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Milwaukee Art Museum
Light and Shadow: John Constable’s English Landscapes in Print through March 16, 2025 The renowned 19th-century landscape painter John Constable (English, 1776–1837) once struggled to find steady success, so he set out to defend landscape as a significant subject matter. To do so, Constable produced—with printmaker David Lucas (English, 1802–1881)—a series of mezzotint prints based on some of his oil sketches, watercolors, and drawings. The prints depict the English countryside he knew so well and demonstrate the “chiaroscuro of nature” through various dark and light tones. The 22 mezzotint prints were published as Various Subjects of Landscape, Characteristic of English Scenery, from Pictures Painted by John Constable R.A. The first edition was released between 1830 and 1832, and the second edition was released in 1833. Light and Shadow displays the Museum’s complete set from the initial publication. image top right: engraved by David Lucas (English, 1802–1881), Hadleigh Castle, Near the Nore (detail), from Various Subjects of Landscape, Characteristic of English Scenery, from Pictures Painted by John Constable R.A., printed and published 1832. image right: engraved by David Lucas (English, 1802–1881), A Dell, Helmingham Park, Suffolk (detail), from Various Subjects of Landscape, Characteristic of English Scenery, from Pictures Painted by John Constable R.A., printed 1830, published 1830–32. |
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Art Institute of Chicago
Modern Japanese Portraits in Print
through April 14, 2025
Just after World War II, artists who had primarily trained in oil painting turned to woodblock prints to portray the people around them, using the medium’s power and immediacy to capture a disappearing traditional world. This exhibition features the work of four sōsaku hanga artists: Onchi Kōshirō (1891–1955) and his followers Sekino Jun’ichirō (1914–1988), Saitō Kiyoshi (1907–1997), and Kitaoka Fumio (1918–2007). Onchi was the movement’s main advocate, and his name is synonymous with the group. From 1939, sōsaku hanga artists met at his home on the first Thursday of every month, where they received the encouragement they needed to flourish.
The portraits of this postwar movement are melancholic, and Onchi often cited the abstract and expressive portraits of Modernist European artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Edvard Munch as inspiration. Accordingly, the emotionally charged pieces he and his contemporaries printed during this era imbued their subjects with psychological nuance and depth.
Modern Japanese Portraits presents 24 groundbreaking portraits, including many rare editions, from the Art Institute’s collection. Modern Japanese Portraits in Print is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art, the Art Institute of Chicago.
image: Impression of a Violinist, 1947, color woodblock, Onchi Kōshirō, Japanese; Collection of the Art institute of Chicago, Gift of Cornelius Crane CORPORATE SPONSOR: MUFG
ALSO ON VIEW
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
through March 30, 2025
After the End of the World: Pictures from Panafrica
through April 21, 2025
Nancy Holt: Seeing in the Round
through April 20. 2025
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
through March 30, 2025
After the End of the World: Pictures from Panafrica
through April 21, 2025
Nancy Holt: Seeing in the Round
through April 20. 2025
Kerry James Marshall. Africa Restored (Cheryl as Cleopatra) (detail), 2003. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Susan and Lewis Manilow.
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Ayrson Heráclito. Cabeça de Nanã, from the series “Bori” (Feed the Head) (detail), 2009, printed 2023. Purchased with funds provided by Suzette Bross Bulley.
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Nancy Holt. Dual Locators (detail), 1972. Installation view of Nancy Holt / Inside Outside at Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2022. Photograph by Mikael Lundgren. Image courtesy of Holt/Smithson Foundation and Bildmuseet. © Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York.
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Saint Louis Art Museum
The Work of Art: Federal Art Projects, 1935-1945 to April 13, 2025
The Work of Art: The Federal Art Project, 1935–1943 presents a remarkable group of artworks that reflect the creative efforts of artists working under difficult circumstances. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiated a series of nationwide support programs for the visual arts. The largest and most ambitious program, the Federal Art Project (FAP), put more than 10,000 artists to work. Their artworks, in turn, decorated municipal spaces, circulated through exhibitions, and were allocated to institutions across the country. In 1943 the Saint Louis Art Museum received 256 prints, drawings, watercolors, and paintings. Around half of those were intended for use at the People’s Art Center, the city’s first interracial community art center. This group included the first works by African American artists to enter the Museum’s collection.
