Related Programs:The Story Behind the Beauty: Geisha, New Women, and Social Reformers
Wednesday, September 22, 4pm, virtual event
Jan Bardsley, Professor Emerita, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC Chapel HillPrints popular at home and abroad in the 1910s depicted Japanese women in beauty prints as tranquil. Behind the scenes, however, controversies brewed over the role women should play in modern life. Debates over the “Woman Question” brought differences among women’s groups to the fore, sowing divisions and unusual alliances. Looking at conflict among elite geisha, literary New Women, reformers of the Japan Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and even visiting women from the United States tells the contentious story behind the Japanese beauty in 1910s prints.
Jan Bardsley's most recent book is titled Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan (UC Press, 2021).
How Do I Look: Seven Masters
Friday, October 1, 4pm, virtual event
James Anderson, Associate Professor, History, and Chiaki Takagi, Senior Lecturer of Japanese and Asian Studies, UNCGIn what ways do our experiences and knowledge shape how we see? Join us as we invite experts from across diverse academic disciplines and professional fields to help us uncover new ways of seeing artworks at the Weatherspoon. This session will include
James Anderson and
Chiaki Takagi, faculty in the departments of history and literature, languages, and culture, examine artwork from
Seven Masters: 20th-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints.
The Women of Shin Hanga
Tuesday, November 16, 8pm, virtual event
Nozomi Naoi, Assistant Professor of Art History, Yale-NUS, SingaporeDuring the early 20th century, Japan experienced radical social and political change resulting from modernization, urbanization, and Westernization. The
Shin Hanga movement responded to this cultural climate by embracing both modernity and traditional Japanese aesthetics. Beauty prints were especially important in highlighting elements of nostalgia and modernity.
Nozomi Naoi examines these beauties in the context of the era and how they connect to visual media in Japan today.
Guided + Self-Guided VisitsSchool and community groups are invited to visit the museum on their own or via a docent-led tour. Admission and tours are free. Please contact us at least three weeks in advance to schedule your visit, (336) 334-5770 or
weatherspoon@uncg.edu.
About the Weatherspoon Art MuseumMissionThe Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro acquires, preserves, exhibits, and interprets modern and contemporary art for the benefit of its multiple audiences, including university, community, regional, and beyond. Through these activities, the museum recognizes its paramount role of public service, and enriches the lives of diverse individuals by fostering an informed appreciation and understanding of the visual arts and their relationship to the world in which we live.
HistoryThe Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro was founded by Gregory Ivy in 1941 and is the earliest of any art facilities within the UNC system. The museum was founded as a resource for the campus, community, and region and its early leadership developed an emphasis—maintained to this day—on presenting and acquiring modern and contemporary works of art. A 1950 bequest from the renowned collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, which included prints and bronzes by Henri Matisse and other works on paper by American and European modernists, helped to establish the Weatherspoon’s permanent collection. Other prescient acquisitions during Ivy’s tenure included a 1951 suspended mobile by Alexander Calder, Woman by Willem de Kooning, a pivotal work in the artist’s career that was purchased in 1954, and the first drawings by Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson to enter a museum collection.
In 1989, the museum moved into its present location in The Anne and Benjamin Cone Building designed by the architectural firm Mitchell/Giurgola. The museum has six galleries and a sculpture courtyard with over 17,000 square feet of exhibition space. The American Association of Museums accredited the Weatherspoon in 1995 and renewed its accreditation in 2005.
Collections + ExhibitionsThe permanent collection of the Weatherspoon Art Museum is considered to be one of the foremost of its kind in the Southeast. It represents all major art movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Of the nearly 7,000 works in the collection are pieces by such prominent figures as Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Cindy Sherman, Al Held, Alex Katz, Henry Tanner, Louise Nevelson, Mark di Suvero, Deborah Butterfield, and Robert Rauschenberg. The museum regularly lends to major exhibitions nationally and internationally.
The Weatherspoon also is known for its adventurous and innovative exhibition program. Through a dynamic annual calendar of fifteen to eighteen exhibitions and a multi-disciplinary educational program for audiences of all ages, the museum provides an opportunity for audiences to consider artistic, cultural, and social issues of our time and enriches the life of our university, community, and region.
UNC GreensboroUNC Greensboro, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is 1 of only 50 doctoral institutions recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for both higher research activity and community engagement. Founded in 1891 and one of the original three UNC system institutions, UNC Greensboro is one of the most diverse universities in the state with 20,000+ students, and 2,700+ faculty and staff members representing 90+ nationalities. With 17 Division I athletic teams, 85 undergraduate degrees in over 125 areas of study, as well as 74 master’s and 32 doctoral programs, UNC Greensboro is consistently recognized nationally among the top universities for academic excellence and value, with noted strengths in health and wellness, visual and performing arts, nursing, education, and more. For additional information, please visit
uncg.edu and follow UNCG on
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Weatherspoon Art MuseumUNC Greensboro
Spring Garden and Tate Streets, PO Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, (336) 334-5770, weatherspoon@uncg.edu
For more information or press images, contact:
Loring Mortensen, (336) 256-1451,
lamorten@uncg.edu