121.8 x 53.5 cm; overall: 259.7 x 89.5 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1971.17
New this month!
When Salt Was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art
Friday, May 12, 2023, through Sunday, November 5, 2023
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
When Salt Was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art features over a dozen paintings, from monumental wall hangings to intimate album leaves, from the museum and private collections that illustrate the artistic production of Yangzhou, the most flourishing city of 18th-century China.
Situated north of the Yangzi River along the Grand Canal, Yangzhou linked cities in the lower Yangzi delta with major political headquarters in the north. A center of Buddhism and bronze mirror production during the Tang dynasty (618–906), the region’s coastal marshes provided sea salt for the empire and generated unprecedented income for Yangzhou merchants, who had been managing its distribution on behalf of the government since the 1600s.
Yangzhou’s wealth attracted artists, craftsmen and literati who sought to make a living. Their patrons, mostly salt merchants, had mansions and gardens so grand that they hosted the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) emperors on their Inspection Tours. The merchant class sought recognition through establishing close ties to the court and by socializing with literati-officials.
Painters catered to the tastes of merchants and urban dwellers, combining the aesthetics of the literati with novelties in subject matter and style. Eccentricity, humor, a sketchy approach and close-up compositions are characteristic of their works for sale, innovations that would later inspire modern artists in Shanghai.
MIX: Flora
Friday, May 5, 2023, 6–10 p.m.
All galleries open
CMA members FREE; nonmembers, online purchase before day of event $12; nonmembers, online purchase day of event $15; nonmembers, purchase at the door (subject to availability) $20
April showers bring May flowers, and we welcome you to celebrate at MIX: Flora, an exhilarating night of art, music and dance. Party to the “hot-weather music” of the band Hello! 3D, which combines psychedelic sounds of ’60s and ’70s South American cumbia, chicha and Afro-Latin freak-out grooves. DJ Teddy Eisenberg will spin multiple eclectic sets of groove-oriented hip-hop, jazz, psych and soul music from around the world. Themed food items and cocktails, beer and wine will be available to purchase from Bon Appétit. Guests are also invited to view the Cleveland Museum of Art’s newest special exhibition, The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England. As you dress for the occasion, the CMA would like to remind you that flowers are not allowed in the galleries. We cannot wait to see you at this spectacular Friday event.
The entertainment schedule for the evening includes the following:
- 6–7:15 p.m.: DJ Teddy Eisenberg
- 7:15–8:45 p.m.: Hello! 3D
- 8:45–10 p.m.: DJ Teddy Eisenberg
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Performing arts programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Art in the Afternoon
Wednesday, May 3, 1–2:15 p.m.
Select galleries
Registration required
In partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, the CMA provides specialized gallery tours for those with memory loss and one caregiver designed to lift the spirit, engage the mind and provide a relaxing and enjoyable social experience. Specially trained docents are sensitive to the interests and abilities of all visitors and encourage conversation, shared memories and art enjoyment.
To register, call the Alzheimer’s Association Cleveland Area Chapter at 216-273-4228.
In Conversation: Firelei Báez and Nadiah Rivera Fellah
Sunday, May 7, 2023, 2 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
FREE; ticket required
Speaker: Firelei Báez, artist
New York City–based artist Firelei Báez casts diasporic histories into an imaginative realm, reworking visual references drawn from the past to explore new possibilities for the future. In exuberantly colorful works on paper and canvas, large-scale sculptures and immersive installations, Báez combines representational cues that span from hair textures to textile patterns, plant life, folkloric and literary references and wide-ranging emblems of healing and resistance.
Báez joins CMA curator Nadiah Rivera Fellah for a conversation about her artistic practice as well as recent and ongoing projects, including her installations for FRONT International 2022 and the 2022 Venice Biennale.
This lecture is made possible by the Fran and Warren Rupp Contemporary Artist Fund.
Season or Series: The Rupp Contemporary Artist Lecture
All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Florence Kahane Goodman, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Additional annual support is provided by Gail Bowen in memory of Richard L. Bowen, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Roy Smith and the Trilling Family Foundation.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Leadership Circle Lunch and Learn: Conservation at the CMA
Wednesday, May 10, 2023, 12 p.m.
The Union Club
1211 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115
Join us as Sarah Scaturro, Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator, discusses the fascinating work that she and her team undertake as they conserve thousands of years of artwork in the CMA’s world-renowned collection.
After the talk, enjoy lunch with fellow Leadership Circle members. Leadership Circle members will receive a digital invitation.
