April Highlights

	Valentin's Death (Valentins Tod), from the series "Twelve Illustrations to Goethe's Faust" by Peter Cornelius, 1816, Engraving. Photo courtesy of the Smart Museum of Art

Smart Museum of Art
“Majestic Nature/Golden History: German Romantic Art from the Crawford Collection and the Smart Museum of Art”
Through Sunday, October 21
5550 S. Greenwood Ave.

While German-speaking lands in nineteenth-century Europe were divided into a host of political entities, their artists and writers championed German cultural unity by reviving and celebrating the art of their past. German artists rejected the aesthetic principles of antiquity and instead turned inward, drawing inspiration from local scenery, Gothic art and Renaissance masters. Landscape scenes were no longer based on the Italian countryside, but rather depicted the varied topography of the German lands. This exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints from the private collection of Stephen and Elizabeth Crawford and the Smart Museum surveys this artistic current in the first half of the century.

	François Chaplin

University Symphony Orchestra
French Festival
8 p.m. Saturday, April 28
Mandel Hall, 1131 E 57th St.

University Symphony Orchestra will perform Claude Debussy's virtuosic Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre. Also on the program are Debussy's famous Prélude à "L'Après-midi d'un faune and Ernest Chausson's Symphony in B-flat Major, Op. 20. This concert will feature internationally acclaimed pianist François Chaplin. Chaplin was the recipient of the Mozart and Robert Casadesus prizes at the 1989 International Competition in Cleveland. His appearance takes place in conjunction with the Spring Quarter Art History course, "Looking and Listening in 19th-Century France," and the April residency of scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux. Barbara Schubert will conduct. Donations of $10 for adults and $5 for students will be accepted at the door.

	Katharina Grosse, "Atoms Inside Balloons," maquette for installation at The Renaissance Society, 2007.

The Renaissance Society
Opening reception for Katharina Grosse, "Atoms inside Balloons"
4-7 p.m. Sunday, April 29
Cobb Hall, 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Room 307

The Renaissance Society is holding an opening reception for Katharina Groose, whose exhibition "Atoms inside Balloons" will run until Sunday, June 10. Grosse will give an artist talk from 5 to 6 p.m. at the reception. The work of Dusseldorf-based artist Grosse explores the confines of painterly tradition. She applies swaths of bold colors directly to walls and floors using powered spray guns. Her installation at The Renaissance Society, entitled "Atoms inside Balloons," will be designed around the gallery's windows and its 30-foot high neo-gothic ceiling, and include 20 five-to 10-foot diameter balloons. Although often indoor works, her sprayed-wall paintings are not restricted to gallery spaces — corridors, stairwells and other through spaces are used to direct the viewer both physically and visually through her work. This will be the artist's first one-person exhibition in the Midwest.

	Jonathan Lear

The Divinity School at the University of Chicago
2007 John Nuveen Lecture: Jonathan Lear
4 p.m. Thursday, April 26
Swift Lecture Hall, 1025 East 58th St., Third Floor

Jonathan Lear, the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in Social Thought, Philosophy and the College, will give the 2007 John Nuveen Lecture. His talk is titled "The Transformation of Courage." Lear's work examines a wide range of philosophic thought from Freud to the ancient Greeks. Lear serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He has published many books, among them Therapeutic action: an earnest plea for irony and Freud. John Nuveen was one of Chicago's most influential business leaders and an active civil and cultural leader with ties to many educational institutions. At the University, he served as chairman of the Alumni Association and as a trustee of the Baptist Theological Union. He established the Nuveen lecture in 1972 and managed an endowment that supports the Divinity School.