CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign made several acquisitions in the past year that will transform its collection and be used regularly in research and teaching.
“When we are investing in purchasing works of art or taking in a large collection, we always have a sense of how the works of art can expand or change what we’re already doing. Sometimes it’s about expanding the strengths already in the collection and sometimes it’s about helping us tell a more expansive and inclusive story,” said KAM director Jon Seydl.
One major work acquired this spring is an oil painting of Samson and Delilah by Dutch painter Willem Bartsius, who like Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in the 1630s. Few works by Bartsius survive, and this one is considered his best, said Maureen Warren, KAM’s curator of European and American art. It is a history painting, a category that includes stories from mythology, literature and the Bible. The museum has a fine collection of early modern European paintings, but not many history paintings.
The story of Samson and Delilah was very popular with Dutch and Flemish artists. By the 17th century, Delilah was considered by some to have been a prostitute and by others to have been Samson’s wife. Delilah always appears in a very sexualized way, Warren said, but the Bartsius painting strikes a balance, portraying her as provocative but not indecent.
“She’s in this gorgeous satiny lemon-yellow gown. We see a lot of painterly expertise in showing the finish of the fabric, with light reflecting off the different folds and creases. Her fine garments and accessories are signs of wealth and status,” Warren said.
The painting includes imported items that would have been considered exotic, including turbans, fur-lined cloaks, a parasol and feathers from birds-of-paradise. It provides a glimpse of the impact of trade and colonialism, as well as perceptions of race and gender dynamics at the time, Warren said. The painting will be on view early in 2025.
“Personnage,” a work by surrealist painter Wifredo Lam, is on view in the museum’s “Art Since 1948” installation. Lam, who is of Afro-Cuban and Chinese ancestry, grew up in Cuba and studied in Havana and Spain, where he was involved in the Spanish Civil War and lost his wife and child to tuberculosis. He painted many images of mother and child, taking inspiration from surrealism and its focus on dreams to deal with his grief, said Allyson Purpura, KAM’s senior curator and curator of global African art.
Lam was deeply influenced by the Negritude movement that promoted Black culture and protested colonial rule. His paintings honored Afro-Cuban religions and the Santeria practices that were part of his cultural environment, Purpura said.
“Lam’s contributions to surrealism have been undervalued,” she said. “The beauty and power of his work is that it deconstructs boundaries between African diasporic art and modern art and surrealism.”
The painting will be useful for teaching about modern art and African art history, as well as colonialism, the Negritude movement and the visual cultures and histories of the Caribbean, Purpura said.
Chicago-based artist Nick Cave uses found objects from thrift stores to create sculptures in defense of Black life. He often incorporates racist memorabilia in his work to confront white supremacy, said Amy L. Powell, KAM’s curator of modern and contemporary art.
“He’s unafraid to show what this country was built on,” Powell said.
KAM purchased an untitled sculpture by Cave last year that is currently part of “Art Since 1948.” The assemblage features a carved wooden head that would have been used in a Midwestern carnival game in the early 20th century placed on an overturned stool painted in Pan-African colors. The stool sits atop antique nesting tables. A set of praying hands on the table and a small kneeler suggest visual similarities with an altar. A carved wooden eagle is perched with its wings spread at the top, symbolizing the U.S.
“The work carries a lot of conflicting experiences within it, because it also has incredibly tender moments,” Powell said. “The power of this is its everydayness. You could find all these things in a thrift store in town. Nick Cave’s genius is how he put them all together not only to uncover the violence embedded in racist stereotypes, but to prompt dialogue about the symbolism and weight of U.S material culture.”
KAM has become the first U.S. museum to collect work by Swedish artist Anna Boberg with the acquisition of a 1934 painting of fishing boats. Boberg, whose work is well known in Sweden, painted the landscapes of the Lofoten Islands in the Arctic, often working outdoors in the cold for long periods of time while wearing fur garments crafted by Indigenous Sami people.
“Her style is sometimes referred to as Eco-Impressionism. Like the Impressionists, she was interested in how atmospheric conditions, weather and the time of day change how we perceive color and shape. Boberg was really captivated by the Arctic. For decades, she painted these Norwegian fjords and glaciers, always finding something new in the shifting light and atmosphere of the place,” Warren said.
There has been a tendency in the art world to ignore female artists and Scandinavian art, Warren said, but “she’s somebody I think is on the precipice of being really significant in global art history. Nobody in the U.S. is collecting Boberg. She’s not on people’s radar. We’re able to be ahead of the curve and bring someone's work to the forefront who's not yet well known.”
The painting complements a large collection of materials at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library related to exploration of the Arctic, Warren said.
With the acquisition of the glass collection of former Illinois engineering professors John and Judith Liebman, KAM now has one of the most significant collections of modern Czech glass sculpture in North America, Seydl said. The couple collected modern and contemporary studio glass worldwide. In addition to the Czech glass, their large gift includes many sculptures from Illinois glassmakers associated with the U. of I., Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University.
The more than 100 pieces from their collection illustrate different U.S., Czech and global glassmaking traditions and expand KAM’s collection to include more Eastern European art, a gap in its strong European modern holdings, Seydl said.