Source: Martha Scott, 785-532-7718, marthas@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Caitlin Muret, 785-532-7718, cmuret@k-state.edu
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
K-STATE BEACH MUSEUM OF ART'S 2009 GIFT PRINT ARTIST MIKE LYON TO DISCUSS HIS WORK IN APRIL 16 PRESENTATION
MANHATTAN -- Mike Lyon, the 2009 gift print artist at Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum, will have an exhibition and present at talk at the museum.
"Figuring it Out: Mike Lyon, 2009 Friends of the Beach Museum of Art Gift Print Artist" will be on display at the museum from April 14 to July 19. The exhibition will feature work by Lyon and part of his collection of Ukiyo-e prints. He also will give a talk about his work and the artistic process at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the museum. The talk is free and the public is invited.
K-State's gift print tradition was started in 1934 and was an incentive to membership in the Friends of Art. Today, Friends of the Beach Museum of Art members may purchase the current print at a discounted price. At the end of the year, the remaining prints may be purchased by anyone at current market price.
Lyon, from Kansas City, Mo., is an avid collector of Ukiyo-e art, which has inspired the print he is creating for the Beach Museum. He described it as a rendering of a paper doll that one may dress up with paper clothes. During the artistic process, Lyon uses a computer and industrial equipment with more traditional painting, drawing and printmaking methods.
For the Beach Museum's gift print, Lyon said he will print flat areas of color, then use a ballpoint pen to crosshatch a coarse sort of chiaroscuro drawing.
"There's precedent for this sort of image in Japanese printmaking and the printing is to be Japanese technique woodcut, so image and part of the process echo to old Japan," Lyon said. "Then the drawing is to be done by machine, following instructions I've written and generated to produce the layers of hatches."
Gift print artists, who must have a connection to Kansas or the region, are chosen annually by Bill North, senior curator at the Beach.
Lyon's exhibition is sponsored by the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art business partners.
For more information, contact Martha Scott at the Beach Museum of Art at 785-532-7718 or drop by the museum on the southeast corner of the K-State campus at 14th Street and Anderson Avenue. Free visitor parking is available next to the building. Normal museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. The museum is closed Mondays.
