Beauty and Power: Chinese Art from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection
(June 21 - September 22, 2007)

As one of the world's oldest and largest civilizations, China has developed a distinctive range of uniquely Chinese forms of art. Many types of objects produced by Chinese artists over the past five millennia are now easily recognizable to western viewers, yet certain media and artifacts remain little known or mysterious to those who are not specialists studying Chinese history and culture.

Using works from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection, this exhibition will present an overview of some of China's most important artistic contributions. Through generous gifts from private donors over the past 35 years, the permanent collection now includes 400 examples of calligraphy, painting, bronze, ceramic, jade, and sculpture that range in date from the Neolithic period (6000-2000 BCE) through the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Highlights in this exhibition will include bronze vessels and implements, jade carvings, Buddhist images, painted lacquer, ceramic wares, funerary objects, tomb figurines, scholarly paintings, and ancestral portraits.

On Thursday, September 20, at 4:15 p.m., Marsha Haufler, Professor of Art History at the University of Kansas, will deliver the Norman and Roselea Goldberg Lecture Made in Beijing: Sino-Tibetan Tangkas for the Ming Court. The lecture will take place in room 206 of the Old Gym (Fine Arts Building). The lecture and following reception are free and open to the public.

Beauty and Power is on view in conjunction with other presentations in Nashville exploring Chinese art: at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Lyrical Traditions: Four Centuries of Chinese Paintings from the Papp Collection (June 22-October 7, 2007) and Whispering Wind: Recent Chinese Photography (June 22-October 7, 2007); and at the Nashville Public Library, A Moment of Eternity: The Art and Expression of Chinese Poetry Calligraphy (June 23-October 14, 2007). For more information about these exhibitions, see the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Nashville Public Library.

Jiang Hu Chinese Qing dynasty (1644-1911) Bamboo (detail) Pair of hanging scrolls, ink on paper 57-3/8" x 12-1/4" Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard L. Boorman 1980.080-1980.081

More Than One: New Contemporary Prints and Multiples from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection
(October 4 - December 7, 2007)

The Fine Arts Gallery has been building a collection of contemporary prints and multiples in recent years. Presented as a collaboration with the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities 2006-2007 Fellows and their two-day symposium Between Word and Image (October 25-26, 2007), More Than One: New Contemporary Prints and Multiples from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection (October 4-December 7, 2007) will be the first opportunity to view many of these works since the gallery acquired them. The exhibition will also incorporate a selection of historical prints from the collection, with commentaries written by the participating Fellows, in order to further explore the relationship between language and visual artifacts.

Artists to be featured include Ron Adams (U.S.), Christiane Baumgartner (Germany), Harmen Brethouwer (The Netherlands), Enrique Chagoya (U.S.), Michael Craig-Martin (England), Ian Hamilton Finlay (Scotland), Hamish Fulton (England), Fransje Killaars (The Netherlands), Michael Mazur (U.S.), Deborah Muirhead (U.S.), Martin Puryear (U.S.), Alexis Rockman (U.S.), Sigmar Polke (Germany), Kiki Smith (U.S.), Wouter van Riesen (The Netherlands), Kara Walker (U.S.), Carrie Mae Weems (U.S.), and Terry Winters (U.S.).

Also featured in this exhibition will be a site-specific installation by Erika Johnson. This work was commissioned by the Warren Center Fellows.

Click here for more information about the symposium Between Word and Image and other programming at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

Enrique Chagoya (b. 1953) American The Enlightened Savage, 2002 Digital print on paper, mounted to water-filled, enamel-lined cans 4" x 2-1/2" Fine Arts Gallery Acquisition Fund 2002.016

Recent Works by Xin Lu, the 2006 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award Winner
(January 10 - January 31, 2008)

This exhibition will feature new work by Xin Lu, the 2006 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award winner. The Hamblet Award winner is selected by a panel of outside jurors from an open invitational for graduating seniors each spring. Lu's award, a $25,000 grant to be used for travel and study during the year following graduation, culminates in this exhibition.

Xin Lu American She Still Dreams of Flying, 2006 Mixed media print 9" x 10" Courtesy the artist

Of Rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamín
(February 7 - March 20, 2008)
 
This landmark exhibition presents the work of the renowned Ecuadorian painter and graphic artist Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919-1999). The first exhibit of its kind in the United States in over 50 years, the show covers each of Guayasamín's major periods, beginning with early paintings that reflect the plight of the indigenous peoples of the Andes to his more mature work that addresses human suffering in the context of war and injustice.

Guayasamín's work evokes strong emotional responses, dealing with the horrors of war, the injustices of inequality and discrimination, and the rights of women, children, and indigenous peoples. The winner of biennials in Barcelona and São Paulo, recipient of France's Legion of Honor, and recognized by UNESCO with its José Martí Prize, Guayasamín's work reflects his lifelong commitment to peace and social justice. The works chosen for this exhibition speak to issues of war and peace, social conflict, and human compassion, reflecting not only the artist's Latin American roots but also speaking to problems that the world faces today.

With the full cooperation of the Fundación Guayasamín, Quito, Ecuador [link to foundation’s website, http://www.guayasamin.com/pages/index.html], the largest depository of the artist's work in the Americas, the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Vanderbilt University [make link to center’s website, http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/clais] and the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery will make this exhibition available for tour to select additional venues beginning in April 2008 and continuing through May 2009.

Organized by the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Vanderbilt University and the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery; curated by Joseph Mella, Director, Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery.

For more information about this exhibition including tour cites and dates click here.

National Tour Itinerary

• Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery and the Sarratt Gallery a Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee (February 7-March 20, 2008)
• Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States, in cooperation with Georgetown University, Washington, DC (April 3-May 29, 2008)
• Museo Alameda, San Antonio, Texas (June 19-August 14, 2008)
• University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida (September 19-November 1, 2008)
• Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (January 23-March 27, 2009)
• Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California (April 12-August 16, 2009)

Views from the Collection III
(March 27 – August 15, 2008)

Views from the Collection III is the third in a three-part series of exhibitions of art in the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection. This installment from the series will feature a cross-section of work from Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Highlights will include late medieval and Renaissance sculpture, Old Master prints, 17th-century portrait painting, and 19th-century American and European painting. Featured artists will include the school of Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674), Jacques Courtois (1621-1675), Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), George Inness (1825-1894), Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858), Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Eugène Isabey (1803-1886), Charles Meryon (1821-1868), and Charles François Daubigny (1817-1878).

Jules Adolphe Goupil (1839-1883) French Seated Woman Oil on canvas 13-7/16" x 10-1/2" The Sullivan Collection, The Peabody College Collection, Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery 1979.0223P