4 chazen museum of art exhibitions
Daumier Lithographs :
Characters and Caricatures
December 23 , 2016 – February 19 , 2017
Leslie and Johanna Garfield Galleries
Martha Glowacki ’ s Natural History , Observations and Reflections
March 3 – May 14 , 2017
Leslie and Johanna Garfield Galleries
Drawn from the Chazen ’ s collection of nearly nine hundred prints by the great French caricaturist Honoré Daumier , this exhibition follows the artist ’ s development as the foremost satirist of his day . Daumier began his career during a short period of relaxed censorship in France and took advantage of the opportunity to directly caricature King Louis Philippe I . Daumier ’ s gleeful prints frequently portrayed the king as a pear , and often as corrupt . By 1835 , the king had reinstituted censorship of images and Daumier turned his attention to his fellow Parisians : fads of the bourgeoisie , lawyers , and feminists were all regular targets .
Martha Glowacki ’ s installations concern human observation and description of the natural world . In this exhibition , she is particularly interested in developing themes and images from the history of science and scientific illustration .
Glowacki incorporates scientific illustration and writing in several ways , ranging from direct appropriation of images into artworks to using images and ideas from the history of science as a bridge to developing visual metaphors . On one hand , she is drawn to the visual richness of many scientific illustrations and to the qualities of the paper and print techniques used to make them . She is also fascinated by the unexpected ways that many of these illustrations combine beauty with morbidity , or by their odd juxtapositions of text with inscrutable processes .
Martha Glowacki ( American , b . 1950 ), Lacuna ( mirror box illusion ), 2016 , cast iron , bronze , wood , mirrors , marbleized paper , animal bones , pigments , 42 x 24 x 24 in ., courtesy of the artist