Material Matters Gallery Talks
Paper as Media and the Charm of Black in 19th-Century French Drawings
Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 6 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE; ticket required
Speaker: Moyna Stanton, Paper Conservator
Have you ever wondered how artworks in the CMA’s collection are cared for? Join CMA conservators and technicians for guided tours of the galleries. Investigate artists’ materials and processes and learn about how the museum preserves artworks for the future.
Join Paper Conservator Moyna Stanton in the James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Gallery (gallery 101) to explore the drawing materials and techniques that captivated 19th-century French artists.
Gallery talks meet at the information desk in the Ames Family Atrium.
Season or Series: Material Matters Gallery Talks
All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Florence Kahane Goodman, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Additional annual support is provided by Gail Bowen in memory of Richard L. Bowen, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Roy Smith and the Trilling Family Foundation.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Artist in the Atrium
From Flax to Fabric
Saturday, May 20, 2023, 12–4 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
FREE
Every third Saturday of each month, stop by the Ames Family Atrium between noon and 4 p.m. to get a firsthand look at the art-making process. Each session will provide you the opportunity to engage and interact with a different Northeast Ohio maker during pop-up demonstrations and activities. See their work unfold and learn how artists create. Explore a related selection of authentic objects from the CMA’s education art collection in a pop-up Art up Close session. See, think and wonder.
Participate in a community weaving with Praxis Fiber Workshop. Artists from Praxis will demonstrate how to make plain-weave-structure linen cloth from flax fiber, similar to how fabric was produced in ancient Egypt, one of the earliest cultures to practice weaving.
This event is organized in conjunction with the CMA exhibition Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession.
All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Florence Kahane Goodman, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Additional annual support is provided by Gail Bowen in memory of Richard L. Bowen, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Roy Smith and the Trilling Family Foundation.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Classical Music: Modern, American, Accessible
Wednesday, May 24, 2023, 6–7 p.m.
Paula and Eugene Stevens Gallery | Gallery 229B
FREE; no ticket required
Classical music audiences might be surprised to know just how much classical music has been written in America since WWII, in styles that reflect a modern sound and represent diverse aesthetics. In this concert taking place in one of the museum’s contemporary art galleries, faculty from the Music Settlement perform works by modern American composers, ranging from Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw to African American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, concert music by comedic classical composer Peter Schickele and fiddle music arranged by Paul Kirk.
Performers
Eva Mondragon, violin/viola
Jenny Cluggish, violin
Paul Kirk, fiddle
Stephan Haluska, harp
Ellie Glorioso, cello
Chris Jenkins, viola
Free; no ticket required
Season or Series: Performing Arts Series 2022–23
The 2022–23 Performing Arts Series is sponsored by the Musart Society. This program is made possible in part by the Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund, the P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund and the Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Performing arts programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Final days!
Modern Impressions—Light and Water in Chinese Prints
Through May 7, 2023
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
FREE
Printing was invented around 700 in China, the country with the longest continuous print history in the world. Color printing by pressing separately cut woodblocks for each color (the douban technique) on paper was likewise first developed in China.
Over the past five years, the Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired works by contemporary Chinese printmakers that are on display here for the first time. By bringing diversity in geography and gender to the museum’s prints and drawings collection, these artists demonstrate the exploration of the print medium in new ways and varied formats. This presentation focuses on the visual and atmospheric effects of light and water.
Modern Impressions—Light and Water in Chinese Prints
Through May 7, 2023
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
FREE
Printing was invented around 700 in China, the country with the longest continuous print history in the world. Color printing by pressing separately cut woodblocks for each color (the douban technique) on paper was likewise first developed in China.
Over the past five years, the Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired works by contemporary Chinese printmakers that are on display here for the first time. By bringing diversity in geography and gender to the museum’s prints and drawings collection, these artists demonstrate the exploration of the print medium in new ways and varied formats. This presentation focuses on the visual and atmospheric effects of light and water.
Final weeks!
The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England
Through May 14, 2023
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall
During the volatile Tudor dynasty, England was a thriving home for the arts. An international community of artists and merchants, many of them religious refugees, navigated the high-stakes demands of royal patrons, including England’s first two reigning queens. Against the backdrop of shifting political relationships with mainland Europe, Tudor artistic patronage legitimized, promoted and stabilized a series of tumultuous reigns, from Henry VII’s seizure of the throne in 1485 to the death of his granddaughter Elizabeth I in 1603. The Tudor courts were truly cosmopolitan, boasting the work of Florentine sculptors; German painters; Flemish weavers; and Europe’s best armorers, goldsmiths and printers, while also contributing to the emergence of a distinctly English style. This exhibition traces the transformation of the arts in Tudor England through more than 80 objects—including iconic portraits, spectacular tapestries, manuscripts, sculpture and armor—from both the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection and international lenders.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). It was on view at the Met from October 10, 2022, to January 8, 2023, and will be at FAMSF from June 24, 2023, to September 24, 2023.
