Reviving the Past: Antiquity & Antiquarianism in East Asian Art | Textures of Interpretation: Meaning and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

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Reviving the Past: Antiquity & Antiquarianism in East Asian Art | Textures of Interpretation: Meaning and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art
Sooa Im, curator
Asia Gallery, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

How does the interplay of surface, texture, and materiality inform the meaning of an artwork? This thematic presentation, drawn from the Spencer’s permanent collection, explores the subtle deployment of seemingly superficial aspects like surface treatment as important interpretive clues for thinking about meaning in art. The cross-cultural dialogue presented in the works exhibited here-many of which are recent acquisitions-explores the multiple interpretations of texture and materiality at the intersection of sensory and conceptual levels.

Several important themes emerge in the works selected for this exhibition. The meaning of architectural space is explored in the depiction of walls-both as public urban geography and personalized interior realms-in the work of Aaron Siskind, Yoshida Hodaka, and Jiang Chao. In the hands of Kiki Smith and Koo Kyung-sook, the texture of flesh and organic material evoke a range of connotations in their performative explorations of the female body. Historical consciousness, both as homage to the past or the rejection of it, is evident in ceramic work by Kim Yik-yung and Robert Arneson.

More than mere scratches on the surface, texture denotes a web of significance that links materiality and decoration to the subtle and sometimes hidden realm of meaning.

Works of art

Koo Kyung Sook
2007
Koo Kyung Sook
2007
Kiki Smith, Universal Limited Art Editions
1991
Kiki Smith, Universal Limited Art Editions
1991
Kiki Smith, Universal Limited Art Editions
1991
Kiki Smith, Universal Limited Art Editions
1991
Park Kwang Jean
1999
Park Kwang Jean
1999
Aaron Siskind
1981
Aaron Siskind
1984
Hodaka Yoshida
1992
Jiang Chao
circa 2007
Choi Sung-jae
2005
김익영/金益寧 Kim Yik-yung
2004
Takiguchi Kazuo
circa 1990s, Heisei period (1989–present)
Chizuko Yoshida
1951