http://spongecell.com/embed/view/ChiMwASMP/Additional+Events en-us Copyright 2009 Spongecell LLC contact@spongecell.com contact@spongecell.com Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:53:45 -0800 871856i20091010 http://spongecell.com/event/view/871856 <b> Sat Oct 10, 2009 to Sun Jan 3, 2010 </b><br> <b>Location:</b> <a href="http://maps.google.com?q=Chicago%2C+Il" target='_blank' >View on Map</a><br> Chicago, Il<br> <b>Notes:</b><br> Galleries 1-2 <br> <br>Overview: Sixty years ahead of the avant-garde, aristocratic Victorian women were already experimenting with photocollage. The compositions they made with photographs and watercolors are whimsical and fantastical, combining human heads and animal bodies, placing people into imaginary landscapes, and morphing faces into common household objects. With sharp wit and dramatic shifts of scale akin to those Alice experienced in Wonderland, these images stand the rather serious conventions of photography in the 1860s and 1870s on their heads. <br> <br> <br>Marie-Blanche-Hennelle Fournier. Untitled page from the Madame B Album, 1870s. Mary and Leigh Block Endowment. <br> <br> <br>Such images, often made for albums, reveal the educated minds as well as accomplished hands of their makers, as they take on new theories of evolution, the changing role of photography, and the strict conventions of aristocratic society. Together they provide a fascinating window into the creative possibilities of photography in the Victorian era and enduring inspiration for photographic experimentation today. <br> <br>This exhibition is the first to comprehensively examine the little-known phenomenon of Victorian photocollage, presenting work that has rarely—and in many cases never—before been displayed or reproduced. Playing with Pictures showcases the best albums and loose pages from collections across the United States, Europe, and Australia; 40 pages are shown in frames on the wall, while 11 separate albums are displayed in cases, accompanied by “virtual albums” on computer monitors for visitor interaction. <br> <br>A beautiful catalogue accompanies the exhibition and is available in the Museum Shop. Featuring over 150 color illustrations, the volume presents essays by exhibition curator Elizabeth Siegel and other respected scholars as well as entries on the albums and their makers. A new gift book based on an album in the museum’s collection, The Marvelous Album of Madame B, is also available.<br> Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:53:45 -0800 871858i20100220 http://spongecell.com/event/view/871858 <b> Sat Feb 20, 2010 to Sun May 16, 2010 </b><br> <b>Location:</b> <a href="http://maps.google.com?q=Chicago%2C+Il" target='_blank' >View on Map</a><br> Chicago, Il<br> <b>Notes:</b><br> One of the most influential American photographers of our time, William Eggleston has defined the history of color photography. This exhibition is the artist's first retrospective in the United States and presents a comprehensive selection from nearly 50 years of image making. It brings together Eggleston's famous and lesser-known works, particularly his black-and-white images from the late 1950s and 1960s, which helped shape his color photography. Also showcased will be Eggleston’s provocative video recording of 1970s Memphis nightlife, Stranded in Canton, which influenced his later work. Internationally acclaimed, Eggleston has spent the past four decades making photographs that convey intuitive responses to fleeting configurations of cultural signs and moods as specific expressions of local color. Psychologically complex and casually refined, bordering on kitsch and never conventionally beautiful, these photographs speak principally to the expanse of Eggleston's imagination and have had a pervasive influence on all aspects of visual culture.<br> Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:52:45 -0800