tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83427106883633342382024-03-13T13:40:20.142-04:00See It AllA Curated Digest of Boston-Area ExhibitionsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-15706924968738552642014-02-26T22:20:00.001-05:002014-02-26T22:20:49.727-05:00Addison Gallery/An American in London: Whistler and the Thames<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James McNeill Whistler, <i>Thames Warehouses</i>, 1859</td></tr>
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<b>Link to Exhibition Website</b>:<br />
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<b>Curators:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); line-height: 24px;">Margaret F. MacDonald and Dr. Patricia de Montfort, University of Glasgow</span></span></div>
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<b>From the Press Release: </b><i>"This exhibition brings together numerous paintings, prints, and drawings from this pivotal period in Whistler's career, providing a detailed examination of his approach to composition, subject and technique."</i><br />
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This exhibition opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and will travel to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, after the Addison.<br />
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Reviews of the London installation can be found <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/10393447/Whistler-and-the-Thames-Dulwich-Picture-Gallery-review.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/an-american-in-london-whistler-and-the-thames-dulwich-picture-gallery--exhibition-review-8953532.html">here.</a></div>
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<b>Recommended For:</b> A deep, meaningful and satisfying connection with James McNeill Whistler</div>
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<b>Experience:</b></div>
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Museum administrators may dream longingly of big-draw blockbusters, but often it is the smaller exhibitions that deliver a more satisfying experience for the visitor.<i> An American in London</i> is the kind of small show that proves this point. The show is thoughtful, insightful, deftly composed and arranged, and full of works of outstanding artistic quality and achievement.<br />
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<i>Whistler and the Thames </i>introduces us to a young and eager artist and lets us journey with him across the decades of his career. Whistler experiments with a variety of media and techniques of representation, but the common context of the bustling banks of London's Thames- the neighborhood in which Whistler actually lived and worked- provides a strong connective narrative that tells a coherent and compelling story from beginning to end. Curators Margaret MacDonald and Patricia de Montfort connect us with the <i>working </i>Whistler in an engaging and thorough fashion.<br />
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Our introduction to Whistler comes in a series of etchings and drypoints of the gritty Thames waterfront begun in the late 1850s and published as a folio titled the <i>Thames Set</i> in 1871. The works are simply astounding. Whistler's adroit skill with the medium reminded me of John Singer Sargent's command of watercolor demonstrated by the recent MFA show. This section is enhanced by clear and eloquent labels outlining the demanding process of engraved prints. </div>
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The body of <i>An American in London</i> brings together a large group of works that put us squarely behind Whistler's editorial eye. Through sketches, watercolors, oils and other media, we see the artist repetitively shaping, rearranging, and reworking his subject striving for a satisfactory balance of composition, color and effect. The impressive diversity of the sources of the loaned works is a telling tribute to the depth of scholarship achieved by curators MacDonald and de Montfort. </div>
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Whistler's mature form, which we have seen develop over the course of the exhibition, really comes into its own in the final third of the show dedicated to his Nocturnes and his fascination with Battersea Bridge. The remarkable works shown here show the painter as daring, experimental and pushing the boundaries of aesthetic representation in his day. The works, centered around the magical oil on canvas <i>Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge</i>, provide a deeply satisfying finish to the exhibition. Both the curators and the Addison are to be congratulated for bringing such a compelling show to the Boston area.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James McNeill Whistler, <i>Nocturne in Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge,</i> 1872/73</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-12088245328487933652014-02-17T21:42:00.000-05:002014-02-17T21:42:00.029-05:00PMA/Fine Lines: American Drawing from the Brooklyn Museum<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nSdaYVplQAQ/UwDjpSjSzBI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/QziauVQwYZU/s1600/the-unruly-calf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nSdaYVplQAQ/UwDjpSjSzBI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/QziauVQwYZU/s1600/the-unruly-calf.jpg" height="350" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winslow Homer, Study for "The Unruly Calf" ca.1875</td></tr>
