School of Art + Design
Faculty Exhibition
August 29 through October 5, 2008
One of the oldest annual faculty art
exhibitions in the country and a major event
in the region, this show highlights the current
achievements of the artists and upholds the
national reputation of the school.
Image credit: Installation view, 2008
The World of Yugen: Japanese
Paper Artworks by Kyoko Ibe
August 29, 2008 through January 4, 2009
This exhibition was a large-scale installation
of handmade Japanese paper (washi). As
both visual art and the setting for a stunning
performance environment, Ibe’s work
manifests the Japanese concept of yugen, a
word used to describe the profound, the
remote, and the mysterious. Yugen is that
which cannot be easily grasped or
expressed in words, but rather revealed
through spiritual strength and grace.
The installation was accompanied by a separate exhibition of Ibe’s latest two-dimensional washi works.
Exhibition supported in part by Fox Development Corporation; Frances P. Rohlen Visiting Artists Fund/College of Fine and Applied Arts; Office of the Chancellor, U of I; Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, U of I; Illinois Arts Council; Krannert Art Museum Director’s Circle; Krannert Art Museum Council; Japan Foundation. Image credit: Installation view, 2008
Exhibition programming
September and October
Throughout these two months, numerous dance performances by Kirstie Simson, assistant professor of Dance, and tea ceremonies by Kimiko Gunji, director of Japan House, occurred
The Rise of Abstraction in
Post-War Japan: Sosaku Hanga Woodblock Prints
August 29, 2008 through January 4, 2009
Curator: Kathryn Koca
The creative print movement, with its
beginnings in early twentieth-century Japan,
reacted against the collaborative ukiyo-e
printmaking method where three
individuals—a draftsman, a carver, and a
printer—produced a single print. Modern
Japanese printmakers sought creative freedom and became the sole makers of their woodblock prints. Two styles within the movement, shin hanga (“new prints”) and sosaku hanga (“creative prints”), grew increasingly abstract with the modernization of Japan and the influence of the West. Post-war Japanese artists gained international acclaim with their abstract “creative prints,” particularly at the 1951 São Paulo Biennial. This permanent collection installation presents a selection of sosaku hanga prints created at the height of the movement.
Image credit: Tsuneo Tamagami, Woman Want Hold Moon, 20th century, woodblock print
Collecting East Asia:
The Lee Wonsik Collection
August 29, 2008 through July 26, 2009
Guest Curator: Yurika Wakamatsu
Collecting East Asia, the inaugural exhibition
of the Lee Wonsik Collection, featured a
selection of the Chinese paintings and works
of calligraphy that Krannert Art Museum
acquired in 2004 through the generosity of the
University of Illinois’s John Needles Chester
Fund. As a scholar of Chinese literature and
history, Dr. Lee selected the objects he
collected to further his research on the cultural
interactions between China, Japan, and Korea
during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. He also used his collection to
enhance his teaching. This exhibition, which displayed various East Asian traditions of collecting art, strove to recognize and emulate Dr. Lee's interests as a collector.
Image credit: Yi Hai, Landscape, 18th century, leaf from an album separately mounted, ink on paper
New Installation of the Asian Gallery
Opened August 29, 2008
Krannert Art Museum began to collect Asian art with a gift from the Class of 1908. Sculptures of powerful divinities from India, porcelains from China decorated with colorful enamels, woodblock prints from Japan—the diversity of the original collection is as striking as its ambiguous definition of "Asia." More recently, the Chinese collection, already augmented by the support of Sophie and Brian Leung, has incorporated works by contemporary artists. The aims of the installation are modest. Paintings and works of calligraphy from seventeenth-century China complement the inaugural exhibition of the Lee Wonsik collection; other objects offer only a glimpse into the richly idiosyncratic nature of the museum's collection.
Out Of Sequence:
Underrepresented Voices in American Comics
October 24, 2008 through January 4, 2009
Curators: Damian Duffy + John Jennings
Although recent attention to the history and
development of comics and sequential art has
been well deserved and long overdue, it
nevertheless has been limited in scope.
Out of Sequence sought to showcase American sequential art that steps outside the traditional bounds of the medium. One such boundary is race and gender. Therefore, Out of Sequence focused on women and minority comic creators, both historical and contemporary. In addition to works by creators from underrepresented demographics, the exhibition also exhibited works that transcend the boundaries of the comics form. This included comics work created with nontraditional techniques, experimental design and story elements, and webcomics. Finally, Out of Sequence saved a place for comic book writers. Although not technically visual artists, the sequential art writer is to comics what the director is to film. Out of Sequence showcased sequential artwork from its incipient stages to the present. It also focused on the alternate histories, the overlooked, and the underrepresented, in an effort to form a more extensive canon of American sequential art masters and, in so doing, express the limitless possibilities of this art form.
Exhibition supported in part by Office of the Chancellor, U of I; Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, U of I; Illinois Arts Council; Krannert Art Museum Director's Circle; Krannert Art Museum Council. Image credit: Dawud Anyabwile, You don't need to know my name!, 2007 © Dawud Anyabwile
View information sheet and online checklist
Exhibition programming
October 30
5:30 pm: Gallery Conversation
With education coordinator Andrea Ferber
November 8
1–4 pm: Gallery Conversation
"Emerging Out of Sequence: Examining the Past and Charting the Future of American Comics," with Nancy Goldstein, author of Jackie Ormes: The First American Woman Cartoonist (2008); Andrei Molotiu, abstract comics artist and writer; Trina Robbins, comics curator and herstorian; and Ashley A. Woods, independent comics creator
New Installation of CANVAS
Opened October 24, 2008
The new and improved intermedia Gallery opened in Fall 2008 on the lower level of Kinkead Pavilion. Major upgrades were made to both the CANVAS (Collaborative Advanced Navigation Virtual Art Studio) virtual reality environment and to the LED dislay wall. On display was an expanded selection of technology-related objects from KAM's permanent collection as well as the growing collection of virtual and 3-D printed art objects. The unveiling coincided with the opening of Out of Sequence.
Image credit: Installation view, 2008