MSU's Kresge Art Museum Events:: 09/21/09 through 10/05/09

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Celebrating Korea

Gods, Demons & Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism

through October 18, 2009

Kresge Art Museum

This exhibition of late 19th-early 20th century paintings of spirits and
deities represents and explores the indigenous shamanic tradition, which
is a force that exists at the nexus of the culture and religion of
Korea. These paintings were not created as art or decoration but rather
as visual representations of the gods that a shaman (mudang or mansin)
honors each day in her shrine, calls upon to help her give divinations,
and manifests in her own person when she performs an elaborate ritual
(kut). When they appear in rituals, the gods and ancestors speak through
the shaman's lips and perform through her own body, chastising family
members for neglect and misbehavior but also bringing promises of good
fortune. The images in the paintings, like the costumes that shamans
wear when performing rituals, reveal a lively religious practice that
incorporates elements of popular religion, Buddhism, and the old
Confucian state, often with a dash of humor. To glimpse the world
depicted in these compositions is to gain a unique perspective on
Korea's ancient past and immediate present at once.

This exhibition is organized by and paintings are on loan from The Korea
Society, New York.

Haeri Yoo: Paper Deep

Haeri Yoo's mixed-media site-specific installation, executed on two
large gallery walls in the museum in mid-August, examines themes of
humor, sexuality, gestural figuration and psychological tension.  The
formal sensibility of her native Korea translates into sensitivity to
negative space and mark-making, producing works that, according to Yoo,
are "built up, painted, drawn, pasted and re-shaped from a large
repository of smaller explorations".  By adding and mutating reality,
her wall drawing fuses beauty and violence.

Haeri Yoo (Korean, born 1970) at work on Haeri Yoo: Paper Deep, 2009, acrylic and mixed media on board, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University
 

Chinese & Japanese Scrolls

through October 18, 2009

Kresge Art Museum, Perspectives Gallery

View scrolls from the KAM collection.

Exhibition and programs organized in conjunction with the Asian Studies
Program, MSU.

Discoveries: Research, Science and Seeing the Collection

Ongoing through 2009

50th Anniversary On-line Exhibition

This on-line exhibition shows the usually hidden aspects of curatorial
work.  New insights into works of art in the collection can result from
scientific analysis and conservation treatment, careful looking, and art
historical research.  An object is not always what it seems.

Visit KAM and past exhibitions on-line at www.artmuseum.msu.edu and access the cell phone tour from
home.

CURRENT EVENTS & PROGRAMS

Creative Kids: Asian Landscapes   ages 6-11

Saturday, September 26, 2009, 1-3 pm

Kresge Art Musem

Create an Asian inspired scroll fit for an Emperor or Empress.

$3 Friends of Kresge Art Museum members; $4 general public.  Class size
is limited, pre-register and pre-pay required at 353-9835 or email
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .

Gallery Talk: Haeri Yoo: Paper Deep

Monday, September 28, 2009, noon

Kresge Art Museum

Haeri Yoo, installation artist, will discuss the paintings she executed
on two gallery walls in the museum.

Department of Art & Art History Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture
Series: Haeri Yoo

Monday, September 28, 2009, 7 pm

South Kedzie Hall, Room 107

Film:  Blood Rain (2005, 119 min.) Korean with English subtitles

Thursday, October 1, 2009, 7 pm

MSU Main Library, W449

Introduction by Mina Shin, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of
Linguistics and German, Slavic, Asian and African Languages

A murder mystery set in 1808 during the Chosun Dynasty explores
shamanism and its rituals, discrimination against Roman Catholicism, and
belief in ghosts.  A box office smash in Korea!

FUTURE EVENTS & PROGRAMS

Gallery Talk: Conservation

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, noon

Kresge Art Museum

Director Susan J. Bandes discusses many facets of museum conservation
and highlights from the museum's related on-line exhibition.

Season premiere: Art 21

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 7 pm

Kresge Art Center, Room 108

Watch the first episode of the new season of Art 21, the PBS series that
visits four artists per episode, offering in-depth interviews with
contemporary artists.  Join museum curator April Kingsley for a
discussion and to view works of art from Art 21 artists that are part of
the Kresge collection.

Creative Kids: Doorway to the Blues  ages 8-11

Saturday, October 10, 2009, 1-3 pm

With John Scott's kinetic sculpture as inspiration, create your own with
flat shapes and wire incorporating balance, rhythm and movement.

$3 Friends of Kresge Art Museum members; $4 general public.  Class size
is limited, pre-register and pre-pay required at 353-9835 or email
wolfeca1[at]msu.edu