August 24 through December 23, 2009

Artists Visions: Prints, Paintings and Drawings from the Permanent Collection

This selection of 60 prints, paintings and sculptures from the University Museums’ permanent collection, include works by American artists Marvin Cone, Grant Wood, Dorthea Tomlinson, and their contemporaries and represent over 70 years of fine art. These images record the faces and places of urban and rural communities pursuing recreational and work activities that occupy city and farm dwellers in the 20th century. Landscapes, portraits, as well as political and social themes of the 20th century will be explored. The exhibition is organized and funded by the University Museums, Iowa State University.

ReLationShips: From Our Roots

ReLationShips: Integrated Studio Arts Faculty at the Brunnier explores dynamic connections in the work of art faculty and colleagues across campus. Conceived as a cycle of exhibitions, each show will present the work of four art faculty. Educational programs presented by each artist and their campus cohort will provide stimulating insights into the relationships among art and disciplines in the sciences and humanities.

N. C. Wyeth: America In the Making (Continuing through May 8, 2010)

N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) was an active participant in the golden years of American illustration, which lasted through the first decades of the twentieth century. Wyeth’s first illustration was published by The Saturday Evening Post on February 21, 1903, and up until his death, he created nearly 4,000 works of art. One of three projects completed for John Morrell and Company of Ottumwa, Iowa, America in the Making depicts twelve dramatic scenes taken from American history—those events that N.C. Wyeth believed were the most pivotal in American history. Painted in 1939 these paintings were used as illustrations for the John Morrell Company’s 1940 calendar. In 1940, the president of John Morrell and Company presented the twelve painted, panels to Iowa State College as a gift. Although Wyeth created the majority of his work in series, few have remained intact like America in the Making, thus making the assembling and exhibition of this painting series important.

Upcoming Exhibitions - January 12 through May 8, 2010

ReLationShips: Embodiment

ReLationShips at the Brunnier Art Museum explores dynamic connections in the work of art faculty and colleagues across campus. Conceived as a cycle of exhibitions, each show will present the work of three of four studio arts faculty. Educational programs presented by each artist and and on-campus cohort will provide stimulating insights into the relationships among art and disciplines in the sciences and humanities. The second exhibition in the series, Embodiment, features faculty who portray the figure; invite physical interaction; and describe places we might inhabit. This exhibition showcases the work by Brenda Jones, C. Arthur Croyle, Jennifer Drinkwater, and Michael Stanley.

The American Scene: Rural Images from a Turbulent Era

Faced with tough economic times during the 1930s, American artists celebrated our nation’s drive and determination.  This exhibition recognizes the 75^th anniversary of the federal Public Works of Art Project that lasted only six months, from mid-December 1933 to June 1934.  The New Deal program employed artists during the Great Depression and encouraged them to depict the American scene.  From portraits and city scenes to landscapes and images of rural life these prints were created by artists from across the United States, the prints are a lasting record of America at a specific time and embody the country’s hope for a brighter future.  Gutzon Borglum sculptor of Mount Rushmore predicted that “aid to the creative ones among us would enlivened the Nation’s mind”, and help “coax the soul of America back to life.”  The Public Works of Art Project may have helped rescue the soul of American.

This exhibition explores rural experiences during the Great Depression.  The 1930s and 40s were tumultuous eras: the Spanish Civil War raged; Hitler and Mussolini rose to power; World War II broke out in Europe; and, economic survival was the common concern for most Americans. The Gross National Product fell, imports dropped, and national income shrunk while unemployment steadily mounted.  Even rural America struggled to feed and sustain itself.  Ironically, as a result of New Deal federal employment programs, this era was also one of the most artistically prolific in American history. Under federal sponsorship, artists created approximately 2,500 murals, 17,000 sculptures, 108,000 paintings and 200,000 silk-screened posters between 1933-1943. The sheer volume of new art inspired artists working outside of the federal programs to adopt themes of work, progress and survival, such as those by Christian Petersen, artist-in-residence from 1934 to1955 at Iowa State College.  Reacting to policies and economics cries of the time, artists conveyed their concerns about social ills that affected millions, as well as an optimistic spirit through imagery of people and rural industry. Some artists sought to establish a unique style that would convey their renewed belief in the promise of America. For inspiration, they turned to the Midwest where the folkways, customs and ideals of farmers and workers provided an endless bounty of reassuring, nostalgic images. With straightforward naturalism, artists depicted the everyday heroism of life on the farm and in small towns.