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website:</b><br />
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<b><br /></b><b>Curator: </b>Karen A. Sherry, Chief Curator and Curator of American Art, Portland Museum of Art<br />
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<b>From the Press Release: </b><i>"Fine Lines showcases drawing as a dynamic art form in the United States across two centuries."</i><br />
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This exhibition opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the late spring of 2013. A New York Times review of that installation can be found <a href="http://www.portlandmuseum.org/Content/8141.shtml">here.</a><br />
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<b>Recommended For:</b> a behind-the-frame glimpse of the making of American art history.<br />
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<b>The Experience:</b><br />
OK, unlike Worcester or Lowell, which are deceptively close to Boston, Portland is legitimately something of a hike to get to from the Hub. But worth it. The Portland Museum of Art is a terrific destination and downtown Portland is a super place to eat. So, plan for the day and you won't be sorry.<br />
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<i>Fine Lines</i>, is a modestly-sized exhibition tastefully installed in the changing exhibition galleries of PMA just off the lobby. The show is thoughtfully organized by curator Karen Sherry into sections according to compositional subject- the portraits are together, the anatomical studies, the narrative works, the landscapes, etc. This organization allows the visitor to appreciate the wide range of techniques and modes of representation utilized by a impressive range of American artists. The artists of the drawings shown- and there's over 70 different artists represented- reads like a veritable who's who of American art history. This is a real tribute to the depth and importance of the Brooklyn Museum's holdings. I will say that it helps to view <i>Fine Lines</i> with a familiarity with the finished works of the artists included. In some cases, an example or thumbnail of the finished works is provided, but often it is left to the viewer's own knowledge.<br />
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It was the varied functions of the drawings that intrigued me. Some were studies for later works finished in another medium such as painting or print. Others were part of the artistic training of the artists, studies of human form and landscape studies and suchlike. Still others, like some of the travel sketchbooks, were merely of subjects that caught the artists' eye. Studying the catalog (which is fantastic) after the show, I couldn't help but wonder if the function of the sketches, rather than their subject matter, couldn't have provided a compelling alternate organization for the show.<br />
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That aside, there are some truly exceptional pieces in the show that stopped me in my tracks with their arresting immediacy and the powerful insight into the artist's mind they provided: Robert Henri's <i>Nude Perched on Chair, </i>Bradley Walker Tomlin's <i>Back</i>, Minerva Josephine Chapman's <i>Woman in Profile </i>and Charles Caryl Coleman's <i>A Shower of Ashes upon Ottavaino.</i> My favorite two sketches in the show were Benjamin Orso Eggleston's <i>Little Girl Holding an Apple</i> and Albert Bierstadt's <i>Study of a Ewe.</i><br />
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Drawing happens to be one of my favorite media, and it was a real treat to see such a sweeping collection of examples on view. Portland may be a bit of a drive, but <i>Fine Lines</i> will make you glad you went.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benjamin Orso Eggleston, <i>Little Girl Holding an Apple, </i>1927</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101, USA43.6538966 -70.26252699999997743.653178600000004 -70.263787499999978 43.6546146 -70.261266499999977tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-82112091823569108262014-01-23T11:14:00.002-05:002014-01-23T14:30:28.618-05:00HUB ORIGINALS: New England Quilt Museum/Quilts Japan<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Mikiko Misawa, <i>Grassland</i>, Thai silk, Contemporary Category</td></tr>
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<b>Link to Exhibition Website:</b> http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/2014-exhibitions.html<br />
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<b>Curator:</b> Pam Weeks<br />
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<b>From the Press Release:</b> <i>"the only Northeast venue to showcase these award winning quilts from the 2011 international competition of the Japanese Handicraft Instructors' Association"</i><br />
