Parties and Politics

Sniffed at as a mere caricaturist in his own time and buried in a pauper’s grave, the realist artist Honoré Daumier was a keen satirist and sociopolitical observer of Parisian life in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as a prolific master lithographer whose works paint a lively picture of that historical milieu. It’s not much of a stretch to call him a true precursor of our modern political cartoonists and sophisticated illustrators.

For those reasons, Honoré Daumier and the Parisian Pulse, a new exhibit opening at Colorado State University’s University Art Museum, offers a fine excuse to make the hour’s journey north for the opening reception, tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Robert W. Hoffert Gallery. Featuring a rich sampling of the artist’s lithographs from a collection donated to the museum (in his life, Daumier ran more than 4,000 prints), the show continues through March 13; the museum is located in the University Center for the Arts, 1400 Remington Street on the CSU campus. Admission is free; go to www.artmuseum.colostate.edu or call 970-491-1989 for information.

Jan. 12-March 13, 2010