2477 <![CDATA[Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum]]> November 11, 2012-August 25, 2013 154 Gallery 154 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/late-roman-and-early-byzantine-treasures-british-museum The unveiling of the Jaharis Galleries also celebrates the opening of a special exhibition of more than 50 incomparable works of late Roman and early Byzantine art lent by the British Museum. Comprised of luxurious yet portable items such as silver vessels, carved ivories, and gem-encrusted jewelry, these artworks reflect the splendor of wealthy households and important ecclesiastical sites between A.D. 350 and 650.

These centuries saw great shifts in the Roman Empire: Constantinople replaced Rome as the imperial capital, Christianity became the official imperial religion, and Greek eclipsed Latin as the official administrative language. Beautifully illustrating these transitions, the objects in the exhibition were employed in a variety of civic, domestic, and sacred contexts. For example, a gilded silver chest for bathing accessories and perfumed oils that belonged to a Roman noblewoman named Projecta stands as an eloquent witness to the intersection of classical iconography and Christian belief; above the inscription indicating that its owner was indeed a Christian appears a seductive image of the goddess Venus. The gradual stylistic shift from a classical naturalism towards a Byzantine aesthetic can be seen in the Reliquary of St. Menas. Carved in ivory during the sixth century and markedly different in style from the earlier objects in the exhibition, the imagery—charged with spiritual import—is more abstract, static, and hieratic. For its part, The Lycurgus Cup vividly exemplifies the refinement and spectacle of lavish tableware proudly used throughout the late Roman Empire. In a display of technical virtuosity, this cup appears green in reflected light but turns a brilliant red when light is transmitted through it, thanks to the addition of gold and silver particles to the molten glass.

Most of the treasures in this exhibition have never before traveled to the United States. The Art Institute is proud to be the sole venue for this special presentation.

Sponsors

Major funding is provided by Shawn M. Donnelley and Christopher M. Kelly. Additional support is provided by John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe. Generous annual support is also provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Goldman Sachs, Kenneth and Anne Griffin, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation, the Trott Family Foundation, and the Woman’s Board of the Art Institute of Chicago.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Saint-Menas_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Saint-Menas_112thumb.png Reliquary of St Menas 6th century Byzantine Egypt Alexandria Lent by the British Museum 187912201 Trustees of the British Museum

]]> 2475 <![CDATA[Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art]]> November 11, 2012-November 27, 2015 151,152,153,154 Galleries 150–154 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/gods-and-glamour-mary-and-michael-jaharis-galleries-greek-roman-and-byzantine-art This fall, the past returns as over 550 works from 4,000 years of artistic achievement in the Mediterranean region come together in the beautiful new Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art. With over 150 exceptional loans from private collections and public institutions around the world complementing the museum’s own rich holdings, this inaugural display allows the Art Institute to present for the first time the origins and early development of Western art from the dawn of the third millennium B.C. to the time of the great Byzantine Empire.

Designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, the new sunlit galleries encircling McKinlock Court take visitors on a journey through the beginnings of Western art. Opening the installation are the rare Mesopotamian Statuette of a Striding Figure from 3000/2800 B.C. and the sublimely abstracted Female Figure from 2600/2500 B.C., reminders that the rich influences of early Mediterranean art extend back to the highly developed cultures of the ancient Near East and forward into 20th-century modern art. From these anchors, a chronological display follows—from beautifully decorated Greek vases and the precious metals of the Hellenistic period to Etruscan bronze and terracotta and the opulent décor and realistic portraiture of Rome and finally to Byzantine art and the new aesthetic developed under the growing power of the Christian Church. Completing this magnificent story of early European art—one the Art Institute has not been able to tell until now—is the very special exhibition, Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum, featuring 51 of the finest artworks from its illustrious collection.

