Visual Art

700th Anniversary Exhibit at Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2022)

November 14, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

“To mark the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri (1265–321) the Kupferstichkabinett is showing selections from two woodcut series from the 1920s.

“The series are by the Danish artist Ebba Holm and the German Klaus Wrage. Both deal in multifaceted ways with Dante’s literary magnum opus The Divine Comedy – and thereby with his virtual journey through Hell, up the Purgatorial mountain and on to Paradise.

“Not only will additional works by Odilon Redon, Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Willy Jaeckel be on display, but also coloured computer drawings by Berlin artist Andreas Siekmann (born in 1961) from his 94-part complex Die Exklusive – Zur Politik des ausgeschlossenen Vierten (The Exclusive – On the Politics of the Excluded Fourth) (2002–2011). In several series from Die Exklusive Siekmann depicts particularly contemporary journeys to Hell undertaken by Dante and his guide, the poet Virgil.” [. . .] —Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The exhibition will be open from February 12, 2022 to May 8, 2022.

See also: the Kupferstichkabinett gallery webpage, linked here.

See our posts on Klaus Wrage here.

Klaus Wrage, Divine Comedy Illustrations (ca. 1925)

November 2, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

“Nelle tavole realizzate con la tecnica dell’incisione sul legno, Klaus Wrage racconta l’inferno, il purgatorio e il paradiso danteschi attraverso pieni e vuoti, bianco e nero, ricreando così l’effetto “chiaroscuro” dei contrasti vissuti e narrati da Dante Alighieri nella sua opera.

“Il bene, il male, la luce e il buio, sono questi gli elementi che l’artista tedesco riporta nei suoi lavori cercando un’interpretazione del pensiero di Dante, attribuendogli significati diversi a seconda della chiave impiegata: semantica, religiosa o simbolica.” —Associazione per la promosionze artistica e culturale del Lago Maggiore (AMALAGO)

See our post about an exhibit of Klaus Wrage illustrations in Italy here.

Junji Ito’s Horror Manga Uzumaki (1998-1999)

October 31, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

“Uzumaki is the story of Kirie Goshima, a young girl living in a coastal town that is slowly falling into the grip of a ‘spiral curse.’ The townsfolk, to varying degrees, become obsessed and subsequently infected by spirals.

“Ito-san’s spirals operate with similar symbolic significance to the circles of hell, namely, they are partly allegorical, as well as literal, of the spirals and endless cycles of human behavior…as in Dante’s hell all things become literal, he is physically twisted to reflect his psychological reality. Each person in Uzumaki is trapped in their own sin.

“Junji Ito understands, as Dante did, that even positive emotions like love have a place in hell when they are taken to extremes. Like a spiral itself, the story circles whilst drawing ever closer to a central point…like Dante, Junji Ito doesn’t flinch from showing us the full expanse and architecture of the hell he has created, and we see the very “nadir” or low-point of the spiral, and what that represents.” [. . .] –Joseph Sale, The English Cantos, April 8, 2020 (retrieved October 27, 2021)

Visions of Dante Exhibit Highlighting Cornell University’s Fiske Dante Collection

October 23, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

“Marking the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the exhibition of approximately 100 works in various media explores the visual nature of the Divine Comedy, which has inspired scholars and artists alike, from medieval times through today.

“Visions of Dante not only puts on display a large portion of the Fiske Collection for the first time. It also brings together works lent by notable institutions like the Morgan Library & Museum and 20th century and contemporary artists from William Blake to Salvador Dalí, Robert Rauschenberg, and Kara Walker.

“‘This exhibition reasserts the continued vibrancy of the Divine Comedy as a work of art, a work of literature, and shows the many ways in which visual artists have made their own personal interpretations and translations of that original text,’ says co-curator Andrew C. Weislogel, the Johnson’s Seymour R. Askin, Jr. ’47 Curator of Earlier European and American Art.” [. . .] –Susan Kelley, Cornell Chronicle, September 29, 2021

The exhibit is held at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and runs from September 14 – December 19, 2021.

See more information and view an online version of the exhibit here.

Requiem of the Crazies Comics (2018)

October 23, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

“A young troubled man who finds himself living on the streets with a gun in his mouth and nowhere to go is given hope for a new life when he is taken in by a streetwise bum named Vern. Dante is introduced to the underground world of the homeless, the Crazies, where a bum can stay for the month of May and won’t need any money. A sanctuary for all those who have been forsaken. . . If only it were that easy. When corrupt politicians, drug dealers and an insane cult leader begin fighting for power, the meek homeless become nothing more than pawns in a malicious game of power. “I thought being homeless would be really easy,” Dante thinks, as him and Vern set off on their journey to fight the evil forces bent on corrupting the minds of the homeless. ” [. . .] –Rusty Cage, Indiegogo (retrieved October 18, 2021)

The series was started by Rusty Cage in 2018 and is currently on the third of eight planned installments.

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