Kansas State University

Saturday, September 22

As part of the Smithsonian magazine’s 14th annual Museum Day, The Beach Museum of Art will be hosting the national celebration honoring women in society who are trailblazers in the arts, sciences, innovation and culture, and emboldening others to be pioneers as well.

Celebrate by visiting the exhibition “Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall” and pick up a guide of works by women artists on display in the galleries.

Another highlight is a virtual exhibition on the Tall Grass Prairie by Patricia Duncan, that can be accessed on the Museum’s Touch the Prairie touch screen.  This exhibition was part of the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibitions (SITES) program in the 1970s.

For more information, please visit http://Smithsonian.com/MuseumDay

Hey students bring your parents on K-State Family Day to see how color wood block printing is done! 

During the 1920s Norma Bassett Hall began producing color woodcuts prints, employing Japanese printing method that had been embraced by artists associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.

Owl on a Pine Bough, a set of study prints in the the style of Japanese printmaker Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige donated to the Beach Museum of Art by Jon and Ruth Ann Wefald, demonstrates each step of the color wood block process that Bassett Hall used. In addition, there will be wood blocks, printing tools, and videos available showing print making techniques. This display complements our current exhibition, Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk:  The Art of Norma Bassett Hall.

“My ambition is to make my prints speak of peace and tranquility in the troubled world, of joy in simple things, of harmony and beauty.”

-Norma Bassett Hall, 1934

Also on display:  The Common Work of Art, chosen to complement K-State’s Common book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

Works by pioneer printmaker inspired by travels to Europe, Kansas and other places on display now at the Beach Museum of Art

“Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall” will run Aug. 7 through Dec. 15 in the Beach Museum of Art’s Wefald Gallery. Works displayed are from the first solo exhibition of Hall’s art since her death in 1957. Guest curator of the exhibition is Joby Patterson, an art historian based in Eugene, Oregon, and author of a book about the artist.

Hall was educated in early 20th-century America when the arts and crafts movement was all the rage. This training is revealed in her Japanese-influenced compositions and printing methods, according to Patterson, who also notes that Hall found inspiration in the diverse landscapes she encountered in her extensive travels.

As guest curator of “Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk”, Patterson will share her decade of adventures researching Hall and organizing an exhibition about her work in a presentation from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, at the Beach Museum of Art. A book signing will follow.

Related Event:

“Japanese Woodblock Printing in the West,” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at the Beach Museum of Art. The display is part of the Art in Motion festival, a free celebration of art for everyone.