This exhibition draws from the particular makeup of the FAP collection at SLAM to examine how art works to bridge communities near and far. From the vantage point of St. Louis, The Work of Art asks: who was supported as an artist? For which audiences and what purposes was art made? And what does it look like to picture a nation through the eyes of artists working across its breadth?
The FAP provided expanded opportunities for professional artists, students, and viewers alike. Through its display of work made by African American, Asian American, and female-identifying artists, this exhibition celebrates the fundamental idea of art being made by and for everyone.
image above: Allan Rohan Crite, American, 1910–2007; associated with Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Washington, D.C., active 1935–1943; Douglass Square, 1936; oil on canvas-covered artist's board; 23 1/2 x 27 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration 354:1943
The Work of Art: The Federal Art Project, 1935–1943 presents a remarkable group of artworks that reflect the creative efforts of artists working under difficult circumstances. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiated a series of nationwide support programs for the visual arts. The largest and most ambitious program, the Federal Art Project (FAP), put more than 10,000 artists to work. Their artworks, in turn, decorated municipal spaces, circulated through exhibitions, and were allocated to institutions across the country. In 1943 the Saint Louis Art Museum received 256 prints, drawings, watercolors, and paintings. Around half of those were intended for use at the People’s Art Center, the city’s first interracial community art center. This group included the first works by African American artists to enter the Museum’s collection.
This exhibition draws from the particular makeup of the FAP collection at SLAM to examine how art works to bridge communities near and far. From the vantage point of St. Louis, The Work of Art asks: who was supported as an artist? For which audiences and what purposes was art made? And what does it look like to picture a nation through the eyes of artists working across its breadth?
The FAP provided expanded opportunities for professional artists, students, and viewers alike. Through its display of work made by African American, Asian American, and female-identifying artists, this exhibition celebrates the fundamental idea of art being made by and for everyone.
image above: Allan Rohan Crite, American, 1910–2007; associated with Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Washington, D.C., active 1935–1943; Douglass Square, 1936; oil on canvas-covered artist's board; 23 1/2 x 27 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration 354:1943
ALSO ON VIEW
Bolts of Color: Textiles After WWII through May 25, 2025
Bolts of Color: Textiles After WWII through May 25, 2025
A. Joel Robinson, American, 1915–2012; Roman Candles Textile [detail], 1951–52;
printed linen; 72 x 50 1/2 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Marjorie Wyman Endowment Fund 12:2020
printed linen; 72 x 50 1/2 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Marjorie Wyman Endowment Fund 12:2020
Abraham Lincoln Museum, Springfield, Illinois
FREEDOM IN FORM: RICHARD HUNT
through April 20, 2025
Richard Hunt (1935–2023) was recognized as a singular talent as a young artist, was well-regarded by his contemporaries, and became unparalleled in public art commissions across the United States. Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt presents his artistic achievement within the national narrative of the struggle for freedom and the halting delivery of liberty to all people—a history and heritage that motivated Hunt’s 70 years of making art in America.
Hunt was born on Chicago’s South Side and made the city his artistic home, a perch from which he interpreted histories and myths with the materials that built the modern urban metropolis: steel, bronze, and aluminum. Freedom in Form tells the story of an artist affected by the civil rights struggle of his time and committed to artistic freedom of expression and the possibility of transformation. Visitors will experience Hunt’s work and personal biography as it intersected with milestones in the struggle for equal treatment under the law. Hunt’s personal library, tools, and video interviews provide an expanded look into his life and artistic practice.
through April 20, 2025
Richard Hunt (1935–2023) was recognized as a singular talent as a young artist, was well-regarded by his contemporaries, and became unparalleled in public art commissions across the United States. Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt presents his artistic achievement within the national narrative of the struggle for freedom and the halting delivery of liberty to all people—a history and heritage that motivated Hunt’s 70 years of making art in America.
Hunt was born on Chicago’s South Side and made the city his artistic home, a perch from which he interpreted histories and myths with the materials that built the modern urban metropolis: steel, bronze, and aluminum. Freedom in Form tells the story of an artist affected by the civil rights struggle of his time and committed to artistic freedom of expression and the possibility of transformation. Visitors will experience Hunt’s work and personal biography as it intersected with milestones in the struggle for equal treatment under the law. Hunt’s personal library, tools, and video interviews provide an expanded look into his life and artistic practice.