Clark Humanities Museum Archives | Page 4 of 5

February 20, 2014

Imaginary Travel to Exotic Lands

This exhibition explores the theme of travel as a metaphysical experience in which physical or imaginary displacement leads to a profound self-enquiry. The quest for the reality of the Self through the experience of the Other characterizes the renewal of the traditional theme of the journey as self-discovery in late nineteenth and twentieth century French literature. This exhibit is linked to Voyage et Exotisme, an upper-division French offering, whose focus is on protagonists who delight in stationary voyages through memory, dreaming, art contemplation, or reading. To emulate their experiences, this small selection of paintings and engravings, drawn from the permanent collection of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, inspires a wide range of imaginary voyages.

Rendering the Female Subject

Rendering the Female Subject features works on paper, ceramic pieces, and wood sculptures from the Scripps Permanent Collection. The selection includes Pre Columbian terracotta figures, Satsuma ware, Andy Warhol polaroids, an Alison Saar print, an acrylic painting by Jamini Roy, and much more. This exhibit is full of variety! The common thread is that all of the pieces are artistic representations of women. The works are divided into categories: the works on paper fall under thematic categories, and each cabinet will display artwork from a single artist or culture. Rendering the Female Subject displays a few of the many ways that artists have represented women and allows the viewer to draw her own conclusions about the artwork and the women (and men in a couple instances) who are the subject of each piece.

Pushing the Envelope: The Scripps College Press since 1986

Forty-five fine press artist’s books made at the Scripps College Press will be shown in the exhibition curated by members of the Core III course, From Materiality to Immateriality: The Coming of the Artist Book. The Scripps College Press has been at the forefront of the private press movement since its establishment in 1941. In the 60s, Ed Ruscha, Sol LeWitt and others gave a new twist to bookmaking and challenged us to see the book as art. By 1986, the Press took a new direction by focusing on limited edition books produced by students in the Typography and the Book Arts course as a collaborative project each semester. Core III students will critique each book presented in the catalog, identify how it fits into book genres as defined by Johanna Drucker, and mount the exhibit. A DVD produced by the students showing several pages of each book, with commentary, will be shown at the exhibit.

Culture in Conflict

This exhibition presents images from the recent war in Northern Ireland and focuses in particular on the murals which played an important role in articulating the conflict. The mural images selected include representations of historical events and processes, the political standpoints of all of the main players in the conflict (including the Irish Republican Army, Ulster Loyalist paramilitary forces and the British Army), the concerns of local communities at the centre of violence, and modes of formal political and ideological address. The tone and content of the murals ranges from overtly political declarations to brutal depictions of the violence, from death-threats to the use of humour and irony. Taken together, the images reflect the attempt by various forces to use the walls, streets and public spaces of Northern Ireland to regulate, construct and possess space for political purposes.

Haydn on Tour: A Documentary Exhibition on Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

A primary source for research on luminous historical figures and their work is the collection of documents which they themselves created, such as letters, memoranda, notes, and other original documents in the hand of the historical figure. Other documents, such as letters written to them by colleagues and friends, and commentary and reviews by recognized contemporary critics, can also shed light on milieu, context and contemporary thinking. The exhibit, “Haydn on Tour: A Documentary Exhibition on Joseph Haydn (1732 — 1809),” will bring to the Clark Humanities Museum a collection of selected documents in facsimile from various Haydn archives in Austria. With the support of the Austrian Consulate of Los Angeles, and the international celebrations organized by Haydn 2009, Scripps College and the Clark Museum are among a select small group of venues around the world hosting this exhibit during the 2009 year. Honoring the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn, the documents in the exhibit, along with other sources in the Honnold Libraries, will serve as source material for student projects during the spring, 2009, semester.

Seeing Sites: European Landscape Prints

The students in Core II “The Nature of Nature: Enlightenment Ideas about the Landscape” will curate an exhibition of 18-19th century prints that depict views of nature and the landscape. These images will be selected from the Denison Library Rare Book Room and Special Collections and from the Scripps College Collections of engravings, lithographs and woodblock prints. Students will be organizing the exhibition and writing labels as part of the Core II seminar.

Foundations: Groundwork for Contemporary Artist Books

The foundations of artists’ books will be shown in the exhibition curated by members of the Core III course, From Materiality to Immateriality: The Coming of the Artist Book. Core III students made selections from Denison Library’s significant collection of artists’ books that demonstrate key influences from the long history of the book. The significance of materials like papyrus and vellum, of hand-written and typographic styles, printing practices, imagery techniques and textual changes will be presented through examples from Denison’s Special Collections. Core III students will critique each book presented in the accompanying catalog, identify how it fits into book genres as defined by Johanna Drucker, and mount the exhibit. A DVD produced by the students showing several pages of each book, with commentary about its influences, will be shown at the exhibit.

Landscapes, Farms and Pleasure Gardens in the 18th Century

New ideas about nature, landscape, farms, and gardens radically changed the appearance and the purposes of the countryside in 18th century Europe, with many extraordinary sites being developed with these new perspectives. This exhibition will present drawings, prints, plans and illustrated books chosen from the collections of the Claremont Colleges, and is in conjunction with the Scripps College art history course “18th Century European Arts.”

Japanese Prints of the Noh Theater

The noh theater of Japan dates back to the 14th century, and was supported by both the imperial aristocracy and samurai military classes. When modernization radically changed Japanese society in the late 19th century, noh lost its elite patronage but sought broader public audiences. The artist Tsukioka KÃ´gyo (1869-1927) was an important promoter of this traditional form of theater, and created over 500 woodblock prints in a 30 year period depicting famous actors and scenes from plays. Scripps College has more than 150 KÃ´gyo prints, as well as many works by other artists, some depicting the same scenes in different ways. This exhibition is in conjunction with two Scripps Core Humanities Seminars and with the “Arts of Japan” survey course.

Buddhist Art at Scripps College

Scripps is fortunate to have several important works of art that illuminate the teachings of Buddhism. From an 8th century Chinese sutra scroll to a 20th century Korean woodblock print, the collection includes a wide variety of paintings, calligraphy, prints, sculptures, ceramics, cloisonnÃ© and textiles. This exhibition will focus on images of bodhisattvas and Bodhidharma, and is in conjunction with two Scripps Core Humanities Seminars and with the “Arts of Japan” survey course. Of particular interest is a recently restored 15-16th century Ming Dynasty baimiao / fine line ink painting of the Bodhisattva Samanthabadra; this is one of 15 Chinese paintings currently being conserved by one of Japan’s foremost painting conservation studios in Kyoto.