Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection

Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection is the third annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods course. The exhibition is an exciting academic endeavor and incredible opportunity for engaged learning, research, and curatorial experience. The five student curators are Molly Chason ’17, Leah Falk ’18, Shannon Gross ’17, Bailey Harper ’19 and Laura Waters ’19. The selection of artworks in this exhibition includes the depiction of landscape in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century French, American and East Asian cultural traditions in various art forms from traditional media of paintings and prints to utilitarian artifacts of porcelain and a paper folding fan. Landscape paintings in this exhibition are inspired by nature, specific locales and literature. Each object carries a distinctive characteristic, a mood, and an ambience. Collectively, they present a multifaceted view of the landscape in the heart and mind of the artists and intended viewers. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1020/thumbnail.jp

An Impossible Utopia: People’s Art and the Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution period of the People’s Republic of China (1966-1976) was crucial in the creation of modern-day China. The material culture of that period mirrors the turbulent political activity of students and the directives of the Communist Party’s central leadership during the height of the Mao Zedong personality cult. The commercial manufacture of posters, often the sole decoration available for the public and private spheres, offers strong examples of the design style of this time. The posters are not only indicative of the propagandistic fervor of production, but the aesthetic changes initiated in the visual and performing arts during the period as the state consciously manipulated style in an effort to create a “people’s” art and envision a Marxist utopia. This paper suggests that a comprehension of folk arts and popular culture is essential for understanding the visual language of this specific geographic and political space. A new perspective on the reconciliation of reality and ideology during the Cultural Revolution is gained through an analysis of popular form and content, and reveals not only the basis of a modern mass culture, but the unprecedented unification of high and low art forms

The material image: Artists’ approaches to reproducing texture in art

Since the introduction of computers, there has been a desire to improve the appearance of computer-generated objects in virtual spaces and to display the objects within complex scenes exactly as they appear in reality. This is a straightforward process for artists who through the medium of paint or silver halide are able to directly observe from nature and interpret and capture the world in a highly convincing way. However for computer generated images, the process is more complex, computers have no capability to compare whether the rendering looks right or wrong—only humans can make the final subjective decision. The evolving question is: what are the elements of paintings and drawings produced by artists that capture the qualities, texture, grain, reflection, translucency and absorption of a material, that through the application of coloured brush marks, demonstrate a convincing likeness of the material qualities of e.g.wood, metal, glass and fabric? This paper considers the relationship between texture, objects and artists’ approaches to reproducing texture in art. However texture is problematic as our visual system is able to discriminate the difference between natural and patterned texture, and incorrectly rendered surfaces can hinder understanding. Furthermore to render surfaces with no discernible pattern structure that comprises unlimited variations can result, as demonstrated by the computer generated rendering, in exceptionally large file sizes. The paper explores the relationship between imaging, artists’ approaches to reproducing representations of the attributes of material qualities, the fluid dynamics of a painterly mark, and 2.5D relief in printing. The objective is not to reproduce existing paintings or prints, but to build the surface using a deposition of pigments, paints and inks that explores the relationship between image and surface

Wish You Were Here, Hiroshige (2014)

As if responding to the call of the exhibition title ...(someone in the class sensed the artist’s personal invitation), a group of RISD students undertook a virtual journey through space and time to Edo period Japan. For a duration of a semester the entire class plunged directly into the midst of the Tokaido world, mixing with all kinds of travelers and local residents, learning their customs and manners, trying out various travel modes and road-side services, exploring every bend of the road, in winter and summer, at dawn and dusk, in sunshine and violent storm. ... “Wish you were here,” is an exclamation of a traveler overwhelmed by the new sights and desiring to share the excitement with those of kindred spirit. The class that authored this project enthusiastically addresses these words to the exhibition’s visitors and catalog readers. -- Foreword, Wish You Were Here, Hiroshige Contributing Authors Annie Bai, Hanjie Bao, Shannon N. Crawford, Yue Meredith Du, Emily G. Fang, Jordan Hu, Haesoo Ji, Alexandra Ju, Chae Hyun Kim, Yi Bin Liang, Jacqueline Lin, Tiara F. Little, Hanyu Liu, Alexander Mattaway, Devyn Park, Jimin Park, Mina Park, Jacob Reeves, Jonathan Rinker, Joseph Sands, Karnth Sombatsiri, Rachel Whitely, Chaoqun Wang, Therese Tachee Whang, Xiaowei Vica Zhao.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/thad_studentwork_ukiyo-e_prints_exhibitioncatalogs/1001/thumbnail.jp

