2010-2011

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Over the River: Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, In Progress and The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979–2005.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s long-proposed Over the River temporary artwork is at an important juncture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently published a draft Environmental Impact Statement on the project’s potential impacts and benefits, as well as possible mitigation measures. The BLM is accepting public comments through September 14, which will influence the BLM’s final decision on the project.

The Lafayette  exhibition looks at two of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works: Over the River: Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, and the recently completed The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979–2005. Over The River calls for 5.9 miles of silvery, luminous fabric panels to be suspended high above the Arkansas River along a 40-mile stretch between Salida and Cañon City in south-central Colorado; the installation is planned for two weeks in August 2013, at the earliest.

The initial plans for Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates, Central Park, New York City, began in 1979. After years of environmental-impact reviews, engineering studies, public comment, and the obtaining of permits, the temporary installation of free-hanging, saffron-colored fabric panels along 23 miles of walkways in Central Park was finally realized in 2005.

This exhibition features art prints documenting the two projects; they are on loan courtesy of Nurture New York’s Nature.

Cosponsored by Environmental Studies, Lafayette College Fund for Faculty Innovation, and Nurture Nature Foundation of Easton, Pennsylvania.

press release

Brown Bag lecture: Robert S. Mattison will talk about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work in “Landscape into Art,”  Wednesday, Sept. 22, at noon, Williams Center 108

For information about the Sept. 23 ” Focus on Floods: The Lehigh Valley Community Response to Flooding,” organized by the Nurture Nature Foundation, “Focus on Floods” poster

The woodblock prints in Lust and Leisure in Edo Japan depict various forms of entertainment that were popular in Edo period (1603–1868) Japan: festivals, games, teahouses, brothels, and Kabuki theater.

Reception: Tuesday, November 9, 7–8 p.m.

Performance: The November 9 exhibition reception begins at 7:00 p.m. with a program of Japanese percussion, including taiko drumming, performed in the Williams Center lobby by the Lafayette College Percussion Ensemble. There will also be an origami crane folding demonstration.

Brown Bag Lecture: “Lust and Leisure in Edo Japan.” Exhibition curator Ingrid M. Furniss, of the Department of Art, will give an illustrated talk about the exhibition at noon, Wednesday, November 17, in Williams Center 108.

The prints are loaned courtesy of the Allentown Art Museum, Lehigh University, and collection of Edward G. and Jacqueline M. Atkins.

Jan. 5–28

Japan-born printmaker and painter Ryo Tokita came to the United States in 1969, studied at the Art Students League and Pratt Institute Graphics Center, and moved to Pen Argyl, Pa., in 1989. The paintings and prints in the exhibition range from meticulously executed op art paintings and prints to subtle acrylics on rice paper mounted on panel. Tokita was part of the Grossman Gallery’s first regional artists exhibition in 2001.

2011 Regional artist exhibition

Reception for the artist Sunday, January 16, -4 p.m.

Revisiting the Italian Renaissance: Painting and Sculpture from the Allentown Art Museum

This exhibition revisits the Renaissance—an age of piety, humanist recovery of the classical world, global exploration, trade between Europe and the East, and a new appreciation of art and its creators.

These Italian Renaissance paintings and sculptures, highlights from the Samuel H. Kress Collection of the Allentown Art Museum, demonstrate the development of Renaissance art from its origins in the fourteenth century through its culmination in the sixteenth century. They include paintings by Paolo Uccello, Dosso Dossi, and Domenico Tintoretto; a bronze statuette recently attributed to Marcantonio da Ravenna; and a magnificent engraving by Giovanni Battista Scultori exemplifying the new Renaissance medium of printmaking.

The works were produced in major centers of the Renaissance—Florence, Venice, and the illustrious Este court in Ferrara—as well as Brescia, Lodi, Mantua, and Rimini, cities that were well known in their day. From dramatic sacred narratives and pious images magnifying religious devotion to the worldly display of aristocrats and naval commanders in vibrant portraits, these splendid works reveal the rich visual culture of Renaissance Italy.

Renaissance Spirit schedule

The Roethke Humanities Festival celebrates the Renaissance Spirit.

announcement

The Vase Project: Made in China- Landscape in Blue

Barbara Diduk, ceramic artist and Charles A. Dana Professor of Art at Dickinson College, collaborated with Zhao Yu from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute on The Vase Project. The conceptual installation comprises 101 porcelain vases painted by qing hua (blue and white) artisan and artist painters in Jingdezhen, China, where ceramics have been produced for more than 1800 years. The installation considers a transitory moment in pre- and post-industrial production practice where thousands of objects produced in factories throughout Jingdezhen are still created and painted by hand. The region’s porcelain industry has undergone rapid changes in the 20^th century as it went from state control to a global market economy.

Diduk and Zhao Yu selected vase painters randomly from small workshops, ceramic markets, and production sites. In Jingdezhen. The first painter inaugurating the project was asked to paint a contemporary landscape on a vase based on the surrounding environs of Jingdezhen, and a thumb nail sketch he was given that incorporated the iconic kiln stacks emblematic of the city skyline. Instructions were to interpret (not copy) the reference. Each painter used his or her cobalt pigments and their neighborhood kilns for firing the work, thus preserving the integrity of the production process and the color and firing differentiation typical of the hands-on work produced in Jingdezhen. The result is a “chain letter” of sorts, a contemporary archeology “in the making,” and an archive about the ceramic painting and manufacturing practices in the city. Part visual narrative, part sociological study, and part archival document, it is a tribute to the largely unacknowledged artists and artisans in the city. he intent was to “redefine” traditional portrayals of landscape images and ask painters to paint Jingdezhen’s landscape, as it appears not as an idealized image. The landscape scenes depicted on the vessels morph into infinite permutations of this time-honored motif while also, in some cases, represent the artist’s liberties with traditional imagery, incorporating abstraction and emphasizing various features or interjecting contemporary subjects. The vase sequences capture a sliver of the daunting ceramic culture in Jingdezhen.

The Vase Project