Media
Inspiration from an Akron Art Museum Visit
By Bridgette Beard, Communications Assistant
Earlier this year the Art & Nature elective class from Old Trail School visited us after learning about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s use of fabric, cloth and textile. The students were able to view Christo’s Wrapped Walk Ways (Project For J.L. Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri), 1978,in the Art Inspection room because it is not currently on view at the Akron Art Museum.
Inspired by this work they returned back to school to plan “Covered Light Posts,” an environmental installation. This dedicated class presented the proposal to the school board, purchased red and purple fabric and created and installed the fabric tubes. Students from the quilting elective helped sew the fabric tubes and students in the iLife elective recorded and put together the video of the project. Check out the video to see the entire process from visiting the Akron Art Museum to final installation.
Several Akron Art Museum staff members were able to attend an opening reception on Thursday, May 19 and see the amazing work done by these young artists. It was a great chance to see work done that is so directly inspired by the Akron Art Museum.
Have you been inspired by a visit to the Akron Art Museum? Comment below for your chance to show us your Akron Art Museum inspired artwork.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS771NIc2_0]
Kusama Chair on World Tour; Sculpture by Donald Lipski on View in June
By Bridgette Beard, Communications Assistant
If you have been in the museum in the last couple weeks you might have missed something in our Sandra L. and Dennis B. Haslinger Family Foundation Gallery. Where there was once two iconic chairs by Yayoi Kusama, there now is only one…for the time being. Akron Art Museum’s white Arm Chair has left the Akron Art Museum to become part of a world tour retrospective of Yayoi Kusama organized by the Tate Modern in London, England.
ABOUT YAYOI KUSAMA
Born and raised in Japan, Yayoi Kusama came to New York in 1958 at age twenty-nine seeking greater artistic and personal freedom than was possible for a female avant-garde artist in her native country. In the 1960s her fame rivaled that of Andy Warhol.
Kusama has fought a continuing battle against mental illness for many years; her art was the subject of psychiatric study as early as 1952. She currently voluntarily resides in a mental institution. Some critics believe that her mental stresses result, at least in part, from her position as a female non-conformist in a male-dominated society, one that values consensus over individualism. This may also account for the long delay in her receiving recognition in her own country, though she is now considered to be Japan’s greatest living artist.
ABOUT ARM CHAIR
The use of repeated elements is a key element of Kusama’s intense art. Arm Chair is smothered with phallic forms like metastasizing tumors, creating a visual manifestation of Kusama’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. Kusama transformed her phobia of men into the phallic protrusions as a way of freeing and neutralizing her obsession. She accentuates the psychological edge by choosing a domestic object often associated with femininity and security and invading it with aggressive male forms. Paradoxically, these uncontrollable phalluses have been created through sewing, a traditional female craft.
Arm Chair came to the Akron Art Museum as a gift from 1970. This is the first time it has left the museum except for conservation in the 1990s. The museum’s other Kusama work, Chair, with its silver protrusions, was gifted to the museum in 1998 and will remain on view in the Sandra L. and Dennis B. Haslinger Family Foundation Galleries. Untitled #64, a sculpture by Donald Lipski has been chosen to temporarily replace Arm Chair. You can see this sculpture on view in June, for the first time since being accessioned by the museum in 2009.
YAYOI KUSAMA Exhibition Dates
Museo de la Reina Sofía
On view through September 18, 2011
Centre Pompidou
On view October 19, 2011 – January 9, 2012
Tate Modern
On view February 9, 2011 – June 5, 2012
Whitney Museum of American Art
On view June 6 – September 28, 2012
David Wojnarowicz Review
Mitchell Kahan, Director & CEO
On January 6, Akron Art Museum screened two versions of David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly” for a small audience of 35 who braved slippery streets and snow. In Akron, there was little awareness about the controversial removal of an edited version of this video from the National Portrait Gallery’s groundbreaking exhibition on gay history – “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” The threats and counter threats over Smithsonian funding had not made local press until both Akron and MOCA Cleveland sent out press releases about our screenings, even though The Washington Post ran a full-page article calling for Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough to resign. Meanwhile, museums and galleries across the country are screening the piece.
Our museum audience was more interested in viewing the video than discussing it. But it is not easy viewing. The work exists in two versions, both found in the artist’s studio after his death and clearly marked as works in progress. The shorter version is the most powerful, 7 minutes of footage, mostly shot in Mexico, picturing various forms of cruelty. Cock fighting, bull fighting and Lucha Libre wrestling matches are roughly edited with scenes of poverty and a few images constructed by the artist, like a mouth sewn shut and the disputed segment of ants crawling on a crucifix resting in the dirt. For me, the latter is an image by an artist identifying with human suffering, with the ants a symbol of oblivious humanity overrunning the one who comes to redeem them.
This reading would be too subtle for the foes of gay rights and federal arts funding. Most importantly, it doesn’t serve their political agenda. So instead, they just call it “anti-Christian” and demand its removal, apparent retribution for an artist who won a Supreme Court case many years ago against The American Family Association. I agree with The Washington Post—we all lose when museums cave into bullies, in this case the Speaker of the House and the House Majority Leader, who threatened the Smithsonian with a loss of funding. It seems to me that the Secretary of the Smithsonian squandered an opportunity to inform Americans how the tenet of free inquiry is the foundation of humanities studies and scientific research.