The Jaharis Galleries’ stunning display of ancient artwork is enriched by two additional resources. One gallery offers insight into the fascinating conservation of the objects on display, while an interactive multimedia program stationed at 16 kiosks throughout the galleries provides information on selected objects, ranging from basic introductory facts to in-depth details on the artworks’ function, form, subject, historical context, technique of manufacture, and relationships to particular people, places, and objects. Also available is a richly illustrated publication, Recasting the Past, authored by Karen Manchester, chair and curator of ancient art, Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art, with an essay by Karen Alexander.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Gods-Glamour-Bust-of-Woman_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Gods-Glamour-Bust-of-Woman_112thumb.png Portrait Bust of a Woman detail Antonine Period 140/50 ad Roman Restricted gifts of the Antiquarian Society in honor of Ian Wardropper the Classical Art Society Mr and Mrs Isak V Gerson James and Bonnie Pritchard and Mrs Hugo Sonnenschein Mr and Mrs Kenneth Bro Fund Katherine K Adler Mr and Mrs Walter Alexander in honor of Ian Wardropper David Earle III William A and Renda H Lederer Family Chester D Tripp and Jane B Tripp endowmentsPhoto by Erika Dufour

]]> 2703 <![CDATA[Recent Acquisitions of Textiles, 2004–2011]]> December 13, 2012-May 27, 2013 57,58,59 Galleries 57–59 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/recent-acquisitions-textiles-2004-2011 Celebrating the acquisition of about 550 marvelous objects by the Department of Textiles over the last seven years, this exhibition continues a tradition established in the department some 40 years ago to periodically display works recently acquired, whether by donation or purchase. In this case, some 40 works have been selected to highlight the many diverse textile types associated particularly with Western and Asian cultures. Three wonderful examples offer a taste of the broad range and superb quality of the works on display. The first is a printed cotton, or chintz, from England depicting the bombardment of Algiers by British naval forces in 1816. Commemorative portrayals of British military victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars, were popular subjects for prints, textiles, and many other media. This textile was a product of the Industrial Revolution, when new forms of mechanization, including the use of waterpower for spinning and weaving and engraved rollers for printing, made high-quality mass production of household furnishings possible. A second example, another printed cotton (produced with blocks, not engraved rollers) was made in another part of the world at a much earlier date. It is a fragment of a ceremonial hanging made in Gujarat, India, for the Indonesian market in the late 14th or 15th century. Indian textiles were exchanged for Southeast Asian spices at this time by Arab and Gujarati traders and later by various European trade companies. Such textiles were held sacred in Indonesia, preserved and handed down within societies to be displayed as banners during thanksgiving ceremonies. The third example and one of the most colorful textiles in the exhibition is a woman’s robe made in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, in the middle of the 19th century. It is boldly patterned in vertical stripes containing various harp-like and horned floral motifs. The dyeing technique is called ikat, which refers to the binding and dyeing of, in this case, the warp threads before they are arranged on the loom to create the desired effect. A characteristic of ikat is the appearance of feathered or serrated edges where one color zone meets another. Robes of this type, traditionally part of a woman’s dowry, were worn at weddings and special occasions. The ikat garments and panels of Central Asia are magnificent examples of the dyers’, rather than the weavers’, art, and remind us how numerous and varied are the creative expressions found in the textile arts.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Recent-Acquisitions-Textiles_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Recent-Acquisitions-Textiles_112thumb.png 2845 <![CDATA[Spot the Dog: Paw Prints!]]> December 20, 2012-June 23, 2013 213 Gallery 213A http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/spot-dog-paw-prints This installation of nearly a dozen prints features dogs concealed in clever ways—or simply hiding in plain sight. Dogs of all shapes and sizes have appeared in artworks from almost every culture over the centuries, whether as status symbols, fluffy ornaments, or artistic inspiration. This presentation focuses on 17th-century works from Northern Europe to complement the paintings on permanent display in the surrounding galleries. Dogs were very common pets and working farmyard animals in the Dutch Republic. Once you have found the dogs in the prints and paintings on view, make sure to examine the paintings in the adjoining gallery. Every dog has his day, so join in and see how many covert canines you can spot today!

