Teaching Gallery: The Substance of Color

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

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Teaching Gallery: The Substance of Color
Mary Dusenbury, curator
March 5, 2013–March 24, 2013
Gallery 319, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Color was a critical element in ancient and medieval East Asian life and thought. In contrast to Western thought-in which color has been associated with light at least since the time of Aristotle-ancient and medieval East Asian beliefs suggested that the primary colors were earth-bound, associated with specific plant or mineral substances. Many of these materials were also potent medicines, toxins or primary ingredients in Daoist elixirs of immortality. The idea that these colors shared the transformative powers associated with the substance from which they originated-that they possessed a life-force or energy of their own-permeated early religious, political, and social thought and practices.

Exhibition images

Works of art

Daoist priest's robe (jiangyi), late 1800s or early 1900s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
龍袍 longpao (dragon robe), 1800s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
yogi (night garment), late 1800s or early 1900s, Meiji period (1868–1912)
phoenix rank badge, late 1400s–early 1500s, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Hiroyuki Shindo; Kita Kobo Atelier
Hiroyuki Shindo; Kita Kobo Atelier
Hiroyuki Shindo; Kita Kobo Atelier
Shimachō, date unknown
Utagawa Kunisada
actor Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Fuwa Banzaemon, 1827, Edo period (1600–1868)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Actor Ichikawa Ebizō as Arajirō Yoshizumi, in the play Shibaraku, circa 1847–1852, Edo period (1600–1868)
Hiroyuki Shindo; Kita Kobo Atelier
Hiroyuki Shindo; Kita Kobo Atelier
Hiroyuki Shindo; Kita Kobo Atelier

Events

March 7, 2013
Talk
Pine Room, 6th Level
March 8–March 9, 2013
Conference
9:00AM–5:00PM
The Commons
March 10, 2013
Workshop
10:00AM–5:00PM
Art and Design Building, 5th Floor Textiles
May 12, 2015
Social
5:30–7:00PM
The Commons