Wednesday, June 3.1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Printmakers display work
Kansas artists capture regional scenes and events
Tom Bower, Lawrence visitor, looks at various prints on the fourth floor of Spencer Art Museum.
Prints are part of an exhibit entitled, A Century of Kansas Printmakers, which features Kansan artists including William S. Burroughs. Photo by Graham Johnson / KANSAN.
"It was an eye-opener. People were impressed, which is exactly what I hoped would happen.
By Elissa Harris
Kansan staff writer
The Spencer Museum of Art's exhibition, "A Century of Kansas Printmaking," connects Kansas to the history of printmaking.
In a small gallery on the fourth floor of the museum, Steve Goddard, curator, and Ed Barr, graduate research assistant, have showcased a collection of 50 prints, spanning from the late 19th century to the present. They said the exhibit represented a wide spectrum of Kansas printmakers.
A print is an original work of art that exists in multiple copies.
"It usually involves an artist working on metal plates or stone and putting that onto paper," Goddard said.
The Print Council of America, a group of curators from Canada and the United States, was the reason for the exhibit's installation.
The collection is meant to serve as a stage of regional artistry.
Steve Goddard
It was an eye-opener, Goduard said. "People were impressed, which is exactly what I hoped would happen."
The earliest print on display, "Sketch Club Feed," is an 1888 etching by Frank Olin Martin, a former dean of engineering at the University of Kansas. The most recent print on display, "Three Sisters, Rose," is a 1997 digital collage of Cima Katz, KU professor of fine art. Artists from other state universities and colleges also are represented.
Prints made from woodcuts, color wood blocks, line engravings and lithographs portrait scenes of farm life, the Kansas landscape, thunderstorms, religious revivals and KU basketball.
The exhibit uses a part of the museum's archive of prints from the Prairie Print Maker's Club that existed from 1930-1965. The club
began in the Wichita area and eventually had members throughout the country.
Curator
"They were an example of a prin club that fostered an enthusiasm for printmaking." Goddard said.
Though a list of artists shows Kansas hometowns of Topeka, Lindsborg, Winfield and Wichita, several artists from Lawrence are represented as well. Perhaps most recognizable is the late William S. Burroughs, whose 1995 print, "Gluttony," was created while he resided in Lawrence. "Gluttony's" white phantom-like faces are splattered in gold and red paint, which Burroughs created using blasts from a shotgun.
shown by the artists in the exhibit who were born in Germany, Sweden, Latvia and China but became part of the Kansas community of artists.
The ethnic diversity of Kansas is
Albert Bloch, German expressionist and former KU department head of drawing and painting, is represented by a 1913 self-portrait.
"If the general perception is that, yes, there is a lack of art culture in Kansas, then I think this exhibit goes a long way in dispelling that myth," Barr said.
The exhibit will run until July 26. The museum galleries are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday, and 12 to 5 p.m., Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays.
Natty Nation fashions reggae-rock rhythms
Tiffany Harrington Kansan staff writer
There's nothing like a cool island breeze, white sand beneath your feet, a cold bottle of Red Stripe in your hand and the sweet rhythmic grooves of live reggae music.
Naty Nation will bring their hard reggae-rock vibe to the Jazzhaus tomorrow night.
The Jazzhaus won't be able to reproduce the cool island breezes, but the ice-cold Red Stripe and the vibrations of Natty Nation are liable to take you some place very far away and very Caribbean.
The Madison, Wisconsin-
based band blends the hard-rock style of the early '70s with the jamming aesthetic made popular by the H.O.R.D.E. Fest.
The band's debut CD The Journey Has Just Begun was released in 1996 and sold over 5,000 copies. This is an unusual number coming from an upper-Midwest reggae band whose members call themselves 'Midwest-farians,' in jest
Natty Nation's sophomore CD Earth Citizen will be released at the end of June and the band's website is currently under construction because of the large influx of visitors.
At www.nattynation.com, fans can meet the band members, check the
group's concert schedule, and listen to ten samples of their music. The renovated website will be available June 10.
Natyte Nation will be touring Missouri, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado during June. They have signed with Lawrence-based Jef Shibille Talent Group, and the band plans to continue touring.
After visiting the Blind Pig in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, Jeffrey Maxwell, the senior band member by 15 years, told *Daily Illini* reporter that the road could be difficult, but the number of wonderful people whom they met on the road made the experience rewarding.
Maxwell said the band tried to feel at one with the audience.
"We communicate to them our feelings, our hopes and our dreams with our music," Maxwell said. "That is the power of music. The air we exhale is the air they inhale. It is the breath of life which we all share."
"Natyty Nation is a great touring reggae band," said Rick McNeely, owner of the Jazzhaus. "They are a guaranteed fun show and a good time."
ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR
Calendar for June 3-June 9:
The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.,
841-LIVE
841-LIVE
Temperate; GIO and Henry Danger, $ 5/6
Tomorrow: GIO and Haney Danger, $5/6
Friday: Lonesome Hounddogs and Virginia
Keen $4/5
Saturday: Swing 39 and Malachi Papers,
$4/5
■ Monday: Fuel and Exit 159, $3/4
Tomorrow: Natty Nation, $3
Jazzhaus, 926 1/2 Massachusetts St.,
749-3320
Friday: The Deal, $4
Tomorrow: Retro Dance Party
The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St.
841-LIVE
Friday: Revolution until 4 a.m.
Saturday: Boogie Child (Formerly known as Sun of
Strick Child) $5
- Saturday: Cornershop and The Dirty Three, $10
- Tuesday: Ugly Americans, $5/6
Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts St.,
749-7676
Tonight Burn Version and Derailer, $2
Rumpig. Born: Vanest and the Dueller. $2
Sunday. Povertoil and the Believe II Or Nots,
$2
Tonight: The Difference. $2/3
Jester's, 1105 Massachusetts St., 841-3287
Tomorrow: Open mic poetry night
- tomorrow: Open Micpo
- Friday: Euphoria. $2/3
Saturday: The Black Water and Switch, $2/3
20th Anniversary SPECIALS
THE YACHT CLUB SUMMER DRINK SPECIALS