Spring exhibitions at the IU Art Museum
Beginning March 6, the IU Art Museum will display two new exhibitions: "From Pen to Printing Press: Ten Centuries of Islamic Book Arts" and "Transcendent: The Photographs of Hiroshi Sugimoto." These exhibitions, along with a special installation currently on display, will run through May 10.
Islamic book art traditions are rich and varied and have formed one of the main thrusts of artistic expression from the ninth century until today. The book arts encompass many different practices including calligraphy, illumination, painting, bookbinding, paper marbling and printing. "From Pen to Printing Press: Ten Centuries of Islamic Book Arts," beginning March 7, offers a glimpse into the traditions of the written heritage of Islam. The exhibition draws upon and exhibits first-time selections from IU's collections of Islamic manuscripts, paintings and related book arts.
Islamic culture is a semantic culture in which the written word has reigned supreme. For this reason, many calligraphic works -- from the earliest Kufic Qur'ans made on parchment during the ninth century to contemporary revivals of Arabic calligraphy -- reveal that spoken expression, along with its transcription, has provided a stable mechanism for transmitting knowledge. The practice of writing became more than a means to keep a written record; it developed into an exacting craft, through which simple transcription quickly gave way to calligraphy. As a result, the art of beautiful writing emerged as a practice worthy of pursuit and mastery.
Although Islamic traditions are frequently described as lacking figural imagery, painting nevertheless thrived alongside calligraphy, especially in Turkish and Persian lands from the 16th century forward. The practice of illustrating human figures -- be these incorporated into Persian epics and romantic stories, Ottoman Turkish prayer books or Mughal single-page paintings -- attests to harnessing the pictorial mode to expand narratives or to communicate devotion, knowledge or power. Like calligraphy, painting came to be regarded as a praiseworthy vocation that could expand knowledge and allow for creative expression.
From their beginnings to today, calligraphy and painting bear witness to the ways in which the book arts in Islamic traditions have continued to be practiced, updated and revived. They also form a continuum for more than 10 centuries of artistic traditions, and they offer fresh perspectives on what is -- and certainly promises to remain -- a living, lively tradition.
"Transcendent: The Photographs of Hiroshi Sugimoto"
This exhibition draws from four private collections to display more than a dozen black-and-white photographs by internationally recognized Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Sugimoto's simple style and focus on time and space is seen in his seascapes, theaters, architecture and conceptual form series. His work transcends the physical limitations of a particular locale to reveal a wider realm of ideas.
The exhibition, supported by the Thomas T. Solley Endowment for the Curator for Asian Art and IU Art Museum's Arc Fund, will be on display in the Hexagon Gallery of the Special Exhibitions Gallery.
Chinese Social Realism Prints
The special installation of Chinese social realism prints from the 1940s began Feb. 20 as part of the IU Arts Week theme, "Art and Politics."
These socialist realist prints are unapologetic tools of communist propaganda. As declared by Mao Zedong in a 1942 speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, art was a means to educate and glorify the masses. Artistic expression -- including potent symbols of political and social content -- was controlled, scrutinized and disseminated by the state of Communist China.
The earliest existing examples of woodblock printing as a means to print text and images date to the seventh century. In the 1930s, the writer and intellectual Lu Xun -- inspired by the prints of European artists such Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945) and Frans Masareel (1889-1971) -- initiated the Creative Print Movement, whose striking black and white images expressed criticism of society and social order.
The contents of these prints hold another dimension that adds relevance and uniqueness. In 1944, an American army officer, John Colling, born in northern China and serving with Dixie Mission, received these prints from Zhou Enlai in recognition of his service to the Chinese People.
A selection of 10 Chinese Socialist Realist prints, gifts of Zhou Enlai to Captain Colling, is currently on view in the second floor gallery of the Art of Asia and the Ancient Western World. They have been loaned to the museum in memory of Johan and Alice Colling.
IU Art Museum Details
Address: 1133 E. 7th St., on the IU Bloomington campus
Contact: 812-855-5445 or iuam@indiana.edu.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
For more information:
http://www.iub.edu/~iuam/iuam_home.php.