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Spot-the-Dog-Hollar_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Spot-the-Dog-Hollar_112thumb.png Wenceslaus Hollar after Adriaen Jacobz Matham A Poodle 1649 Gift of James Wells

]]> 2711 <![CDATA[Kara Walker: Rise Up Ye Mighty Race!]]> February 21, 2013-August 11, 2013 293 Gallery 293 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/kara-walker-rise-ye-mighty-race Kara Walker (American, born 1969) is best known for cut-paper silhouettes that critically address race, gender, sexuality, and power. Most often taking the form of large-scale tableaux of antebellum stereotypes, they present slavery as an absurd theater of eroticized violence and self-deprecating behavior. Her flat caricatures—mammies, sambos, slave mistresses, masters, and Southern belles—are depicted nearly life-size, arranged in narrative sequences that further exaggerate the already grotesque history of slavery. For Walker, the simplified details of a human form in the black cutouts resonate with racial stereotypes. She has said, "The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that's also what the stereotype does."

Walker has, over the years, pursued the silhouette’s implications and transformations in paintings, drawings, collages, shadow puppets, cut steel, film and video animations, and “magic-lantern” projections. She will return to the cut-paper medium in monumental form for a new commissioned installation that she has designed especially for display at the Art Institute. The installation, titled Rise Up Ye Mighty Race! (2013), will include five large framed graphite drawings and 40 small framed mixed-media drawings along with the cut paper silhouettes. The title refers to comments made by Barack Obama in his 1995 book, Dreams from My Father, about the challenges of community organizing in Chicago, in which he quotes the Jamaican political leader Marcus Garvey (1887–1940). Merging handwritten text with the images in the drawings, the work takes a diaristic form that revolves around The Turner Diaries, written in 1978 by the white nationalist William Luther Pierce, and investigates the notion of the “race war” as it exists in the contemporary imagination. Walker has referred to the work in progress as, “a kind of paranoid panorama wall work—with supplemental drawings large and small, to chronicle what can be called a diary of my ever-present, never-ending war with race."

SponsorThis presentation is supported by a gift from Liz and Eric Lefkofsky.

Check out this video of Kara Walker in discussion with curator Lisa Dorin.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Kara-Walker-Theater_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Kara-Walker-Theater_112thumb.png Kara Walker The Theater from Rise Up Ye Mighty Race 2012 Courtesy of the artist

]]> 2871 <![CDATA[Rodney Graham: Torqued Chandelier Release]]> March 8, 2013-June 21, 2013 186 Gallery 186 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/rodney-graham-torqued-chandelier-release Vancouver-based artist Rodney Graham is known for many roles—musician, performer, philosopher, scientist, and writer—but he is perhaps most recognized for his cerebral and captivating moving-image installations.

Torqued Chandelier Release (2005) is the third in a trio of films that the artist describes as “illustrated ‘thought experiments’ documenting transitory lighting events within the context of a single roll of film.” Inspired by Sir Isaac Newton’s famous water-bucket experiment exploring rotational motion, Torqued Chandelier Release vividly demonstrates Newton’s investigations as the chandelier, wound-up off-camera and then released, spins in one direction then reverses course until it finally comes to rest. The dizzying image of the spinning fixture takes on a sculptural, three-dimensional appearance, echoing Newton’s original experiment and illuminating the values of the Enlightenment itself.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Torqued-Chandelier_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Torqued-Chandelier_112thumb.png Rodney Graham Torqued Chandelier Release 2005 Major Acquisitions Fund Rodney Graham