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<b>Recommended For: </b>A decidedly Asian twist on a familiar American art form with interesting contemporary art harmonies. Not just for quilters!<br />
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<b>The Experience:</b><br />
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<b><i>See It All</i></b> will kick off 2014 with an new series I'm calling HUB ORIGINALS. This series will look at some of the more unique and focused museums in the greater-Boston area. I'm starting the series with the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell.</div>
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A very easy drive up Route 3 on a frigid January morning took me into downtown Lowell before I knew it. The New England Quilt Museum was easy to find and nearby parking was readily available. I had come to see<i> Quilts Japan</i>, the NEQM's new show that opened on January 16. <i>Quilts Japan </i>is a selection of 32 quilts that received awards at the 2011 Quilt Nihon competition. This competition is held biannually in Tokyo and is sponsored by the Japan Handicraft Instructors' Association. The 2011 competition brought in a staggering 377 entries in both the Traditional and Contemporary categories. It attracts primarily Japanese, but some international submissions. Pam Weeks, NEQM's curator, told me that Japanese quilters first started gaining prominence in the 1980's and 1990's. The emergence of Japanese artists into a traditionally western textile art gives <i>Quilts Japan</i> an interesting connection to PEM's <i>Future Beauty, </i>as this was exactly the same time that Japanese designers first started making inroads into the world of couture fashion. Food for thought.<br />
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I went to <i>Quilts Japan</i> expecting to see sumptuous fabrics and exquisite craftsmanship and I was not disappointed. The examples shown span a range of very traditional designs to progressive forms that push at the boundaries of what makes a quilt a quilt, but all shared an absolutely superb level of skill and technique in their construction. I was also struck by how many of the quilts were created to evoke a moment of essentialized natural beauty, from starry skies, to carefully tended gardens, to breeze-blown fields of grass. This is an impulse I see carrying over into many other Japanese art forms.<br />
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The method of display at NEQM allows the visitor to get extremely close to the quilts, unimpeded by plexiglas or barriers and this makes the viewing of these works a very rich experience. I do wish that there had been more contextual information about the rise and popularity of quilting in Japan, but this did not really detract from appreciating the stunning craftsmanship on display. If the presentation of the show seems a little bare-bones, I think they can be excused as Weeks confided in me that the show arrived from Wisconsin <i>1 DAY</i> before it opened in Lowell!<br />
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Note that this show overlaps the MFA's <i>Quilts and Color</i> show by only 1 week, but they would make for very complimentary experiences.<br />
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Here are some of the standout examples for me (photos posted with the permission of NEQM):<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yoko Komatsuno, <i>Streamline</i>, cotton, Traditional Category</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chiaki Desho, <i>The Crossing Time IV</i>, kimono fabric, Contemporary Category</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yoko Kageyama, <i>Feel Something from the Kimonos</i>, kimono silk, Traditional Category</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Soohee Lee, <i>In the Blue</i>, recycled bluejeans, Contemporary Category</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>In the Blue</i>, detail</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harue Konishi, <i>SYO #53</i>, Contemporary Category</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com1New England Quilt Museum, Lowell National Historical Park, 18 Shattuck Street, Lowell, MA 01852, USA42.6453053 -71.31225849999998417.123270799999997 -112.62085249999998 68.1673398 -30.003664499999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-1740146077775223822013-12-15T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-15T06:19:13.039-05:00See It All's Spring 2014 Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, it has been a great pleasure and privilege to see such a wonderful group of exhibitions this fall. My personal favorites would have to be the ICA Boston's <i>Amy Sillman: one lump or two</i> and MIT Museum's <i>5000 Moving Parts</i>, with WAM's <i>[remastered]</i> close behind. The spring of 2014 has some exciting and varied offerings for <b><i>See It All</i></b>. Exhibitions featuring painting, installation, textiles, drawings and rare books and manuscripts will all be opening in and around the Hub.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Shows</span></u></b></div>