Adaptation and Aspiration: Constructing Modern Japan through Ideological Combat in Satsuma Rebellion Prints

Although past scholarship on Meiji-period prints has favored a clean evolution–from Yokohama-e to senso-e, samurai to soldier–this thesis considers two images of the Satsuma Rebellion that complicate both this historical transition and the art historical assessment of the woodblock medium. If the rebellion marked the “dress rehearsal” for imperial encroachment in Asia, I argue that woodblock prints offered mixed, preliminary reviews of Modern Japan. Between the eager curiosity of Yokohama-e and the self-exaltation of senso-e, Yoshitoshi and Shoso’s Satsuma Rebellion e-Sugoroku Game Board and Kunisada III’s War with the Western Nations mark the internal negotiation between competing notions of Japanese identity, as well as competing directions for the woodblock print – both in terms of pictorial style and social function. Through the analysis of sartorial vocabulary, technological innovation, and the pictorial stages on which these scenes play out, I explore this active negotiation staged through ink and paper.Master of Art

Cityscape, Urban Nobodies and War: Modern Transformation of Nianhua in Suzhou-Shanghai

This dissertation explores the continuities and ruptures of the nianhua practice and representations in the Suzhou-Shanghai region during the mid-18th – 19th century. It explores a city-based nianhua tradition in Jiangnan’s urban centers that supplements current scholarship, which focuses geographically on northern print centers, economically on village-based production, and thematically on religious, auspicious and moral subjects of universal value. Challenging current scholarship that treats nianhua as a folk tradition rigidly adhering to an established pictorial vocabulary and conventional symbols of religious and moral significance, this study demonstrates the adaptive and innovative energies within the nianhua industry. Taking nianhua as a medium of place-making that actively and innovatively participated in a globalized visual culture and art production, this dissertation explores how 18th century Suzhou nianhua industry developed a special interest in and pictorial language for visualizing its prosperous cityscape, and how that tradition was transformed after the industry was dislocated into post-Taiping Shanghai, where nianhua was adapted to define the treaty-port by addressing issues particularly pertinent to local society. With the importation of Western printing technologies, publishing and image-making practice in late 19th century Shanghai, nianhua’s global interaction was further intensified, and began to develop a style based on pictorial borrowings from China and the West, both contemporary and past. Moreover, an increasing popular awareness of China’s foreign crises created a growing market for depictions of China’s recent wars in late 19th century Shanghai. With the incorporation of battlefields and frontier areas, nianhua’s visual reach iii of territory expanded from the “city” to the “state,” which marked a dramatic departure of the nianhua tradition from a site of city-making to that of nation-making

China and the West

For the first time, an edited volume presents a major survey dedicated to Chinese reverse glass painting, tracing its history, its local and global diffusion, and its artistic and technical characteristics. Manufactured for export to Europe as well as for local consumption within China, the fragile artworks constitute a paramount part of Chinese visual culture and attest to the intensive cultural and artistic exchange between China and the West

Asakusa ~ Gateway to the Floating World (2019)

Asakusa, a bustling district of Japan’s capital, emerged as a heart of city life during the Edo period (1603-1868). Its popularity continued after Edo was renamed Tokyo in 1868 soon after the beginning of the Meiji era. ... Thus, Asakusa came to function as a physical and metaphorical path to and site of ukiyo – ‘the floating world,’ an Edo period term, referring to the modern habits and aspirations of townspeople. The notion of ukiyo embraced the lifestyle of city dwellers, their pleasure-seeking, vanity and devotion, intellectual sophistication and playfulness. All this was captured with remarkable exactitude in the ‘pictures of the floating world’ – ukiyo-e, the style of visual art that started in painting but truly developed in the mass-produced medium of woodblock printing. It was this big theme – Asakusa as the hub of popular culture – that became the focus of inquiry for RISD students of the art history curatorial course Ukiyo-e Prints (H 791) in the fall semester of 2019. Investigating the original ukiyo-e prints from the collection of the RISD Museum, students have selected Keisai Eisen’s triptych Picture of the Kanzeon Thunder Gate at the Kinryuzan Sensoji Temple in Edo, 1828, as the nucleus of their exhibition project. Students then singled out aspects of the culture of the ‘floating world’ that are present in this composition or resonate with it. Accordingly, nine additional prints were chosen for the exhibition project to illustrate the relevant topics. A challenging task was to elaborate a meaningful layout of the exhibition in which the nucleus print had to hold the central position, while all other were envisioned as displayed radially. Working in small study groups, students explored all prints in comprehensive essays, discussed their findings in class with their peers, and put together a scholarly catalog. ... -- Foreword, Asakusa ~ Gateway to the Floating World Contributing Authors Barbara Bieniek, Cain Cai, Anna Campbell, Jina Choi, Kaanchi Chopra, Olivia Diamond, Connor Gewirtz, Mary Iorio, Peiqing Jiang, Kalyani Kastor, Roger Li, Emily Mahar, Connor Nguyen, Jacqueline Qiu, Xin Lan Violet Ren, Chenxi Tracy Shi, Song Tan, Cam Unruh, Xiaoben Wang, Yixiao Owen Wang, Jordan Weed, Yuki Xu, Qingyi Yang, Yinan Yang, Yueting Val Zhaohttps://digitalcommons.risd.edu/thad_studentwork_ukiyo-e_prints_exhibitioncatalogs/1006/thumbnail.jp

