Transformations
Exhibition
Exhibition Overview
Transformations
Mary Dusenbury, curator
Alison Miller, curator
Alison Miller, curator
Asia Gallery, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
The spring exhibition in the Asia Gallery addresses the human drive to explore, discover and transform the world around us to meet our needs, to satisfy our curiosity, and to delight us. For instance, in the painting Pine Spirit, Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong looks both to the ancient Chinese tradition of shan-shui-hua and to abstract expressionism, transforming both into a highly individual and compelling vision of "mountains and rivers."
Organized by Mary M. Dusenbury, guest curator of Asian art.
Exhibition images
Works of art
circa 1820s–1830s, Edo period (1600–1868)
1857, 7th month, Edo period (1600–1868)
1720s, Edo period (1600–1868)
circa 1794–1795, Edo period (1600–1868)
date unknown
date unknown
date unknown
1920
early 1700s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Uragami Gyokudō (1745–1820)
circa 1810–1820, Edo period (1600–1868)
Wu Guanzhong (1919–2010)
1984
Sueharu Fukami (born 1947)
1980–1992
circa 1860, Edo period (1600–1868) or Meiji period (1868–1912)
Capewell and Kimmel (active 1830–1898)
1862
Ding Yanyong (1902–1978)
1973
Li Huayi (born 1948)
1999
1920, Taisho period (1912–1926)
Zhang Mingzi (born 1950)
circa 1980
1900, Meiji period (1868–1912)
date unknown
date unknown
date unknown
Resources
Audio
Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 64
Mar-2006, Alison Miller
I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Among the most common subjects of Japanese prints during the Edo period are actor pictures. The beginnings of both the kabuki theatre and actor prints in Japan can be traced to the early seventeenth century. During the Edo period, from 1600-1868, kabuki actors were icons of popular culture-celebrities who set trends much as movie stars do today. Kabuki images generally emphasize the appearance of the character rather than the actor, but by the 1760s, artists began to create more realistic portraits. As an additional identity marker, the actor’s personal seal was often included as a pattern or medallion on his costume. Because of concerns over lewd behavior, women were banned from the kabuki stage in 1629, resulting in the creation of the specialized role of the onnagata-a male actor playing a female role. The print artist Torii Kiyomasu II depicts two male actors-one of them in the onnagata role-in a print from the 1720s shown in Transformations, an exhibition that runs through June 18 in the museum’s Asia Gallery. With thanks to Alison Miller for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.