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Fans of quilts and textiles can continue their exposure to amazing work started at <b>New England Quilt Museum's</b> <i>The Roots of Modern Quilting</i> by attending their follow-up show <i>Quilting Japan</i>, opening in mid-January. Then, in April, the <b>MFA</b> mounts<i> Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection </i>which should present a diverse and masterful array of examples of the quilting art.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hTVCCU3T8nU/UpjEDtxpgzI/AAAAAAAAAJk/DOgVwY6v1Bc/s1600/tour_eiffel_vue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hTVCCU3T8nU/UpjEDtxpgzI/AAAAAAAAAJk/DOgVwY6v1Bc/s200/tour_eiffel_vue.jpg" width="200" /></a>Two very interesting examinations of the act and meaning of collecting can be seen by visiting the <b>Currier Museum's</b> collaboration with Andrew Witkin, <i>Exploring the Currier Inside and Out: Andrew Witkin, Among Others.</i> This meditation on collecting and collections can be followed up in April with the <b>Boston Athenaeum's</b> second installment of their <i>Collecting for a New Century</i>, featuring rare books and manuscripts (a personal favorite of VO.)<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UwnUY2si4Io/UpyUBjqbyPI/AAAAAAAAAKg/CenlGI-M8FQ/s1600/brooklyn-museum-fine-lines-american-drawings-from-the-brooklyn-museum-1384221384_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UwnUY2si4Io/UpyUBjqbyPI/AAAAAAAAAKg/CenlGI-M8FQ/s200/brooklyn-museum-fine-lines-american-drawings-from-the-brooklyn-museum-1384221384_b.jpg" width="165" /></a>Another favorite medium of VO is drawing, which will be the subject of a show opening at the <b>Portland Museum of Art</b><i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>in late January. <i>Fine Lines: American Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum</i>, will give New England audiences a rare chance to view these delicate works.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FqhOEhq-QYE/UpjEUVXirxI/AAAAAAAAAJs/cgbbF6YK7cQ/s1600/Cave562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FqhOEhq-QYE/UpjEUVXirxI/AAAAAAAAAJs/cgbbF6YK7cQ/s320/Cave562.jpg" width="320" /></a>The <b>ICA Boston</b> will provide a dramatic shift from their Amy Sillman show by turning their West Galleries over to unique installation and sound artist <i>Nick Cave, </i>an exhibition that's bound to dazzle.<br />
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A deep and stimulating glimpse into a painter's love of place will be featured in the <b>Addison Gallery of American Art's</b><i><b> </b>An American in London: Whistler and the Thames</i>. The examination of an artist's treatment of a paricular subject is also the theme of VO's most anticipated show of the spring, <b>PEM's</b> <i>Turner and the Sea </i>opening in May. This show features representations of the sea in the work of England's renowned 19th century painter J.M.W. Turner.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>See It All's</i> Most Anticipated Show of Early-2014</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">PEM/<i>Turner and the Sea</i> opening in May</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qgu00KxxIvQ/UpjHQBFOLVI/AAAAAAAAAKI/ujdwmGVt9G8/s1600/CF-02-061+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qgu00KxxIvQ/UpjHQBFOLVI/AAAAAAAAAKI/ujdwmGVt9G8/s200/CF-02-061+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a>Enthusiasts for all things nautical can sate their appetite further at the <b>MIT Museum's</b><i><b> </b>The Herreshoff Legacy</i> about America's most famous yacht designer (and MIT's own,) Nathaniel G. Herreshoff.<br />
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Another show that I am anticipating eagerly is <i>Knights! </i>at the <b>Worcester Art Museum</b><i style="font-weight: bold;">, </i>opening in March. This will be the lead-off public event in the integration of the beloved <b>Higgins Armory Collection</b> into <b>WAM's</b> galleries, collections and programs. I am fascinated to see how the absorption of the Higgins collection by <b>WAM</b> will play out. The loss of the Higgins Museum from the Boston-area community of museums is a sad event and I applaud <b>WAM's</b> dedication to making the processing of this collection fairly transparent. More information on this can be found <a href="http://www.worcesterart.org/Director/higgins-collection/">here.</a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">See It Before It Closes</span></u></b></div>
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Closing Dec. 31, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/12/alas-i-live-in-modern-times-farewell-to.html">Higgins Armory Museum</a></div>
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Closing Jan. 5, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/ica-bostonamy-sillman-one-lump-or-two.html">ICA Boston/Amy Sillman</a></div>
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Closing Jan. 20, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/mfajohn-singer-sargent-watercolors.html">MFA/John Singer Sargent Watercolors</a></div>
