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MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM
In the Dark: European Prints, 1600–1910January 14–June 5, 2022 Artists have explored many facets of darkness over the centuries using the rich black-and-white contrasts central to printmaking. Some have depicted physical spaces like nocturnal landscapes and dimly lit rooms. Others have adopted the dark as a metaphor for despair or grief. In many of the works you will see on view, darkness contains the possibility of creation: it represents primordial states from which life emerges, and quiet moments pierced by spiritual revelation, artistic inspiration, or dreams. In the Dark features 20 prints from between the early 1600s and the early 1900s by artists including Paul Gauguin, Francisco de Goya, Käthe Kollwitz, and Rembrandt van Rijn; all are drawn from the Museum’s collection. Together, the works provide an opportunity to reflect on the generative potential of darkness during some of the shortest days in Wisconsin. image on right: Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart, Chaos (Le Chaos), from The Four Elements (Les Quatre éléments), 1863. Purchase, with funds from Print Forum, M2017.89.2. Photo by John R. Glembin |
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Art Institute of Chicago
MORRIS AND COMPANY: THE BUSINESS OF BEAUTY
Dec 18, 2021–Jun 13, 2022
Artist, designer, and writer William Morris (1838–1896) founded Morris & Co. 160 years ago, in 1861. The company quickly became regarded for the objects it designed and made for home interiors—handmade wallpapers, textiles, and furniture—and its style became synonymous with the British Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century. Morris was both an avid student of art history and devotee of the natural world, and his and his company’s works were characterized by a design vocabulary drawn from both European and Middle Eastern historical fabric designs and featured, and were titled after, flowers and plants.
Morris and his collaborators—which included his wife Jane Burden Morris, younger daughter May Morris, artisan and designer John Henry Dearle, as well as artists such as Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rosetti—considered themselves design reformers. They were on a mission to bring beauty back into the lives of their consumers through thoughtful design and production that foregrounded the agency of artisans and anti-industrial techniques. Accordingly, they experimented with dye recipes based on natural materials, revived hand-printing methods for fabrics and wallpapers, and reintroduced hand weaving for woven wool and silk textiles as well as pictorial tapestries.
Although Morris & Co. closed its doors in 1940, the company’s aesthetic vision remains potent to this day through the continued reimagining and reworking of the textile and wallpaper designs. This exhibition explores that longevity, highlighting Morris & Co’s design tenets and favored techniques as well as Chicago area sites where the work of Morris and his contemporaries appeared. The presentation comprises approximately 40 works, drawn primarily from the Art Institute’s significant holdings.
Dec 18, 2021–Jun 13, 2022
Artist, designer, and writer William Morris (1838–1896) founded Morris & Co. 160 years ago, in 1861. The company quickly became regarded for the objects it designed and made for home interiors—handmade wallpapers, textiles, and furniture—and its style became synonymous with the British Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century. Morris was both an avid student of art history and devotee of the natural world, and his and his company’s works were characterized by a design vocabulary drawn from both European and Middle Eastern historical fabric designs and featured, and were titled after, flowers and plants.
Morris and his collaborators—which included his wife Jane Burden Morris, younger daughter May Morris, artisan and designer John Henry Dearle, as well as artists such as Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rosetti—considered themselves design reformers. They were on a mission to bring beauty back into the lives of their consumers through thoughtful design and production that foregrounded the agency of artisans and anti-industrial techniques. Accordingly, they experimented with dye recipes based on natural materials, revived hand-printing methods for fabrics and wallpapers, and reintroduced hand weaving for woven wool and silk textiles as well as pictorial tapestries.
Although Morris & Co. closed its doors in 1940, the company’s aesthetic vision remains potent to this day through the continued reimagining and reworking of the textile and wallpaper designs. This exhibition explores that longevity, highlighting Morris & Co’s design tenets and favored techniques as well as Chicago area sites where the work of Morris and his contemporaries appeared. The presentation comprises approximately 40 works, drawn primarily from the Art Institute’s significant holdings.
Saint Louis Art Museum
Paintings on Stone: Science and the Sacred 1530–1800
February 20 to May 15, 2022
By 1530 Italian artists had begun to paint portraits and sacred images on stone. At first artists used slate and marble. By the last decades of the 16th century, the repertoire expanded, eventually including alabaster, lapis lazuli, onyx, jasper, agate, and amethyst. In addition to demonstrating the beauty of these works, Paintings on Stone explains why artists began using stone supports and the role that stone played in the meaning of these endeavors.
Bringing together more than 70 examples by 58 artists, Paintings on Stone is the first systematic examination of the pan-European practice of this unusual and little-studied artistic tradition. The exhibition represents major centers of stone painting and features 34 different stones, nearly the full range that were used.
The exhibition is curated by Judith W. Mann, senior curator of European art to 1800, with Andrea Miller, research assistant for European art to 1800.
February 20 to May 15, 2022
By 1530 Italian artists had begun to paint portraits and sacred images on stone. At first artists used slate and marble. By the last decades of the 16th century, the repertoire expanded, eventually including alabaster, lapis lazuli, onyx, jasper, agate, and amethyst. In addition to demonstrating the beauty of these works, Paintings on Stone explains why artists began using stone supports and the role that stone played in the meaning of these endeavors.
Bringing together more than 70 examples by 58 artists, Paintings on Stone is the first systematic examination of the pan-European practice of this unusual and little-studied artistic tradition. The exhibition represents major centers of stone painting and features 34 different stones, nearly the full range that were used.
The exhibition is curated by Judith W. Mann, senior curator of European art to 1800, with Andrea Miller, research assistant for European art to 1800.