition articulates the creative processes and various effects the artist can achieve.

To see more from IA&A's Hechinger's Collection, click here.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

Visions of Place

vision-of-place

Visions of Place: Complex Geographies in Contemporary Israeli Art

Visions of Place: Complex Geographies in Contemporary Israeli Art offers a unique lens through which to view and better understand the complexities of Israel. Geography, in all its many manifestations – physical, personal, religious, political, historical, economic, among others – is an inescapable part of Israeli life, psyche, and art. The exhibition includes approximately 50 works, including photographs, videos, installations, paintings, sculptures, and mixed media, by 34 contemporary artists who explore contending views of history and identity, questioning relationships to, and conflicts over, place.

Although focused specifically on Israel, the topics raised by the exhibition have wide interest and applicability in the broader contemporary world. Visions of Place demonstrates the richness, complexity, and diversity of the contemporary Israeli art landscape, and by extension, Israeli society. It provides a thought-provoking artistic experience that catalyzes important dialogue on the issues illustrated by Israel’s contemporary artists in their exploration of place.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Museum

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection

“Art interprets the beauty of ideas and of visible things, making them concrete and lasting.”

– Louis Comfort Tiffany

A celebration of beauty, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection features more than 60 objects, spanning over 30 years of Tiffany’s prolific career. One of America’s most renowned artists, Louis Comfort Tiffany worked in nearly all of the media available to artists and designers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—glass, ceramic, metalwork, jewelry, and painting. Tiffany’s technical brilliance in a wide variety of media enabled him to convey his awe of the natural world through a range of objects, from common household items to one-of-a-kind masterpieces. He earned international acclaim for his artistic output, receiving prestigious awards in exhibitions across Europe and the United States. His work was enthusiastically collected by art museums and private collectors throughout his lifetime, and continues to be highly sought after today. This exhibition revels in the artistry and craftsmanship of the Tiffany artworks from Chicago’s distinguished Richard H. Driehaus Collection, highlighting masterworks never before presented in a comprehensive exhibition.

About Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was born in New York City on February 18, 1848, and began his career as a painter, studying at the National Academy of Design in New York City. He expanded his repertoire through his work as an interior designer, and began working at a glassworks in Brooklyn where he developed some of his signature methods of making glass and experimented with new glass forms and techniques. In 1894 he patented the poetic term “Favrile,” from the Latin word fabrilis, meaning handmade, to describe the iridescent blown art glass he began producing. In late 1897, Tiffany built his own glass furnace in Corona, Queens, New York, which produced Favrile and other unique varieties of glass for use in ecclesiastical and secular stained glass windows, lamps, vases, mosaics, and accessories.

While the magnificence and exceptional quality of Tiffany glass made this medium the most significant of his career, he continued to innovate, expanding his operations into enamels, pottery, and jewelry. Despite the enormous success he experienced in his many interrelated businesses over his long career, Tiffany’s work went out of vogue with the advent of modernism. Tiffany’s work received renewed appreciation in the mid-twentieth century, and continues to be associated with unparalleled quality and beauty to this day. When Tiffany died in 1933, the New York Times obituary counted him “among the best known of American artists.”

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

Seven Masters

Seven Masters

Seven Masters: 20th-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints

In the first half of the twentieth century, a desire to revive the great Japanese tradition of woodblock prints (known as ukiyo-e) and simultaneously capture the dynamic, modern life of Japan, gave rise to an art movement known as shin hanga, the “new print.”

– Dr. Andreas Marks, Curator of Seven Masters

As the once-isolated nation of Japan entered the 20th century and began to assimilate a new, Westernized culture, demand for certain traditional handicrafts fell off significantly—among them, the iconic woodblock prints known in the West as ukiyo-e. Publishers and artists slowed production and created fewer new designs. Yet what seemed at first to be the death-knell of a unique art form without parallel in the world turned out to be the dawning of another, as the path was cleared for a new kind of print: shin hanga.

The exhibition Seven Masters: 20th-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints focuses on seven artists who played a significant role in the development of the new print, and whose works boldly exemplify this new movement. Drawing from the superb collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the exhibition features the spectacular beauty portraits of the artists Hashiguchi Goyō (1880–1921), Itō Shinsui (1898–1972), Yamakawa Shūhō (1898–1944), and Torii Kotondo (1900–1976); striking images of kabuki actors by Yamamura Kōka (Toyonari) (1886–1942) and Natori Shunsen (1886–1960); as well as the evocative landscapes of Kawase Hasui (1883–1957). These multi-talented artists were all successful painters as well, but this exhibition looks exclusively at their unrivaled work in print design, and includes a cache of pencil drawings and rare printing proofs to offer insight into the exacting process of woodblock printing.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture of the Interior

Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture of the Interior

“But perhaps as much as his genius as a stylist and designer, Wright is so well-known due to his longevity and productivity. His designs resulted in 532 completed works…”

– Mike Brewster,Bloomberg Businessweek

“Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright

This exhibition of high-quality reproduction drawings of interiors, furnishings, and household objects offers a view into Frank Lloyd Wright’s creative conception of the interior spaces of his houses. In Wright’s house designs, structure and ornament are one. Every feature of the house—from the overall structure, to the interior, down to the smallest details and objects—was conceived by Wright from the beginning as a single idea.

Wright’s approach to visual enrichment as “organic ornament” grew out of his belief that the visual character of a form—whether an entire house or a lampshade—is integral to the structure of the object. Exploring the distinctive visual, sensory, and expressive quality of Wright’s interiors, Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture of the Interior reveals how the architect’s distinctive abstract and geometric structures permeate the spaces and objects within.

Ideal for limited-security venues, such as small museums and libraries, this exhibition of reproduced works and photographs allows access to the immediacy of the architect’s creative process without damaging the light-sensitive original drawings.

Please contact TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org for more information.