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Closing Jan. 20, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/isabella-stewart-gardner-museumthe.html">Gardner Museum/Inscrutable Eye</a></div>
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Closing Feb. 15, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/boston-athenaeumcollecting-for-boston.html">Boston Athenaeum/Collecting for a New Century: Painting and Sculpture</a></div>
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Closing Feb. 17, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/12/pemimpressionists-on-water.html">PEM/Impressionists on the Water</a></div>
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Closing March 23, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-concord-museumthe-best-workman-in.html">Concord Museum/The Best Workman in the Shop</a></div>
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Closing March 30, <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/campus-beat-mit-museumstanley-greenberg.html">MIT Museum/Stanley Greenberg: Time Machines</a></div>
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<b>Spring Preview Links:</b></div>
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<li>Jan 11, Currier Museum/Exploring the Currier Inside and Out: Andrew Witkin, Among Others <a href="http://www.portlandmuseum.org/Content/8141.shtml">http://www.portlandmuseum.org/Content/8141.shtml</a></li>
<li>Jan 16, New England Quilt Museum/Quilt Japan <a href="http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions.html">http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions.html</a></li>
<li>Jan 30, Portland Museum of Art/Fine Lines <a href="http://www.portlandmuseum.org/Content/8141.shtml">http://www.portlandmuseum.org/Content/8141.shtml</a></li>
<li>Feb 1, Addison Gallery of American Art/An American in London: Whistler and the Thames <a href="http://www.andover.edu/Museums/Addison/Exhibitions/WhistlerThames/Pages/default.aspx">http://www.andover.edu/Museums/Addison/Exhibitions/WhistlerThames/Pages/default.aspx</a></li>
<li>Feb 5, ICA Boston/ Nick Cave <a href="http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/nick-cave/">http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/nick-cave/</a></li>
<li>March, WAM/Knights! <a href="http://www.worcesterart.org/Director/higgins-collection/">http://www.worcesterart.org/Director/higgins-collection/</a></li>
<li>April 6, MFA/Quilts and Color <a href="http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/quilts-and-color">http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/quilts-and-color</a></li>
<li>April, Boston Athenaeum/Collecting for a New Century <a href="http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/node/153">http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/node/153</a></li>
<li>Spring, MIT Museum/The Herreshoff Legacy <a href="http://herreshoff-legacy.mit.edu/">http://herreshoff-legacy.mit.edu/</a></li>
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<b>Most looking forward to:</b></div>
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<li>May 31, PEM/Turner & the Sea <a href="http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/163-turner_the_sea">http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/163-turner_the_sea</a></li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-23695618606285943922013-12-05T09:06:00.000-05:002013-12-05T09:06:00.526-05:00Alas, I Live in Modern Times.... A Farewell to the Higgins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <i>Higgins Armory Museum</i> will be closing its doors forever <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://1" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">on December 31.</a> This quirky, unique institution has been a staple of the New England museum scene for over eight decades, long enough to have impacted generations of visitors. There is not another institution like it in the entire country nor is there likely to be another for the foreseeable future. It is a sad event and one to which other New England museums large and small should pay attention.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Woodman Higgins</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <i>Higgins </i>must close because it does not have the endowment to provide the financial stability the museum needs to operate. It must close because it is an institution from another time. The museum was the personal venture of John Woodman Higgins, a Worcester industrialist whose business, Worcester Pressed Steel, provided both the reason and the means for Higgins to begin amassing his collection of arms and armor in the early 20th century. Higgins had a life-long passion for medieval armor and wrote in a poem about his collection lamenting the fact couldn't have witnessed the armor in use personally, "<i>alas, I live in modern times.