CLOSING SOON
Tōshūsai Sharaku, The Actor Ichikawa Omezō as the Manservant Ippei in The Loved Wife’s Parti-Colored Reins (detail), 1794
Kabuki-Actor Portraits by Tōshūsai Sharaku
July 18 – October 14, 2024
Between the summer of 1794 and early spring of 1795, an artist using the name Tōshūsai Sharaku produced around 150 prints representing Kabuki actors: a prolific display of innovation in a mere ten months.
Such prints were popular mementos for fans of the stage—serving as a very marketable type of image at the time—and most of Sharaku’s works featured unusual characters with exaggerated, almost comic expressions and awkward poses. His extensive output stopped suddenly, perhaps because his style’s popularity could not be sustained. Today, his identity remains debated in Japanese print scholarship.
The first works attributed to Sharaku depict individuals who appeared in the Kabuki plays presented at the three principal theaters in Edo (present-day Tokyo). These 28 prints are bold and realistic portraits of actors in famous roles, each set against a dark background that sparkles thanks to the application of mica, a mineral silicate. By late fall/early winter of 1794, however, as the peak of the Kabuki season approached, Sharaku began producing designs with two full-length figures apiece.
This exhibition contains prints from all stages of Sharaku’s short but generative career. Many were given to the museum by brother and sister Clarence and Kate Buckingham between 1925 and 1934. The Buckinghams’ early collecting efforts have made the Art Institute home to one of the largest and finest collections of Sharaku’s work.
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Visitors experience Public Notice 3 in its inaugural installation on the Woman’s Board Grand Staircase
Jitish Kallat: Public Notice 3
Sep 9, 2024 – Sep 10, 2025
Jitish Kallat’s site-specific installation, Public Notice 3, returns to the Art Institute of Chicago’s Grand Staircase this fall after a 14-year hiatus.
Initially unveiled on September 11, 2010, the work connects two significant historical events separated by 108 years: the First World Parliament of Religions which began on September 11, 1893, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. At the earlier event, the World Parliament of Religions, held in what is now the museum’s Fullerton Hall, a young Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda electrified audiences with a powerful speech calling for an end to religious fundamentalism, intolerance, and bigotry.
This very speech forms the basis of Kallat’s work, as the staircase risers are illuminated by Vivekananda’s words in five alternating colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. These colors, borrowed from the decade-long advisory system of the US Department of Homeland Security following the attacks of 9/11, formed a spectrum denoting terrorism threat levels—from red for severe to green for low. Kallat transforms this motif of public vigilance into a radiant signal, reflecting Swami Vivekananda’s timeless and urgent plea for tolerance and universal acceptance.
To learn more, click here.
