November 2007 Exhibition Openings

Fernando Botero: Abu Ghraib
(opened Nov. 6; closes Dec. 30, 2007)
Uncompromising, graphic images by this Colombian painter express his outrage at the American-led torture of Iraqi insurgents. The Paris-based Botero, known for his exaggeratedly rotund figures in benign social satires, unveiled these controversial works in Europe in 2005. This will be the first complete showing of the Abu Ghraib paintings and drawings in a museum in the U.S. The works in this exhibition are quite the departure from Botero's usual style but relate to his previous works portraying drug cartel violence in Colombia . Botero constructed each work after reading official reports of the atrocities and concentrated on the suffering and dignity of the victims rather than their tormentors.

Claiming Space: Some American Feminist Originators
(opened Nov. 6; closes January 27, 2008)
This exhibition showcases nineteen founders of the Feminist Art Movement in America , emphasizing their large-scale, innovative and politically confrontational pieces of the 1970s. For these artists, claiming physical space was an empowering act, a metaphor for asserting the political and cultural identity that had been denied to women in the public arena. Co-curated by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, pioneering feminist scholars and AU professors, Claiming Space focuses on the art of feminist political protest, the expressive and cultural empowerment of the female body and the visual pleasure of the feminist-led Pattern and Decoration Movement. Running concurrently with WACK! Women Artists and the Feminist Revolution at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Claiming Space showcases many artists not in that exhibit and major works such as Schapiro's 52-foot long Anatomy of a Kimono , not exhibited in the U.S. since the 1970s.

Dark Metropolis: Irving Norman's Social Surrealism
(opened Nov. 6, 2007; closes Jan. 27, 2008)
Visions of urban hell are depicted by this West Coast artist (1906-1989) who used his art to enact social reforms. Born Isaac Noachowitz in Vilnius , Lithuania , Norman drew on his experience fighting fascism in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War to create highly detailed, monumental works that critique the inhumanity of war, the inequity of capitalism and the tyranny of the elite. Produced on the occasion of what would have been Irving Norman's 100th birthday, the exhibit features paintings that remain as poignant and relevant today as when they were first created. Meticulously patterned and vividly medieval, Norman's colossal paintings depict Big Brother worlds of swarming, clone-like figures encountering claustrophobic streets, jam-packed rush hours, random violence and abject poverty—urban panoramas that call to mind Los Angeles or Tokyo gone haywire. The show is curated by Scott Shieldsis and on tour from the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento , Calif.

Continuing Exhibitions...

ARCHITECTURE/SCULPTURE
(Tuesday, Sept. 4 - Sunday, Jan. 27)
John Beardsley and the Washington Sculptors Group invited artists to submit work that responds to the architecture of the Sylvia Berlin Katzen Sculpture Garden of the American University Museum in the Katzen Arts Center. Artists responded to the space’s configuration and scale, its material, color, and light, or its experiential qualities. John Beardsley is the curator and a senior lecturer at The Harvard University Graduate School of Design and author of numerous books including Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape and Gardens of Revelation: Environments by Visionary Artists.

Jules Olitski: Late Sculpture (opened April 24; closes Dec 30)
Three out-sized brightly colored steel sculptures by Jules Olitzki­--from the Vermont-based artist’s last major works, the Cyclops Series of 2006--enliven the Katzen Arts Center’s plaza. The works, from the collection of Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen, comprise the AU museum’s contribution to Colorfield. Remix, a multi-institutional celebration of the impact and heritage of color abstraction in Washington since the 1950s.