</i>" The collection grew and was housed in its own building and welcomed generations of visitors. It is a story of civic philanthropy based on industrial wealth that underlies many of our revered museums across the country, but especially in the Northeast. It was an American philanthropic model that worked for much of the 20th century, but whose relevance has eroded and whose sustainability faces significant challenges in the 21st.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Higgins's Glass and Steel Wonder under Construction</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This surface story does explain much of the demise of the <i>Higgins</i>, but there are deeper more interesting dimensions to its history. In 1931, Higgins built a state-of-the-art museum building utilising cutting-edge architectural techniques to house his beloved collections. How many museums around the world are turning to Renzo Piano and Frank Gehry to do the same today? At its inception, Higgins saw the arms and armor collection as a means of stimulating interest in steel fabrication and the collection was intermixed with modern examples of the latest in steel manufacture and design. </span>The <i>Higgins Armory Museum</i> wasn't about armor, it was about <i><b>steel</b></i>. <span style="font-family: inherit;">A tour of the museum was followed by a tour of the factory itself to see steel being worked and shaped using the latest methods. Juxtaposing the historic with the contemporary. Sounds pretty progressive, right? Believing that museums have a powerful role in inspiring interest and future involvement in science and engineering. Sounds like STEM, doesn't it? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But this forward-looking focus did not survive the economic tumult of the latter part of the 20th century. At some point the factory tours and the modern examples fell away and the focus of the museum reverted onto Higgins's fabulous collection of arms and armor. Worcester Pressed Steel went out of business in 1975 but the museum continued on, still nestled among industrial buildings to which it no longer had any relation. The survival of the institution was now in the hands of those generations of visitors who had been so bewitched by Higgins's visionary magic in previous decades. And, sadly, the love, the successful programming, the educational commitment, all wasn't enough.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EnR-w-9gbTI/UqB4-kMFA-I/AAAAAAAAAOg/4vLZl5ZDwqA/s1600/higgins-banner-image2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EnR-w-9gbTI/UqB4-kMFA-I/AAAAAAAAAOg/4vLZl5ZDwqA/s200/higgins-banner-image2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The good news is that John Higgins's beloved collection is staying in Worcester and plans are already well developed for its integration into the collections and interpretation of the Worcester Art Museum. Both institutions are trying hard to make this transition as transparent as possible and you can read more about this <a href="http://www.higgins.org/integration-worcester-art-museum">here.</a> What fate awaits the building itself is, as yet, unclear.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Museums are expensive and the days of depending on a single or small group of benefactors are largely over. At the same time, I believe that museums are <i>important </i>and worth the expense. What will be the new philanthropic model that sustains these institutions for the next eight decades? Museum directors across the country are struggling to find out. The passing of the old model does, I think, spell the end of a certain kind of American museum and as I walk through Higgins's soaring great hall, I can't help but muse, <i>alas I live in modern times...</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">-Vident Omnes</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Higgins Armory Museum, 100 Barber Avenue, Worcester, MA 01606, USA42.2981886 -71.79879829999998716.776154100000003 -113.10739229999999 67.8202231 -30.490204299999988tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-53026465891305494582013-12-05T00:20:00.000-05:002013-12-05T19:12:10.769-05:00Worcester Art Museum/ [remastered]<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website</b>: <a href="http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/remastered/">http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/remastered/</a></div>
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<b>Curator:</b> Matthias Waschek, <i>Executive Director, Worcester Art Museum</i></div>
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<b>The PR Buzz</b>: <i>“</i><i>Paintings
will be displayed in medallion-style hangings—reminiscent of the 17th-18th
century—that encourage the viewer to make personal connections with and between
the works. This project is one of many where the Museum is focused on reshaping