The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England is made possible with support from Viia R. Beechler, Carl M. Jenks, Patty and Rodger Kowall and Robert and TuYa Shwab.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder and by the late Roy L. Williams. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Carl T. Jagatich, Cathy Lincoln, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Carl and Lu Anne Morrison, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, Margaret and Loyal Wilson and Claudia C. Woods and David A. Osage.
Exhibition Tickets
Adults $15; seniors, students and children ages 6 through 17 $12; adult groups (10 or more) $10; member guests $8; children 5 and under and CMA members FREE
The CMA recommends reserving tickets through its online platform by visiting the Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England exhibition page. Tickets can also be reserved by phone at 216-421-7350 or on-site at one of the ticket desks.
Continuing Exhibitions
Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
Through June 11, 2023
James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Gallery | Gallery 101
FREE
This exhibition celebrates the Cleveland Museum of Art’s internationally recognized holdings of 19th-century French drawings—a cornerstone of its collection since the institution opened in 1916. Over the past century, the CMA has acquired exceptional and diverse sheets—from one with sketches made by a young Edgar Degas during his first trip to Italy to the first drawing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to enter an American museum collection.
Principal support is provided by the Getty Foundation as part of The Paper Project initiative. Major support is provided by the Wolfgang Ratjen Foundation, Liechtenstein. Additional support is provided by the Simon Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Richard and Dian Disantis, Leigh and Andy Fabens, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Carl T. Jagatich, Cathy Lincoln, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Carl and Lu Anne Morrison, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation and Margaret and Loyal Wilson.
Modern Japan
Through June 18, 2023
Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Japanese Art Galleries | Galleries 235A–B
FREE
Japanese art underwent major changes with the opening of Japan to international trade in the mid-1800s. Aside from a small number of Chinese residents and a limited trade relationship with the Dutch, Japan had been closed off to interaction with people from other nations since 1639. As a result, its 1854 trade agreement with the United States, rapidly followed by treaties with European nations, generated a seismic shift in Japanese culture. Japan went from being an isolated country operating under a military regime to a country with imperialist ambitions and a representative government almost overnight. Artists who had worked within traditional patronage and workshop systems found themselves competing in a global arena and redefining what it meant to create “Japanese art” in the modern world.
Arts of Africa
Through July 2, 2023
Galleries 108A–C
FREE
Seventeen rarely seen or newly acquired works have been installed in the African arts galleries. These 19th- to 21st-century works from northern, central, western and southern Africa support continuing efforts to broaden the scope of African arts on view at the CMA.
Marking the first inclusion of a northern African artist in the CMA’s African arts galleries, digitally carved alabaster tablets by contemporary Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi make their debut. Carved by acclaimed Yorùbá sculptor Duga of Mẹkọ (c. 1880–1960), twinned Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ society masks with innovative moving parts are on view, while a Yorùbá-style vessel of a goose is displayed with new insights into its painted plumage.
Riemenschneider and Late Medieval Alabaster
Through July 23, 2023
Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery | Gallery 010
FREE
Alabaster was prized for its luster and capacity for fine details from the 14th to the 16th century particularly in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain. The gleaming stone was used for altarpieces and small sculptures, as well as for the tombs of wealthy princes. Despite the rich corpus of surviving works, medieval alabaster sculpture from continental Europe has not yet been highlighted by museums in Europe and North America. The exhibition seeks to shed light on this important yet understudied topic by gathering some of the most extraordinary surviving examples of alabaster works from mainland Europe.
The core of the show will be the Cleveland Museum of Art’s masterpiece by Tilman Riemenschneider, Saint Jerome and the Lion, produced for the Benedictine abbey church of Saint Peter in Erfurt, Germany, depicting a legend in which Jerome kindly removes a thorn from a lion’s paw. Our exhibition will reunite Saint Jerome with another Riemenschneider work from the same church in Erfurt, the alabaster statuette The Virgin Mary of the Annunciation in the collection of the Louvre. These works are exceptionally rare, as they are two of only a few extant alabaster sculptures produced by Riemenschneider, with Saint Jerome being the only example in an American collection. One of the most prolific late Gothic sculptors, Riemenschneider is renowned for his technical virtuosity and ability to convincingly portray human emotion in his elegant sculptures of religious figures. Saint Jerome and the Louvre’s Virgin Mary are exemplary of Riemenschneider’s artistic ability, as well as the refinement that can be achieved with alabaster by virtue of the medium’s softness.
