April-May Highlights

	Rebecca Morris, Untitled, 2003, oil and spraypaint on canvas.

The Renaissance Society
“Rebecca Morris: Paintings 1997-2004”
Sunday, May 8 through Sunday, June 19
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; noon-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
Room 418, Cobb Hall, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. 702-8670. http://www.renaissancesociety.org. Free.

This exhibition will survey the work of abstract painter Rebecca Morris, whose paintings explore abstraction through geometric forms and layers of congealed paint. Her work draws on sources as disparate as Fred Sandback string sculpture, a dime-store lunchbox, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Tudor architecture and Clyfford Still paintings. In her artwork, Morris demonstrates both her investment in the traditions and possibilities of painting, as well as her restlessness with tested formulas and her own predilections. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, May 8, with a discussion with the artist from 5 to 6 p.m.

	Dancers from the Kalapriya Dance company.

International House
Satyagraha: An Afro-Asian Dance Festival
Friday, April 29 through Sunday, May 1
International House, 1414 E. 59th St. http://www.kalapriya.org/event-satyagraha.htm. $20 general, $15 students and seniors.

Coinciding with Asian History Month, this dance festival will celebrate and connect the principles of Hindu philosophy to the history of the civil rights movements in South Africa, India and the United States. Satyagraha, which combines the Hindu words for “truth” and “holding firm,” was employed by Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela as an effective means to secure civil liberties for their countries. The Satyagraha festival will present dances that express these ever-important ideals. At 7 p.m. Friday, April 29, the Kalapriya Dance company and the Muntu Dance Theatre will present an exploration of the mythological similarities among African and Asian cultures. In addition, at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 1, the festival will feature dances expressing contemporary cultural views by Mallika Sarabhai & Company with Darpana of Gujarat, India, and Bongi Sithole of the South African Cultural Arts Organization in Chicago.

	The music of Maurice Ravel, shown above, will be performed.

Department of Music
University Symphony Orchestra
8 p.m. Saturday, April 30
Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. 702-8069. http://music.uchicago.edu. $10 general, $5 students and children.

Under the baton of Barbara Schubert, the University Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the season in a program titled “Spring Forth!” The orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, a four-movement work with a bright mood; Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole, inspired by melodies and rhythms of Spanish music and featuring movements like Malagueña, Habanera and Feria ; and Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2, which mixes traditional Latin-American and Mexican melodies and rhythms with classic techniques.

	Yokoi Hosai, The Archer (Nasu no Yoichi), Early 20th century, color on silk.

The Smart Museum of Art
“Objects of History: The Boone Collection of Japanese Art”
Through Sunday, June 12
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
5550 S. Greenwood Ave. 702-0200. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. Free.

Drawing from the extensive Boone collection at the Field Museum of Chicago, this exhibition brings cultural artifacts, such as scroll paintings, woodblock prints and decorative objects from 18th-20th century Japan into an art museum context. The exhibition presents these objects as both “material culture” and “art” in order to examine these terms, the objects to which they are applied, and museum and collection studies in general.