the visitor experience.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In-depth reviews of the installation can be found <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303618904579171940939838998">here</a> and <a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2013/08/worcester-gets-a-great-gift.html">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Recommended For: </b>a glorious immersive experience of Old Master splendor.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Experience:</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">Good <i>Lord</i> does the Worcester Art Museum have a good collection! I shouldn't be so surprised by this by now, but I am. Every time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I made the drive out to WAM in less than 45 minutes. (Worcester may seem like the far side of Pluto to the Hub mentality, but let's be honest, it takes longer than that to get across Cambridge usually!) </span></div>
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MwBwczUkdyA/Up-iKrQz5cI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/TQnTVyJoU8U/s640/blogger-image-1059697108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MwBwczUkdyA/Up-iKrQz5cI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/TQnTVyJoU8U/s320/blogger-image-1059697108.jpg" width="239" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was greeted outside the gallery entrance by a nicely-worded, but visually dull, label by new museum director Matthias Waschek, who was the driving force behind <i>[remastered]</i>. The label serves as an invitation to<i> "stay and enjoy longer."</i> The lackluster impression of the intro label vanished immediately as I entered the suite of three galleries that make up<i> [remastered]</i>. Sumptuous moss-green and terracotta gallery walls set off the rich tones, colors and luxurious highlights of the Old Master paintings. In short, the works look <u><i>fantastic</i></u> in the new galleries. As the museum literature promises, the paintings are hung in clusters that share themes, subjects, compositions and emotions. The flanking galleries feature more secular imagery, while the center gallery is dominated by religious, moral and allegorical works. The visitor is invited to make extended study of the paintings and spin their own webs of connection and meaning between them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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What there is: each gallery has its own gallery guide, there are rolling shelves with selections from the art research library on a variety of topics relating to the paintings, the artists and their times, two iPads set up to support two of the paintings in the central gallery that have a number of essays from a range of museum staff and community figures and the ability to enter your own commentary on the works, and an imaginative schedule of public programming in the galleries that enhance the experience of being around the art.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">What</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> there isn't: traditional on-the-wall labels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Does it work? Yes and no.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">WAM has clearly made the choice to make all of its supplementary material as unobtrusive as possible. The gallery guides are placed in holders that are low and out of the way, the iPads revert to dark click-to-begin screens, and the books are presented in plain brown wrappers. Unfortunately, based on my observation, this meant that visitors seeking more information either did not know this material was available or how to use it if they noticed it. One visitor I asked found the laminated gallery guides "cumbersome." The add-your-own-label feature on the interpretive iPads </span>had largely been used by visitors to debate whether the lack of traditional labels is a good idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">What <i>[remastered]</i> gets right is installing superb examples of Old Master painting and then <i><b>getting out of the way</b></i> and letting the works speak to visitors in their own voices. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">The paintings themselves are tremendous and the museum's new acquisition, Veronese's <i>Venus Disarming Cupid, </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">lives up to any amount of hype that could be thrown at it. These works were created to be studied, explored, and contemplated in a way that is too often undermined by traditional museum labels.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">I am not arguing in favor of restoring the supplementary information to its traditional prominence, but what does need to be much more assertive is the museum's desire for people to assign their own values, meanings and perspectives to the works. Old museum habits- like label reading- are hard to break and if WAM wants to change the rules in <i>[remastered], </i>this intention should not be communicated discreetly, but emphatically. Waschek's invitation to "stay and enjoy longer" needs to be louder and clearer. My hope is that WAM will continue to tinker with the interpretation of the installation and that <i>[remastered]</i> will function as an evolving laboratory for creative content delivery.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Personally, I found the label-free installation helped me make extended and close study of the paintings and their marvelous details bloomed under my eyes. The experience, like the paintings themselves, was rich and glorious. Here are some of my favorite discoveries, come to <i>[remastered]</i> and find them if you can!