The exhibition includes 100 prints, drawings and sculptures from the Permanent Collection and the Christian Petersen Art Collection.

 
A Witness to Waste: The Prints of Jay N. Darling

Jay N. “Ding” Darling (American, 1876-1962), twentieth century editorial cartoonist and conservation activist promoted education about America's natural resources. Darling was a noted Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register, was also a fine arts print maker and created over 84 etchings, photo-etchings and dry-points between 1925 and 1960.  Renowned for advocating conservation of our natural resources,  Darling was the father of the Federal Duck Stamp Program, founder of the National Wildlife Federation, creator of the Cooperative Fish  and Wildlife Research Unit Program, "Ding" Darling laid the groundwork for the system of today's National Wildlife Refuges.

In this exhibition Darling depicted Iowa’s wildlife, showing migrations of geese, ducks and quail naturalistically and realistically.

The exhibition consists of 61 of Darling’s prints including the one for which he is best known as a printmaker, the original 1934 design for the first Federal Duck Stamp.  The prints in this exhibition were gifts to the Brunnier Art Museum from the J. N. “Ding” Darling Foundation, Inc.

Printmakers in Paradise: Selections from the Permanent Collection

Japanese woodblock prints quickly captured American and European attention after the Meiji Restoration (1868) opened Japan to the world following nearly three centuries of isolation.  These captivating prints were one of the principal forces in the development of Japonisme in Western tastes. Ukiyo-e, as these prints are called, developed during the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-186, the Edo Period.  They reflect the passions and interests of an increasingly affluent merchant class with increasing leisure time.  The subject focus of early ukiyo-e was theater and beautiful women; however, this grew over time to include military subjects, historical tales, folklore, ghost stories, erotica, and landscape.

By the middle of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) Westernization began to contribute to a decline in quality and quantity of woodblock print production, with most of the prints that were being produced going overseas to Western collectors.  In the early 20th century two schools of print design emerged: shin hanga (new prints) and sosaku hanga (creative prints) — both an effort to define an essential Japanese character and claimed to carry on the true spirit of traditional ukiyo-e.  Looked at from a contemporary perspective, it was shin hanga that to the Western eye successfully carried on the traditional appeal of the Japanese woodblock print.  Shin hanga artists revived the style, technique and subject matter of ukiyo-e within the context of a modern Japan.

Landscape became an increasingly important genre in woodblock print design in the 19th century.  Hiroshige and Hokusai, the Japanese ukiyo-e masters probably best known abroad, excelled in the production of atmospheric landscape views. Often there is a sense of romanticism in the 19th century depiction of Japanese landscape, flora and fauna.  In 20th century shin hanga that romanticism is more nostalgic.  Consequent to Shinto and Buddhist concepts of nature and the proper human relationship to the natural world, a comfort with and respectful enjoyment of nature is often an aspect of a Japanese woodblock print, regardless of the print’s principal subject.  One finds in Japanese woodblock prints a reverence for Japan as a place, the “garden” within which the nation has always existed.  In 20th century shin hanga, there is almost always a sense that even with change, Japan (as a place and as a matrix of traditional values that were once there in that particular place) should still be thoughtfully remembered.

This exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints is a selection from the Brunnier Art Museum’s permanent collection and from recent acquisitions and promised gifts.  While evidencing a variety of styles, subjects, and techniques of ukiyo-e and shin hanga, the emphasis is on prints depicting landscape, flora, and fauna either as subject or background.