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Collection Highlights

Featured Artwork from the Permanent Collection:

Chinese Qing Dynasty Screen

In Chinese decorative arts, screens are common. This recent Joslyn acquisition, however, is extremely rare because of its material -- carved red lacquer. The size of the screen (more than six feet high and ten feet long), its degree of technical difficulty, and its remarkable quality suggest that it was made in the Imperial workshop or, at the least, for someone very wealthy. Its scenes in red lacquer illustrate domestic life and a birthday celebration for a family elder. Women are central to the screen's vignettes, as are various symbols of longevity. The back of the screen, in black lacquer, is carved with 168 gilded characters for the same term, "longevity," along with auspicious sayings suitable for birthday greetings.

Acquired in 2005, this early 18th-century, Chinese eight-panel screen is presently the centerpiece of the exhibition Elegance of the Qing Court: Reflections of a Dynasty through its Art, on view in the Scott Pavilion Galleries until June 8.

See It Now

• On Loan to Joslyn:

  Fletcher Benton (American, born 1931), Folded Circle, Triangle, and Arc, 2006, welded steel, Lent by Ashlie Benton, 2006

  Ten macquettes by Fletcher Benton on loan to Joslyn are currently on display in Gallery 17, serving as perfect examples of the sculptor's process in working with elementary geometric forms. Benton is one of a generation of post-War American Constructivists, artists who attempted to create a visual vocabulary based on science, mathematics, and geometry. Benton's macquettes (his designs for sculpture) are created at a studio workbench using steel shapes, which he assembles and welds. Benton does not draw, but creates his small sculpture in much the same way most artists sketch or draw on paper. When a piece is successful it is kept; when the artist feels it is unsuccessful, the work is discarded, the way we, or an artist, might crumple up and throw away a piece of paper. Benton's macquettes can be left small or scaled up to a monumental size. A large-scale sculpture by Benton is being considered for Joslyn's new outdoor sculpture garden. Anexample of Benton's larger work is outside Architecture Hall at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

• Recent acquisition:

  Nam June Paik (Korean, 1932-2006), Couch Potato, 1994, mixed media, Museum Purchase with funds from the Patron Circle of Contemporary Art and Art Purchase Fund, 2006

  A 1994 mixed media work, Couch Potato, by Korean artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006), which was included in Joslyn's 2006 exhibition Art on the Edge, was purchased at the end of the year. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Paik pioneered the artistic potential of video and television, making an enormous contribution to the development of video as an art form. Couch Potato, a robot reclining in an easy chair, can access the world from the technology that is literally at his fingertips. Constructed of discarded TVs and electronic equipment, and ensconced comfortably in a La-Z-Boy recliner, Couch Potato comes complete with its own fax machine. The work is on view in the Scott Pavilion's FirsTier Gallery of late 20th-century art. Send a fax to the Couch Potato at 402-342-0091.

   

• Return to view:

  

  The completion of Phase I of the Sculpture Garden Project saw the return to view of a major outdoor sculpture. George Sugarman's Yellow Ascending, 1977, has undergone conservation and is now re-sited in the northwest corner of the new campus. Also on view for the first time in several years is John Henry's 25-foot aluminum Untitled piece, located in the Parking Garden. Kenneth Snelson's Able Charlie, 1983, has been re-sited northwest of the atrium. The Museum is working with artists and donors to add a number of new pieces to the outdoor collection by the time the Sculpture Garden Project is completed next year.

   

   

Out and About

The following works in Joslyn's collection are currently on loan to other U.S. museums for special exhibition tours.

Claude Lorrain's Rest on the Flight into Egypt is included in the exhibition Inspiring Impressionism, opening at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in October 2007. The show will travel to the Denver Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum. The painting will return to the Joslyn galleries in October 2008
One of Joslyn's most prized paintings, Titian's Giorgio Cornaro with a Falcon, 1537, will go on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in June. The presentation is the result of a conservation partnership between the two museums. The painting traveled to the Getty in October 2007 to undergo treatment in that museum's conservation center. Upon completion in June, Joslyn's work joins thee other paintings by Titian in the Getty's galleries for a six-month period before returning to Omaha.
Young Girls at the Piano by Pierre Auguste Renoir is on view in Rome through June 29 in a major exhibition at the Complesso del Vittoriano titled Pierre Auguste Renoir: Tradition and Innovation.

All images contained on these pages are the property of Joslyn Art Museum and may not be reproduced without written permission. Click here for Rights and Reproductions Information. All text is copyrighted, some copyrighted in the 1994 publication of Fifty Favorites from Joslyn Art Museum (ISBN 0-936364-24-6).