PRESS RELEASE

Art Museum’s Chinese and Japanese galleries to open Oct. 8

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art also presents two new changing exhibitions

EUGENE, Ore.—(Sept. 13, 2005)—The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon will open its renovated and newly installed Chinese and Japanese galleries for the first time since the museum’s reintroduction last January. The opening of these venerated spaces will be marked with a member’s preview reception on Friday, Oct. 7, followed by the first day for public viewing on Saturday, Oct. 8.

The Soreng Gallery for Chinese art will present “Status and Authority in Imperial China.” A highlight of the installation will be a modern interpretation of a traditional Chinese treasure wall, featuring a diverse array of decorative objects in jade, glass, bronze and ceramic. Other displays will include a selection of court garments and accessories; ritual objects associated with Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism; and architectural elements from the Forbidden City.

“The goal of this installation is to help visitors better understand the complex ways in which status and authority were embodied and projected in imperial China,” says Charles Lachman, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s curator of Asian art. “Viewers will notice that materials such as jade, silk and glass occupied a special place at court and all had specific connotations and associations.”

Lachman is also curating the new installations in the Preble/Murphy Wing for Japanese art.

Art and Everyday Life in Japan’ will focus on the artistic dimensions of everyday objects and on the representation of everyday life as a subject for art,” he explains.

Among the everyday objects to be included in the installation will be a number of country textiles, ceramics, netsuke (clothing toggles), and lacquerware. There will be a section devoted to the tea ceremony, as well as a companion woodblock print exhibit titled, “Simple Pleasures.”

Two new changing exhibitions will also open on Oct. 8 and run through Jan. 8, 2006. “Inside the Floating World: Japanese Prints from the Lenoir C. Wright Collection” is organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The show features 100 prints by some of the most eminent Japanese woodblock artists of the 18th and 19th century including Hiroshige, Hokusai and Utmaro. The prints depict Kabuki theater, women, historical figures and landscape, offering insight into the Japanese popular culture of the times.

“Ukiyo-e Outside In” is curated by Lachman and features 19th and 20th artists inspired by the Japanese woodblock print tradition including Elizabeth Keith, Helen Hyde, Bertha Lum and Charles Bartlett.

“All of the artists included in this exhibition acted on their fascination with Japan and actually traveled to the country where they were stimulated not merely by their exposure to Japanese art, but by the vibrant and dynamic culture they encountered firsthand,” says Lachman. “They all adopted the traditional Japanese woodblock color-printing technique in their art and essentially turned it back on itself in a wide variety of works that engage themes associated with the floating world of prints.” 

“Ukiyo-e Outside In” also includes a section on woodblock technique that features preparatory drawings, tools, carved seals and several of the wooden blocks used to produce some of the prints on view.

A full schedule of programming and events including lectures, gallery talks and a free family day will accompany the new changing exhibitions and collections gallery installations.

“Inside the Floating World” is organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and curated by Allen Hockley of Dartmouth College. The exhibition is sponsored by Oregon Imaging Centers of Eugene and Lee Michels, M.D. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located at 1430 Johnson Lane on the University of Oregon campus. The museum is open Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Thursdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admissions fees are adults, $5; seniors (62 and older) and students (high school and non-UO college with ID), $3. Admission is free to museum members; UO students, faculty and staff members with ID; and children 13 and under. The museum offers “pay-as-you-wish MusEvenings!” every Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and free admission to everyone the first Friday of each month.

For more information, contact Katie Sproles, the museum’s public relations and marketing coordinator, at (541) 346-0942 or ksproles@uoregon.edu.

Contact: Katie Sproles, (541) 346-0942, ksproles@uoregon.edu

Source: Charles Lachman, (541) 346-0974, clachman@uoregon.edu  

Link: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu

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