To the Letter: Regarding the Written Word

September 13, 2017–January 28, 2018

This exhibition crosses cultures and centuries to bring together works that activate the expressive and aesthetic potential of letters and words.

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Jules Chéret: Exposition Universelle des Arts Incoherents, 1889; lithograph; 21 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.; BAMPFA, gift of Lewis and Marjorie Ferbrache.

Upcoming
Films
Upcoming
Events
Selected
Objects
Past
Films
Past
Events

Past Events

Thursday, January 25, 12 PM
Curators’ Talk: Lawrence Rinder and Julia White on To the Letter

Join the curators of To the Letter for an in-depth look at the exhibition.

BAMPFA
Saturday, December 9, 11:30–1:00 & 1:00–2:30
Gallery + Studio: Letterform Experiments

Get inspired by artworks in To the Letter, then explore language and letterforms by making mixed-media collages of your own.

BAMPFA

For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)
Friday, November 3, 6 PM
Calligraphy Workshop with Lauren McIntosh

Join artist McIntosh for a calligraphy workshop inspired by the artworks in To the Letter: Regarding the Written Word.

BAMPFA

Past Films

To the Letter: Regarding the Written Word

September 13, 2017–January 28, 2018

To the Letter: Regarding the Written Word presents a wide range of works from the BAMPFA collection that incorporate writing or letterforms as a motif or key theme. The exhibition includes prints, drawings, paintings, textiles, and photography from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, dating from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first. As the diversity of the works suggests, interest in the shapes—as well as the meanings—of letters and words spans cultures and times.

In some cultures, writing grows out of pictorial traditions. The connection between Chinese characters and their representational origins is apparent, for example, in the striding legs of the character for “person,” 人 (ren); the serrated top of the character for “mountain,” 山 (shan); and the pendulous branches of the character for “tree,” 木 (mu). Perhaps it is due in part to this latent pictorial quality that Chinese and Japanese scripts lend themselves so well to the flowing lines of calligraphy. The Roman alphabet may be simple and visually banal by comparison, yet it too possesses the capacity to be rendered in dramatic fashion, as is evident in the work of graffiti artists over the last few decades.

Not all of the works in the exhibition use letters to convey literal meaning or even represent specific letters at all. Rather, for some artists, it is simply the idea of writing that inspires the character of their marks.

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To the Letter: Regarding the Written Word is organized by Lawrence Rinder, BAMPFA director and chief curator, and Julia White, senior curator for Asian art.

To the Letter: Regarding the Written Word

September 13, 2017–January 28, 2018

Selected Exhibition Objects

Print

Exposition Universelle Des Arts Incoherents

Jules Chéret

Mixed Media

Untitled (Hand Hearing)

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Past Events

Curators’ Talk: Lawrence Rinder and Julia White on To the Letter

Gallery + Studio: Letterform Experiments

Calligraphy Workshop with Lauren McIntosh

Past Films