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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2007

PRESS CONTACT:           
Andrea Potochniak
607 254-4563
arp37@cornell.edu

Including contemporary art from China and Iran,
four exhibitions of Japanese art, and more

Ithaca, NY—The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University announces its exhibition schedule for Spring 2007.

All are welcome at this semester’s two free opening receptions: Friday, February 2 and Thursday, April 5. Both receptions will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and include refreshments and live music. For additional events throughout the semester, please visit our website at www.museum.cornell.edu.

EXHIBITION AND PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Programs/participants are subject to change. All events are free of charge unless noted.

Wenda Gu: Forest of Stone Steles
January 20–March 14
This exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Wenda Gu consists of two site-specific installations, both from ongoing series. Forest of Stone Steles: Retranslation and Rewriting of Tang Poetry, comprised of twelve stone steles and their accompanying ink rubbings, presents Tang dynasty poems in their original form, translations of the poems into English, phonetic transliterations back into Chinese, and finally retranslations through literal meaning into what Gu calls “post-Tang” poems in English. United Nations, an ongoing project that has comprised more than twenty site-specific installations in thirteen countries on five continents since 1993, will feature two large hair screens, each consisting of a circle of pseudo-Chinese characters referring to the Chinese zodiac, accompanied by an interactive cartoon based on traditional stories of the zodiac.

Related event:
Thursday, February 1, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Curator Ellen Avril will discuss this exhibition.

Paper Trails: Two Centuries of Women’s Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
January 20–March 18
The Johnson Museum’s works on paper department has been actively collecting works by women artists for many years, including several by two distinguished Cornell alumni, Margaret Bourke-White and Susan Rothenberg. Also included in this exhibition will be works from the 1800s to the present, including Julia Margaret Cameron, Mary Cassatt, Kiki Smith, Jennifer Bartlett, and many others, as well as some highlights of our recent acquisitions in this area.

Related event:
Thursday, March 1, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Join curator Nancy Green for a tour of this exhibition.

Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography from Iran
January 27–March 18
More than sixty works by twenty of Iran’s most celebrated photographers present personal perspectives and a view of contemporary Iran filtered through private, individual sensibilities, even while addressing public concerns, and contradicting outsiders’ tendency to represent Iran and its people as exotic. This is the first major survey of contemporary Iranian photography to travel in the United States.

Related events:
Thursday, February 8, 5:15 p.m.
LECTURE
Gary Hallman, curatorial consultant for Persian Visions and associate professor, Department of Art, University of Minnesota, will speak in conjunction with the exhibition.

Thursday, February 15, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Curator Ellen Avril will discuss this exhibition.

A Changing Landscape:
Prints and Drawings 1570–1670 from the Arthur and Arlene Elkind Collection
February 3–April 15
Featuring works by several of the greatest northern European graphic artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Hendrick Goltzius, Jacques Callot, and Rembrandt, A Changing Landscape presents many subjects of fascination among artists and collectors at this time—Old Testament stories of virtue and vice, classical myths and allegories, landscapes and genre scenes. A Changing Landscape is jointly organized by the Johnson Museum and the SUArt Galleries, Syracuse University. In honor of the Elkind collection’s visit to Cornell, the Johnson will display seventeenth-century Dutch drawings from the Museum’s collection in an adjacent gallery.

Related events:
Thursday, February 22, 5:15 p.m.
LECTURE
Susan Donahue Kuretsky, professor of art at Vassar College, will give a lecture, “Commentator from Within: Unexpected Encounters in Rembrandt’s Prints.” 

Thursday, March 29, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Curator Andy Weislogel will discuss this exhibition.

Ningyo: Japanese Dolls from the Goldstein Collection
March 10–June 24
Ningyo represent the refined Japanese art of dolls, made not for play but for show during important festivals. Girls would inherit emperor and empress dolls from their mothers for annual display during the Dolls’ Day festival, held in March, to learn the proper role of women in society. For boys, dolls representing warriors and legendary heroes served to teach societal expectations of men, and would be shown on Boys’ Day (now celebrated as Children’s Day), each May. Cornell alumni Mark and Marcia Goldstein, Classes of 1973 and 1972, have generously lent their fine collection for this exhibition.

Listening to Bamboo:
Japanese Baskets from the Collection of Ritalou and Robert Harris
March 10–June 24
An intimate, spiritual connection between artist and material characterizes the Japanese art of basketry, whether functional baskets made for use in flower arranging or purely sculptural works. This exhibition from the collection of Cornell alumna Ritalou Harris, Class of 1957, and Robert Harris features baskets from the Meiji era (1868–1912) to the present and includes contemporary works by Living National Treasures.

