Kansas State University

Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall
August 7 – December 15, 2018
Between 1922 and 1957, the American artist Norma Bassett Hall created nearly one hundred print designs. An Oregon native, she found inspiration in the diverse landscapes she and her husband, artist Arthur William Hall, encountered during travels in Europe and in the places they lived—Oregon, Kansas, Virginia, and New Mexico.
During the 1920s Bassett Hall began producing color woodcut prints, employing Japanese printing methods that had been embraced by artists associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. While living in Santa Fe during the 1940s, she joined other American artists in adapting commercial screen printing methods for fine art printmaking.

Bassett Hall gained national prominence through her art. She was a member of numerous artist organizations, including the Wichita Art Association and Wichita-based Prairie Print Makers. This exhibition presents a selection of work from the first major retrospective of Bassett Hall’s printmaking since her death.
This traveling exhibition has been organized by independent curator Joby Patterson of Eugene, Oregon. Unless otherwise indicated, all works are by Norma Bassett Hall (born 1888, Halsey, Oregon; died 1957, Santa Fe, New Mexico).
This exhibition is sponsored by Annette and Steven Huff, Russell Clay Harvey and Patty McGivern, and Mary Helm Pollack and Lawrence W. Pollack.

Related events:
Presentation by Guest Curator Joby Patterson
November 1, 2018, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Interactive display on Japanese woodblock printing in the West
Part of Art in Motion festival
October 6, 2018, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

2018 COMMON WORK OF ART
Each year, the K-State Book Network selects a common reading for first year students, providing an intellectual experience they can share with members of the K-State community. The 2018 K-State Common Book is The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. Beach Museum of Art staff members have selected a series of lithographs by New Mexico artist Karsten Creightney to complement this year’s Common Book.

Thomas’s best-selling and award-winning novel tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Starr Carter. Starr has grown up in an urban, poverty-stricken neighborhood and now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shooting her unarmed friend, she must find a way to share the truth of her experience not only for herself but also for her family, friends, and community.

Creightney’s Burial Series Portfolio, a set of nine prints, is a response to the death of his uncle from a drug overdose. Burial visually conveys a search for truth that parallels Starr’s. Burial was made as a collaboration between the artist and Zanatta Editions. Sets of three prints from the series will be shown each semester.

Image: Karsten Creightney, Burial, 2009, lithograph on paper, 10 1/8 x 10 in.,Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, 2010.53

Silk Road through Kansas: 2018-2019 Special Year-long Program Series
The term “Silk Road” traditionally refers to a dynamic network of trade routes between Asia and Europe that flourished from approximately 120 BCE to the mid-fifteenth century. Goods, inventions, religions and philosophies, and more traveled its length. Art was among the most important cultural content exchanged. This series will highlight the many ways the exchange continues today, even though the vehicles transporting ideas and aesthetics have changed. Speakers and performances during this 2018-2019 season explore the way cultures inspire and influence one another. Area institutions are participating in Silk Road through Kansas with exhibitions on artistic exchanges between Asia and the West.

Thursday, September 6, 5-7 p.m.
KSU Student Welcome Back Party!
Common Book and Work of Art Open House
Immerse yourself in Angie Thomas’ book The Hate U Give, which is loaded with contemporary cultural references. References to contemporary music, television and movies, food, shoes, and sports provide a vivid background to her story.

Activities and features of this free event include:
– Viewing and discussion of the Common Work of Art, Burial by Karsten Creightney
– Soundtrack and snacks found in “The Hate U Give”
– Screenings of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”
– Basketball
– The Coolest Shoes contest with prizes at 6 p.m. Categories – Sportiest, Cleanest, Fanciest, Dirtiest!
– Create your own linoleum block-cut brand for printing on fabric or paper. Feel free to bring your own T-shirt to print on.
This event features adult topics and music. Parental guidance is advised.

Saturday, September 15, 11 a.m-4 p.m.
KSU Family Day Open House
Come see the exhibition “Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Art of Norma Bassett Hall.” A special display on printmaking tools and techniques will help you to understand the printmaking process.  Also on display: the 2018 Common Work of Art, chosen to complement K-State’s Common Book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Family friendly event

Thursday,September 20, 11:30 a.m.
Performance talk by lutenist Kenneth Bé
Bé will perform and discuss 16th century compositions for lute.
Kenneth Bé, performing lute music since 1974, has taken lute lessons from notable lute players including Paul O’Dette, Nigel North, Sylvain Bergeron and Ronn McFarlane. He has participated in the Boston Early Music Festival and has played duet recitals with McFarlane. His interest and repertoire for early plucked musical instruments spans from the earliest known lute tablatures of the late 15thcentury through the twilight of the lute in the late 18th century.

Saturday, September 22, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Smithsonian Museum Day: Women Making History
Celebrate by visiting the exhibition “Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall” and pick up a guide to works by women artists on display in the galleries.

Thursday, September 27, 5:30-7 p.m.
Silk Roads, East Asian Art, and Kansas
An informal conversation with Professors Sherry Fowler and Maki Kaneko, Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas. Fowler will discuss the history of the Silk Roads through premodern works of Asian art in Kansas collections. Kaneko will discuss modern and contemporary works of East Asian art and Asia-inspired art in Kansas.

Culture Mixmaster Zhang Hongtu
September 25-December 22, 2018
Zhang Hongtu trained as an artist in Beijing, China, lived through the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976, and emigrated to New York City in 1982. Having now lived as long in the United States as in China, Zhang produces works that embody his hybrid cultural roots. His knowledgeable mash-ups of Chinese and Western cultures are sometimes amusing and always thought-provoking.

Picturing Kansas
October 5, 2018-June 1, 2019
From scenic prairies to bucolic farms to the architecture of Kansas’ agricultural industry, this exhibition features more than 100 years of works by Kansas artists that capture a sense of place. The exhibition is a cornerstone of the museum’s popular “Picturing Kansas” school tour program, which integrates art, history, environmental and agricultural science, and language arts.

Voices: Art Linking Asia and the West
December 4, 2018–December 21, 2019
A section of the permanent collection galleries will highlight the exchange of aesthetics and ideas between East and West through objects made by artists who traveled between the two regions. This project is a collaboration between curator Aileen June Wang and University of Kansas art history professors Sherry Fowler and Maki Kaneko.

Top image: Zhang Hongtu, Kekou-Kele (Coca-Cola), 2002, porcelain, 7 5/8 in. (H), courtesy of the artist. Middle image: Shirley Smith, Burning Field, 1994, oil on canvas, 56 x 56 in., gift of Shirley Smith Estate, 2014.42. Bottom image: Enrico Isamu Ōyama, FFIGURATI #198, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 144 in., Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, acquisition made possible by Little Apple Art Supply, 2018.91

Beach Museum Curator Elizabeth Seaton will jury the 10^th Annual Visions of the Flint Hills art exhibition.

Sales of work from the exhibition will benefit Friends of Konza Prairie, a nonprofit organization which promotes educational research and experiences at the Konza Prairie Biological Station south of Manhattan, Kansas. The Konza is an 8,600 acre tallgrass preserve of The Nature Conservancy managed by Kansas State University’s division of biology. All artworks depict or are derived from the Flint Hills region of Kansas. The exhibition will run from October 2 through November 17, 2018, at Buttonwood Art Space, 3013 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri; opening reception First Friday, October 5, 6-9 pm.

Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall
August 7-December 15, 2018

Jam Session: Musical Selections from the Permanent Collection
May 15-August 25, 2018

New Installation of the Permanent Collection
Opened October 2016

Image: Bruce Handiside Mitchell, Title unknown (Kansas City jazz), detail, 1950s, oil on hardboard, 26 x 39 in., Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, gift of Jim and Virginia Moffett, 2003.96

The Museum hosts a variety of classes and workshops throughout the year for all ages.

Fall 2018 ARTSmart programs for families at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
East meets West
Explore the exchange of art and cultural traditions. Our journey begins in China this semester and continues along the Silk Road in the spring.
Next class: September 19-22: Sumi Ink Painting 

Homeschool Tuesdays
Homeschool Tuesdays meet on the first Tuesday of the month and allow Homeschool families a chance to investigate the current special exhibitions. Tours are appropriate for those in kindergarten on up.  Each tour will have an early elementary and upper elementary to middle school track if needed.
Next class: Sept. 4, 1-2:30 Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall 

Special price for Military Families:  In conjunction with the Blue Star Museum program, the Beach Museum of Art offers military families half price on all workshops and classes!

Cost for each of the classes is $3 per child, Military Family/Blue Star discount $1.50, and reservations are required.  Call (785)532-7718 or email klwalk@ksu.edu for reservations. Children must be accompanied by an adult.  If you need to cancel your reservation let us know so we can call those on the waiting list.

The museum is open Tues, Wed, Fri, 10a.m.-5p.m., Thurs 10a.m.-8p.m., Sat, 11a.m.-4p.m. Free admission. Free parking.

Visit us online at beach.k-state.edu

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Image: Elizabeth Layton, Untitled (business business business, you gotta have art), 1991, KSU, Beach Museum of Art