WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5
Die Passion Eines Menschen, by Frans Masereel, is a woodcut in the Spencer's exhibit on Social Radicalism.
Spencer opens new exhibit
Todd Smith
Kansan staff writer
Spencer Museum of Artgoes radical this summer.A Printed Art and Social Radicalism exhibit began Saturday and runs through July 21.
The notion of social radicalism embraces a variety of modern radical positions, such as socialism, communism, and anarchism. The activists in these movements used the arts to broadcast their messages.
Stephen Goddard, curator of the museum, said the exhibit showcased prints made by artists who had a strong sense of engagement with radical political ideas and had found interesting and provocative ways to set them down as graphic images.
Goddard said that in the past this art has been seen as propaganda for political causes and had negligible art value.
"I guess one thing we would like to do is convey that these artists have done some very fine work in the name of political causes." he said.
He said curators decided to have the exhibit this summer as a trial for a larger present.
Goddard said the exhibit included works from the late 19th century to the present.
A Kansan artist's work will also be on display. James Pruner studied art at Fort Hays State University in the early 1970s. Some of Pruner's work from his Man as Machine portfolio will be on display. The works in the portfolio recount his experience with street people and civic authorities while he was on the road in Los Angeles in 1983.
Goddard said they also wanted to showcase items that the museum has been acquiring in the last dozen years.
Goddard said Pruner's work reflected his political stance.
Pruner died under mysterious circumstances in western Kansas in 1987. He had been working with others in political activism with water rights in western Kansas and he might have ran afoul of big farmers, Goddard said.
exhibit in the future.
"It heightens the price of political engagement, but it may have nothing to do with it." Goddard said.
He said no one is sure what really happened to him.
Goddard will give a gallery talk on the exhibit at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the North Balcony Gallery on the fourth flour.
Contact Smith at editor@kansan.com