]]> 2870 <![CDATA[Sharing Space: Creative Intersections in Architecture and Design]]> April 6, 2013-August 18, 2013 283,285 Galleries 283–285 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/sharing-space-creative-intersections-architecture-and-design From the powerful effect of color to the rigor of geometry, this exhibition mines the permanent collection of the Department of Architecture and Design to expose common creative concepts and formal strategies across the fields of architecture and design. Including work by architects, urban planners, graphic designers, and industrial designers created from the 1940s to 2012, this broadly thematic organization highlights important recent acquisitions and gems of the collection, presenting visitors with new and unexpected relationships among these various interwoven disciplines. Architects Doug Garofalo and David Leary, for example, used color as a conceptual strategy in the 1991 Camouflage House to simultaneously hide and define the contours of the building within the landscape. Similarly, a glass table designed by Johanna Grawunder in 2010 has radial supports in vivid translucent hues that blur the boundaries of the object when viewed from different angles. While the theory and visual languages underpinning these two objects diverge, this juxtaposition creates a new argument for an underlying relationship stemming from their shared use of color.

Groupings throughout the exhibition, based on similar approaches to geometry and structure among others, invoke fresh readings of well-known works and allow new connections to emerge across a large range of media and varying scales. In this way, the presentation reveals nuanced relationships and deep structural connections that run through this selection of exceptional modern and contemporary works.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Sharing-Spaces-Camouflage-House_240thumb.png http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Sharing-Spaces-Camouflage-House_112thumb.png Douglas Garofalo and David Leary Camouflage House 1991 Gift of Douglas Garofalo

]]> 3142 <![CDATA[The Yoshida Family: Three Generations of Japanese Print Artists]]> April 27, 2013-July 14, 2013 107 Gallery 107 http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/yoshida-family-three-generations-japanese-print-artists The Yoshida family has remarkably produced three generations of woodblock print artists, all of whom have been integral in major 20th-century Japanese print movements. The patriarch of the family, Yoshida Hiroshi (1876–1950), was one of the most prolific artists in the history of woodblock printing and produced nostalgic landscape images coveted by those in Japan and abroad. After his death in 1950, the Yoshida family artists embarked on a new path, adding abstraction and a multiplicity of foreign influences to their art. Hiroshi's oldest son, Toshi, worked closely under his father's tutelage but later began to make stylistically very different prints—from those depicting animals in Africa to line-based portraits. Hiroshi’s youngest son, Hodaka, led the family into a new world of abstract prints. Having been instilled with a love for travel by his father, Hodaka transferred his reactions to different locales to his artwork, which itself underwent several radical shifts during his career. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw abstract and energetic works inspired by his trip to Mexico. His mother, Fujio, at the age of 62 began to explore sensual abstracted floral themes in prints. His wife, Chizuko, was trained as an abstract painter but started making after she married. The current generation's Yoshida Ayomi is the most conceptual of the Yoshida artists, her prints reflecting the main focus of her work—the carving process.

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/Yoshida-Hodaka-Ancient-People_240thumb.jpg http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/Yoshida-Hodaka-Ancient-People_112thumb.jpg Yoshida Hodaka Ancient People detail 1956 Gift of Arnold Maremont

]]> 3160 <![CDATA[[insert YOU here]]]> May 16, 2013-July 10, 2013 RyanEducationCenter http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/insert-you-here This exhibition of teen art that has been imagined, curated, designed, and installed by the Art Institute Teen Council, a group of 11 teens from all over Chicagoland, who have met here since October to find new ways for youth to engage with the museum. It tells the story of a journey to adulthood through the perspective of a teenager. The exhibition is categorized into four sub-themes that delineate aspects of this journey: origins, transitions, individuality, and interactions. For the exhibition, Teen Council members selected artwork that was created by teens around Chicago (and beyond) and represents various perspectives, subjects, media, and art-making techniques.

Check out the exhibition on Tumblr!

Are you interested in learning more about the Teen Council and other opportunities available for teens at the Art Institute? Like Art Institute Teens on Facebook or check out the museum’s teen programs listings on our website.

Sponsor

]]> http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_medium_238_180/public/insert-you-here-teens_240thumb.jpg http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/styles/desktop_small_square_112/public/insert-you-here-teens_112thumb.jpg