Pictured Above: Yukio Yamamoto (Japanese, 1925 - 2000), "Mask," wood-fired ceramics, ca. 1985-98. Gift of Joel Eide ’57 and Diane J. (Hinsvark) Eide ’58, The Joel and Diane Eide Ceramics Collection, Carl Grupp Permanent Art Collection, Eide/Dalrymple Gallery at Augustana University
The Eide/Dalrymple Gallery’s biennial “Highlights from the Carl Grupp Permanent Art Collection” is an opportunity to sample some of the 4,000+ artworks that comprise the permanent art collection at Augustana University. The collection will be on display through Thursday, March 19, with a reception on Friday, Feb. 20, from 7-9 p.m. and gallery talk at 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Visual Materials.
This year, the exhibition is anchored by new acquisitions in dialogue, including ceramics by Japanese artist Yukio Yamamoto (1925 - 2000) and prints by Augustana Professor Emeritus of Art Carl Grupp (1939 - 2019).
In 2019, The Joel and Diane Eide Ceramics Collection was established as a part of the permanent collection with a donation of contemporary ceramics. Dr. Joel Eide ’57 and Diane J. (Hinsvark) Eide ’58 have been significant supporters of Augustana and the Eide/Dalrymple Gallery, in particular. Joel is the nephew of the late Augustana Professor Emeritus of Art Palmer Eide ‘30, the founder of the Augustana Art Department and one of the namesakes of the Eide/Dalrymple Gallery. He was a long-serving museum director at Northern Arizona University and instrumental in the renaissance of contemporary ceramics that happened there. In Fall 2025, the Eides made a donation of 10 works by Yamamoto.
Yamamoto was born in the Ako district of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. A former kamikaze pilot and son of nobility, he was of the last generation to be educated in shogun-style art. Following WWII, he researched the history of pottery of the Hemiji region, especially kiln designs. In 1954, Yamamoto built his first noborigama-chambered climbing kiln and began teaching old world firing processes. His work revitalized ancient ceramic traditions and the Tozan style of Anagama and Noborigama down-draft style wood-fired kilns. Yamamoto met ceramicist Donald Bendel when he had an exhibition in Arizona, which began an intensive collaboration. Through his workshops and the building of the Tozan kilns at Northern Arizona University, Yamamoto inspired and trained many artists in Japanese wood-fired ceramics.
This is also the gallery’s first complete display of the “Parables of My Mind” series by Grupp — a set of multi-colored intaglio prints donated recently by Anna Marie Thatcher. One of Grupp’s most significant series was completed during the first decade of his teaching career at Augustana when he was considered to be at his surrealist best. As an art movement, surrealism was intended as a tool for interrogating a world that seems out of joint — to show disruptions in that world in a more than real way.
The Eide/Dalrymple Gallery is located at 30th Street and Grange Avenue, in the Center for Visual Arts at Augustana. The gallery is open to the public and free of charge. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Saturdays, from 1-4 p.m.
To learn more about the Augustana Eide/Dalrymple Gallery, visit augie.edu/EDGallery.