The majority of the objects in the exhibition come from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art and allow insight into the production of alabaster sculptures in this period. It is striking that these works are of such a particularly exquisite quality and that the material was used especially for high-ranking commissions, such as the tomb of Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy in Champmol near Dijon. A few loans from North American museums will complement the exhibition.
All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder and by the late Roy L. Williams. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Carl T. Jagatich, Cathy Lincoln, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Carl and Lu Anne Morrison, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, Margaret and Loyal Wilson and Claudia C. Woods and David A. Osage.
The exhibition catalogue for Riemenschneider and Late Medieval Alabaster was made possible with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours
Through July 30, 2023
Gallery 115
FREE
A book of hours is a type of devotional book that was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, when an estimated quarter of all households owned one. Books of hours were intended for the vast majority of laypeople and contain daily prayers and those used on special occasions. Fully customizable, these precious volumes are windows into the medieval world and the lives of their original owners.
Raja Deen Dayal: The King of Indian Photographers
Through Sunday, August 13, 2023
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries | Gallery 230
FREE
In 2016, the museum acquired 37 photographs made by Raja Deen Dayal (1844–1905), hailed as the first great Indian photographer. This exhibition marks the Cleveland debut of these rare images, all of which come from a single album and were shot in 1886 and 1887, an important juncture in the artist’s life. On display alongside Dayal’s photographs are historical Indian paintings, textiles, clothing and jewelry from the museum’s collection. These objects provide viewers with insight into the cultural context and help translate the objects in the photographs from monochrome into color.
Dayal was a surveyor working for the British government when he took up photography as a hobby in 1874. In 1885, he attempted to make it his career and by 1887 had cemented his stature as one of the country’s top photographers, British or Indian. This rare early album pictures both the maharajas of princely India and the British colonial elite.
Dayal produced formal portraits but also more personal views of the Indian nobility. In a moving portrait of a 10-year-old maharaja, Dayal reveals the boy beneath the crown. Weighed down by necklaces and jewels, he occupies a chair that is too tall for him; his stockinged feet curl under so they touch the ground.
Dayal’s talent also won him access to the highest levels of British society. He photographed government meetings and leisurely afternoons of badminton and picnics, costume parties and even a private moment of communion between an Englishman and his bulldog. Dayal portrayed how the British brought England with them to India and in some images, the Indian servants who supported that lifestyle. The photographer cultivated his relationship with the military by documenting troop maneuvers, several views of which are included.
Visually striking, seductively charming and highly informative, these photographs and objects offer new insights into the early career of India’s most important 19th-century photographer and into British and Indian life at the height of the colonial “Raj.”
Raja Deen Dayal: The King of Indian Photographers is made possible with support from Raj and Karen Aggarwal and Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer.
All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder and by the late Roy L. Williams. Major annual support is provided by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Carl T. Jagatich, Cathy Lincoln, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Carl and Lu Anne Morrison, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation and Margaret and Loyal Wilson.
Imagining Rama’s Journey
Through September 17, 2023
Gallery 242B
FREE
The Hindu epic Ramayana, or “Rama’s Journey,” was a source of inspiration for artists throughout India. Working in different contexts, they continually reimagined the way scenes and characters should be depicted. For at least two millennia, in Sanskrit and many vernacular languages, authors and bards have been retelling the sweeping story of the divine hero Rama, his wife Sita, his brother Lakshmana and their demonic enemy Ravana. In effect, many different Ramayana accounts developed in localized regions and communities.
Unifying the varied styles and media of the works on view, dating from the 1700s to 2000s, are the core narrative and consistent cast of characters. The scenes provoke questions about the nature of divinity, good and evil, justice and destiny through a story that is endlessly adaptable, simultaneously specific and universal.
Material and Immaterial in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art
Through October 21, 2023
Korea Foundation Gallery | Gallery 236
FREE
This thematic display explores how artists have manipulated materials and techniques as affective modes of communication to voice their thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Lee Bul, a leading contemporary artist, is known for exploring issues of gender, oppression and inequity. In her recent work Perdu CX (2021), Lee challenges the binary categories of organic and artificial and free-style drawing and crafted texture through her manipulation of lacquer and synthetic acrylic. Yun Hyong Keun’s Umber-Black (1975), one of the museum’s most recent acquisitions, on the other hand, illuminates how materials and processes echo the energy and psychology underneath: here, suppressed anger and frustration about South Korea’s postwar dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, Lee Ufan, known for his minimalist sculptures and paintings, in Dialogue (2016), poetically explores the interrelationship between materiality, abstract concepts and processes.
Ancient Andean Textiles
Through December 3, 2023
Jon A. Lindseth and Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Galleries of the Ancient Americas | Gallery 232
FREE
The six textiles in the current installation from the permanent collection were made by weavers of the ancient