Read MoreFirst Night Akron 2011
By Beth Govern, Visitor Services Coordinator
First Night Akron 2011 was an evening of family fun and entertainment at the Akron Art Museum. Families had an opportunity to express their creativity by participating in Akron Draws, organized by local artist Linda Hutchinson. Artist wannabees of all ages were encouraged to draw, doodle and sketch. You Shot Rock and Roll was another activity offered to families. Family members of all ages enjoyed creating their own album covers inspired by the Who Shot Rock and Roll exhibition.
The lobby was full of music from musicians such as Neil Jacobs, the EKCO Ringers and Bongo Joe & Little Steve-O. In the auditorium families enjoyed other entertainment including the OPA Dance Company, Maidens IV and A Minor Bird. Both areas were buzzing with families throughout the entire night!
Overall, the evening was a memorable way to ring in 2011. Thank you to all who came out and spent New Years with us. Wishing all of you a happy and healthy new year from the Akron Art Museum!
*Don’t forget that our latest exhibition, Who Shot Rock and Roll, closes on January 23rd, 2011! You won’t want to miss it!
Read MoreMiniMasters Family Day
By Maria Iafelice, Education Assistant
MiniMasters is an educational outreach program, bringing a little bit of the museum to Akron Summit Community Action Inc. Head Start preschool classrooms. After learning about the lines, shapes and colors in William Sommer’s watercolor portraits and creating works of their own, the preschool artists and their families were invited to a day at the museum. During the MiniMasters Family Day, families made paintings together, viewed their artworks on display and helped a percussion group from the University of Akron drum up some noise! Special thanks to the Tuesday Musical Association for organizing the fun and interactive percussion group.
We are looking forward to our next Sunday Sampler on January 2nd, 2011!
Read MoreIsland of Misfit Toys
By Gina Thomas McGee, Associate Educator
This year’s Island of Misfit Toys workshop was a blast! We had a sold-out crowd of over 250 people who came ready to build misfit masterpieces. Families hammered, smashed and hot glued to their hearts content, transforming toys into spectacular sculptures (with the help of some googly eyes). We saw a tennis ball Spongebob Squarepants, basketball hoop train station and many wild animal creations. In addition to being creative, attendees were incredibly generous as they each came with a new toy to donate to Toys for Tots. Thanks to everyone who attended. We hope you can join us again next year. In the meantime, don’t throw away any old or broken toys- we’ve already started collecting for next year!
Read MoreFirst Annual Chili Cook-Off to Benefit United Way
By Cristina Alexander, Assistant to the Director
What’s the secret to the best chili? Some say the hotter the better; others prefer a hint of sweetness. But it was for the judge to decide at the Akron Art Museum’s first annual Chili Cook-Off on Tuesday, November 9, held in the museum’s lobby. Eight staff members entered their favorite chili recipes and went head to head in a blind contest judged by Board of Trustee member, Rory O’Neil. Every chili varied in flavor and presentation – from turkey and pumpkin to spicy vegetarian – but none lacked in mouthwatering flavor. The chili was judged and awarded prizes for Most Traditional, Most Creative, and Hottest.
Those who attended paid a $5 admission fee, which allowed for unlimited bowls of chili, cornbreads, and desserts. All of the proceeds were donated to United Way of Summit County.
The most heartfelt thanks are offered to all of the contestants who competed in the battle of the chili, as well as everyone who attended and contributed to United Way. Congratulations to all of our winners… Who will step up to the challenge next year??
Read MoreCulture Revolution: Contemporary Chinese Paintings from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
Four internationally renowned artists – Zeng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi, Shen Jiawei and Hung Liu – reflect on the rapidly changing terrain of contemporary Chinese culture in lush, poetic paintings on loan from the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. Political Pop meets expressionism, realism, history and nostalgia in paintings that comment on China’s present and future while evoking its political past.
During China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the only manner of artistic expression permitted was a form of official propaganda that glorified the Communist regime through heroic images of peasants and workers. China remains a Communist state, but since 1978 when the country’s economy opened up to the rest of the world, its culture has undergone a true revolution.
The artists in this exhibition exploit the freedom they now have to draw on all eras of Chinese and Western art. In doing so, they not only speak of their individual experiences navigating the social and political upheaval of the last three decades, but they also reflect the clash of outmoded Socialist ideas with the consumerism brought about by capitalist reforms.
Recognizing the depth and diversity of China’s post-1978 art scene, Charles Mason, then Curator of Asian Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, began in the late 1990s to expand the Allen’s collection of Chinese art into the present. The AMAM continues to foster its holdings of contemporary Chinese art, which include the paintings featured in Culture Revolution.
This exhibition is organized by the Akron Art Museum and supported by the museum’s Evelyne Shaffer Endowment for Exhibitions.
Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present
A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present
Also featured in the exhibition, courtesy of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, are five costumes worn by Phil Spector, Elton John, Tina Turner, Fred Schneider and Madonna.
Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present is organized by the Brooklyn Museum with guest curator Gail Buckland.
Its presentation in Akron is made possible in part by a generous gift from the Adam Fund of Akron Community Foundation with additional funding from the Thomas & Lisa Mandel Fund of the Morton and Barbara Mandel Family Foundation, WAKR/WONE, Scene Magazine and House of LaRose.