Inventing Childhood | Spencer Museum of Art

Spencer Museum of Art

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Exhibition

Inventing Childhood

Inventing Childhood

Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator

Gallery 404, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

This exhibition explores how children have been intellectually, philosophically, and practically treated differently across time and across cultures. Inventing Childhood acknowledges that the range of cultural conceptions of childhood is incredibly diverse; some works reveal an artist’s own memories of childhood, while other works speak to the cultural expectations of young people.

Exhibition images

Works of art

Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) (active 1982–2017), A Midsummer Night's Dream XVII (after William Shakespeare)

Elisabeth Pitcher, untitled sampler

untitled sampler

Betty Evans, sampler with the sacrifice of Isaac (Ecclesiastes, Chapter XII)

Leah Townsend, untitled sampler (From Principles of Friendship)

Robert Henri (1865–1929), Laughing Girl

Janna Faro, untitled sampler (Janna 1770 Faro)

Mary Ann Melten, untitled sampler (Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand)

Sarah Mills, untitled sampler (Industry taught in early days)

Polly Hix (1819–1898), untitled sampler (Polly Hix's Sampler)

Roza Jaso, untitled sampler

Rosa Andreu (1800s), untitled sampler

Kitagawa Utamaro (1754–1806), 5th Day, 5th Month, Boy's Day Festival (untitled pentaptych of five annual festivals)

Kitagawa Utamaro (1754–1806), Goldfish

Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), Facts of Life

Vesperbild (Pietà)

Filippo da Verona (active 1509–1514), Madonna and Child with Saint John

Samuel Bell Waugh (1814–1885), Mrs. Stiles and Grandchild

Kitagawa Utamaro (1754–1806), Two Women and Their Children

Master of the Die (active circa 1532), The Annunciation

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), The Barefooted Child

Martha Mynott, untitled alphabet sampler

W. Eugene Smith (1918–1978), Tomoko and Mother in the Bath

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), Baby's Back

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), The Manicure

unrecorded Chokwe artist, makishi mask

unrecorded Chokwe artist, carved chair rung

unrecorded Cheyenne artist, doll cradleboard

unrecorded Cree artist, child's beaded jacket

unrecorded Cheyenne artist, pair of beaded child's boots

unrecorded Cheyenne artist, child's dress

unrecorded Cheyenne artist, cradleboard

unrecorded Oyo artist, mother with children figure

unrecorded Lakota artist, male doll

unrecorded Wazhazhe (Osage) artist, pair of child's beaded moccasins

Melania Mazinyani, Child Taken by Mermaid

unrecorded Kuba artist, Bwoom mask

Roger Shimomura (born 1939), American Citizen #1

Roger Shimomura (born 1939), American Citizen #2

unrecorded Makonde artist, water pot

Events

October 30, 2016

Talk

Inventing Childhood

2:00–3:00PM

Spencer Museum of Art, Gallery 404, Larry and Barbara Marshall Family Balcony