SUKIMA: Vertical Views of the Floating World (2017)

Sukima is a Japanese word for a crack in a door, a narrow space that opens up when the panels of the sliding doors are pushed to the sides. ... You’ve seen enough to electrify your imagination and let it complete the picture. This is what happens when you look at a long and narrow ukiyo-e print in a pillar format – hashira-e. Or perhaps this partial sight only unleashes your curiosity and, craving a fuller view, you expand the narrow slit and can now enjoy broader vistas replete with details. For such cases ukiyo-e designers came up with upright diptychs and even triptychs. Exploration of these two types of perception – we can describe them as an evocative one (in the case with the hashira-e) and an evidence-based (in the case of vertical polyptychs) – became a focus of an ukiyo-e prints exhibition curated by RISD students in the fall semester of 2017 as a part of their art history course. The project was based on the collection of the RISD Museum that has continuously supported students’ aspirations to acquire real- life curatorial experience. The current exhibition is the fifth in succession. ... -- Foreword, SUKIMA: Vertical Views of the Floating World Contributing Authors Meredith Barone, Anna Rose Chi, Emilee Chun, Pooja Cavale, Clara Creavin, Indy Dang, Cindy Del Rio, Janice Gan, Sophi Miyoko Gullbrants, Jung Eun Han, Janice Kim, Yujin Kim, Tamao Kiser, Quincy Kuang, Osub Lee, Kirthank Manivannan, Zachary Nguyen, Jay Park, Pornmanie Na Snidvongs, Jaeyong Sung, Pornpiya Mim Tejapaibul, Lara Torrance, Clarke Waskowitz, Anna Xuan, Chi Yang, Katherine Yoon, Qianyi Zhang.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/thad_studentwork_ukiyo-e_prints_exhibitioncatalogs/1004/thumbnail.jp

Planned Spontaneity:The Construction of a Modular System of Relief Printmaking Matrices for the Platen Press

The Modular System draws on traditional wood engraving, woodcut and letterpress practices. It comprises two printing surfaces and printing furniture specifically devised to facilitate offset and transfer relief printing. Rigid acetal resin tint blocks, hand or laser engraved, generate tone or colour that may be applied to more than one image. Multiple overprinting produces variant colour mixtures. Their function is similar to late nineteenth-century tints devised for colour letterpress printing. Compound printing surfaces of linoleum or vinyl are segmented and joined to make removable and replaceable parts. They print variable configurations in a process that resembles historical solutions to simultaneous colour printing: from the Mentz Psalter (1475), to the compound plates of William Congreve (1820) and the segmented wood engravings of John Holt Ibbetson (1819). These compound surfaces also act as receptors for impressions from the tint blocks. Repositioning and offsetting them is expedited by press furniture especially devised for the project. Registration devices are based on the simple Japanese kentō system and laser-cut circular chases derived from traditional letterpress furniture. Printing the tint blocks directly onto the flexible compound surfaces produce two viable prints that are offsets of each other. They are reversed, but one offset is also tonally inversed. It is this unpredictable tonality that has driven this experimental project. Both the construction and processes developed using the Modular System directed historical research into functional colour relief printing which consequently unearthed examples that would influence the further development of the project. This has generated both devices and processes capable of wider applications. Printing surfaces employed in the Modular System may be laser engraved or cut and adapted to use in both lithography and intaglio printmaking.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo