Exchange: Acting on Art - forms of physical interaction with art objects

Acting on Art - forms of physical interaction with art objects

This shallow conical bowl on a straight footring is covered in a pale blue opaque glaze, the interior is moon-white and the exterior, sky blue. There is a copper reddish-purple splash to the interior and two gold repairs along the rim and side.

Chinese
Bowl
stoneware with glaze, and gold lacquer
3 5/8 in x 8 1/8 in x 8 1/8 in (9.2 cm x 20.6 cm x 20.6 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Caroline I. Plumer for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection

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Sol LeWitt
Composite Page, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
lithograph on Italia paper
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art

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Vishnu stands on a base consisting of a flat square element topped with a series of five round rings. He stands in an unbending pose and has four arms. Reading clockwise from his front right hand, he is in varada mudra, holds a discus, holds a conch, and is on his hip. He wears a decorated lower garment flared out on either side in a pattern. He wears a decorated belt and necklaces, a sacred thread and shoulder loops, bracelets and armlets, earrings and a crown. The jewelry and crown is highlighted with gold paint as is his clothing and the two attributes.<br />

Indian
Vishnu as Bhogasthanakamurti, accompanied by a pair of female attendants, 1978/2.131 and 1978/2.132
bronze
4 15/16 in x 2 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in (12.6 cm x 6.3 cm x 3.8 cm);4 15/16 in x 2 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in (12.6 cm x 6.3 cm x 3.8 cm)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Leo S. Figiel and Dr. and Mrs. Steven J. Figiel

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A color image of a wall covered in graffitti.  In the foreground are small trees and grass.

Piotr Michalowski
They Came, They Saw, They Did a Little Shopping
photograph on paper
15 3/8 x 19 1/2 in. (39.05 x 49.53 cm);20 x 24 x 1 in. (50.8 x 60.96 x 2.54 cm);19 3/8 x 23 1/4 in. (49.21 x 59.06 cm)
Gift of Nicholas and Elena Delbanco

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Standing figure on a round base with a square carved on bottom of base. The figure is wearing a cloth around the waist with a diamond pattern and is holding a string with cowrie shells. The hair is tall, in a round comb-like shape.

Yoruba
Twin Figure
wood, string, and cowrie shells
12 in x 4 7/16 in x 3 3/4 in (30.48 cm x 11.27 cm x 9.53 cm)
Gift of Prof. and Mrs. Horace M. Miner

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A ten-armed figure sits with her legs tucked under her on a tiger with a long uplifted tail. The figure is incised onto the copper plate with a chisel. One set of arms are crossed across her chest, while all but six hands hold weapons. A crossed spear and trident form an X behind the figure. She has wide bracelets at each of her wrists and wears elaborate circular earrings and nose ring with a three partite crown. Two lines in devanagari script are above the figure.<br />

Indian
Durga copper plate with mystic design
copper
10 3/16 in x 8 3/4 in (25.8 cm x 22.2 cm);10 3/16 in x 8 3/4 in (25.8 cm x 22.2 cm)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Leo S. Figiel and Dr. and Mrs. Steven J. Figiel.

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Wood-carved, standing male figure 40 inches in height. Its shoulders and torso are impaled with iron blades, nails and fragments. The torso is long, arms at side are bent at elbow and hands rest on lower abdomen. The right wrist wears a bracelet with attachments. The legs are truncated, with twisted metal anklet on right foot. The face is naturalistic, the mouth slightly open, the nose long and narrow with slightly flared nostrils. Eyes are almond shaped, may have had inlay that is now gone. The top of the head shows a tiered, "layer cake like" coiffure. The figure has a long and deep crack down the entire length of its left side, from top of the head to the left ankle.

Vili (Kongo)
Power Figure
wood, iron nails, blades and fragments, and fiber cord
40 3/4 in x 13 3/4 in x 10 1/16 in (103.5 cm x 35 cm x 25.5 cm);40 3/4 in x 13 3/4 in x 10 1/16 in (103.5 cm x 35 cm x 25.5 cm)
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern

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Chinese
Rubbing from the pagoda at Mt. Ch'i-hsia, Nanking
ink on paper
28 11/16 in. x 41 7/8 in. ( 72.8 cm x 106.4 cm )
Gift of Willard A. and Marybelle Bouchard Hanna

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Josef Hampl
Monofrottages
ink on paper
24 1/2 x 19 5/16 in. (62.23 x 48.9 cm)
Gift of Martha and Dady Mehta, Alice Dobson, Sandra and Jordan Laby and Virginia and Eric Stein

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This painted miniature Shahnama page was made by the Shiraz and Timurid schools, ca. 1460 in Baghdad, Iraq. The painting is done in ink, opaque watercolor and gold leaf on paper. The scene depicts <em>Rustam Slays the White Div </em>from the Shahnama of Firdausi, the Persian book of kings.

Iranian
Rustam Slays the White Div, from the Shahnama of Firdausi
ink, opaque watercolor, and gold leaf on paper
10 7/16 in. x 7 1/8 in. ( 26.5 cm x 18.1 cm )
Museum Purchase

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This page of an illuminated manuscript on thin parchment is vertically oriented. Centered in the upper two-thirds of the page is a window-shaped scene of a priest celebrating mass. The priest, with red and white robes and a tonsure, holds up a communion wafer at an altar that has a bible and a communion goblet on it and an image of two figures with halos behind them. The altar and the priest’s robes are trimmed with gold leaf. Behind the priest are two kneeling figures, a man and a woman. They are in the interior of a gothic church, with stone vaulting above them. Below the scene are four lines of calligraphy with the first letter, a ‘D’, highly decorated. Decorative detailing surrounds the text and the scene. The left side consists of an ivy-like plant growing out of the "D", and the bottom and right sides have different foliate-derived design depicted in ink, tempera and gold.

French
Priest Celebrating a Mass (Leaf from the Tarleton Hours)
ink, tempera and gold on thin parchment
5 1/2 in x 4 3/16 in (13.97 cm x 10.64 cm);5 1/2 in x 4 3/16 in (13.97 cm x 10.64 cm)
Museum Purchase

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