Related event:
Thursday, March 15, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Explore both the ningyo dolls and the bamboo baskets on this special curatorial tour of the two exhibitions.


Walk in Beauty: Discovering American Indian Art
March 31–July 8
Drawn from the collection of Malcolm Whyte, Cornell Class of 1955, and Karen Whyte, this exhibition presents over forty paintings, works on paper, and sculptures dating from 1929 to 2001 by artists representing Hopi, Navajo, Cochiti, Taos, and other Southwestern tribal heritage. The exhibition, which takes its title from a traditional Navajo prayer, includes works that illustrate the spread of “traditional style” American Indian painting in the 1920s and 1930s, depicting hunting scenes and other subjects of American Indian ritual and tradition. Contemporary American Indian artists, while often referencing traditional themes, treat them in new ways and using new media.

Related events:
Thursday, April 12, 5:15 p.m.
LECTURE
Joe Baker (Delaware Tribe of Indians), an artist, beadworker, and curator of fine art at the Heard Museum, will speak in conjunction with this exhibition.

Thursday, April 26, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Learn more about American Indian art on this special curatorial tour.

Scattered Gold and Midnight Gloss:
Japanese Lacquer from the Anbinder Collection
March 31–July 8
Drawn from the private collection of Cornell alumni Helen and Paul Anbinder, Classes of 1962 and 1960, this exhibition presents the exquisite beauty of traditional Japanese lacquer. Edo-, Meiji-, and Taisho-period boxes and other containers made for personal use as part of the bridal trousseau, for the practice of writing, or for entertainment and games, feature sophisticated designs in gold and black that allude to the cycles of nature, literary classics, and auspicious wishes.

Ursula von Rydingsvard
March 31–May 27
Ursula von Rydingsvard has been exploring the possibilities of wood for nearly thirty years. Planed, gouged, drawn on, hung on the wall, or reclining on the floor, her sculptures feel like an intricate web of lines and shapes. This exhibition will focus on a few of her most recent works in which the gouged surfaces seem like three-dimensional drawings come to life.

Related event:
Wednesday, April 4, 5:15 p.m.
ARTIST’S TALK
Ursula von Rydingsvard will discuss her work.

Performing Desire:
Constructs of Feminine Beauty and Sexuality in Japanese Art
March 31–July 8
For centuries, depictions of women and ideals of feminine beauty have played an intrinsic role in the art of Japan. This exhibition, curated by the Cornell History of Art Majors’ Society, explores the roles and uses of the feminine in Japanese art. Representations of supernatural deities, geisha, actors, and transvestites reveal significant conceptual links between artists’ depictions of Japanese women and the actual roles they have played in Japanese society, how portrayals of women reflect cultural perceptions of femininity, and how these images serve as models of what women’s ideal image should or should not be. This exhibition was funded by a generous gift from Betsey and Alan Harris and a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.

Related event:
Thursday, April 12, 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
ART FOR LUNCH
Cornell student curators will lead a tour of this exhibition.

A Focused Collection: The Hudson River School
April 21–June 17
This small, exquisite group of eleven paintings includes works from the collection of Al Friedman, Cornell Class of 1952, and Maryann K. Friedman, Vassar Class of 1955. Presenting views of still waters, lofty mountains, and colorful fall foliage, these works exemplify the Hudson River school painters’ outlook that God was best experienced in the presence of nature, and nowhere better than in the grandeur of America’s unspoiled landscape. The exhibition will also be shown at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College from August 17 to October 19.

Related event:
Thursday, April 26, 5:15 p.m.
ANNUAL FINDLAY FAMILY LECTURE
Sarah Cash, Bechhoefer Curator of American Art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, will speak in conjunction with the exhibition. This event is funded by a generous gift from the Findlay Family Foundation, through the help of David Findlay, Jr. will speak in conjunction with the exhibition.

The Johnson Museum has a permanent collection of over 30,000 works of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The museum building was designed by I. M. Pei. Funds for the building were donated by Cornell alumnus Herbert F. Johnson, late president and chairman of S C Johnson. The building opened in 1973.

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The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, located on the campus of Cornell University, is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. The Museum is completely accessible for mobility-impaired visitors, and a wheelchair is available in the lobby. Metered parking is available in the lot next to the Museum. For more information, please call 607 255-6464. Visit the Museum’s website at www.museum.cornell.edu. The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art is a proud member of Ithaca’s Discovery Trail: www.DiscoveryTrail.com.

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