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA 01609, USA42.2731 -71.80200000000002116.7510655 -113.11059400000002 67.7951345 -30.493406000000022tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-32571198220276473412013-12-03T14:26:00.003-05:002013-12-04T07:02:01.889-05:00PEM/Impressionists on the Water<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C4kMrCwcS1w/Up4nC0eSqRI/AAAAAAAAAKw/eBa0moV2YOg/s1600/tumblr_m9cdsatHO51qbo39mo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="325" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C4kMrCwcS1w/Up4nC0eSqRI/AAAAAAAAAKw/eBa0moV2YOg/s400/tumblr_m9cdsatHO51qbo39mo1_500.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pierre-Auguste Renoir, <i>Oarsmen at Chatou</i>, 1879, National Gallery of Art</td></tr>
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website:</b> <a href="http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/159-impressionists_on_the_water">http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/159-impressionists_on_the_water</a><br />
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<b>Co-Curators:</b> Christopher Lloyd, <i>former Surveyor of Queen Elizabeth II's collection</i>, Phillip Dennis Cate, <i>former director of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University</i>, and Daniel Charles, author and historian. PEM coordinating curator, Daniel Finamore<br />
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<b>The PR Buzz:</b> <i>"Through nearly 60 oil paintings, works on paper, models and small craft, this exhibition illuminates the importance that access to the sea and France's extensive inland waterways played in the development of one of the world's most enduring artistic movements."</i><br />
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This exhibition was organized by the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco and opened there in June of this year to positive reviews, for example <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Impressionists-on-the-Water-review-4567327.php">here</a> and <a href="http://www.fineartconnoisseur.com/-Impressionists-On-the-Water---A-Review/16839361">here</a>.<br />
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The Globe review of the show in Salem can be found <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2013/11/30/review-impressionists-water-peabody-essex-museum/vXViJ4yo4u4KCKt45cudXP/story.html">here.</a><br />
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<b>Recommended For: </b>a compelling portion of a day-long visit to <b>PEM</b>, but don't have it be the only reason you went.<br />
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<b>The Experience:</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Impressionists on the Water</i> is a difficult show to write about. It is, in the end, an object lesson on the tremendous pressure that museums are under to capture media attention and generate "draw." This pressure causes some uncomfortable compromises to be made and this can, in many cases, undermine the effectiveness of an exhibition when it finally hits the galleries and opens its doors.<i> Impressionists on the Water</i> is such a show. It could have been, with largely the same checklist, a eloquent show about the evolution of water as a subject and inspiration in 19th century French fine and decorative arts. This would have encompassed a time of radical social, cultural and aesthetic change. It would, ultimately, have been a show that included, but was not about, Impressionist works. It would have been original. It would have been unique. But would you have bothered to go?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a sleepy weekday morning at PEM when I made my way up to the third floor special exhibition galleries. Although visitor traffic was light, a little admission desk eavesdropping confirmed that my fellow visitors had also come to see the <i>Impressionists</i>. I was greeted in the opening gallery with 2 paintings and a racing yacht model. The show's title was awkwardly placed to the left and the opening text was on the right. Although these objects make sense, given the lens of the show, there was nothing visually strong enough to really establish what you are about to see and why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The show then proceeds thematically, exploring in turn,<i> Masters of French Marine Art, Harbors and Coasts, Rivers, Gustave Caillebotte Artist and Yachtsman</i> and the <i>Open Ocean</i>. This thematic hang does provide visitors with clusters of artworks that share a subject. This is useful in a show like this one where there is a variety of media- paintings, prints, photographs and ephemera- that are shown together. However, t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">he sections are uneven in the number, size and quality of the works. It wasn't until I got to the third section on Rivers that I was greeted with the kind of visual punch that this show needed to start with. This gallery featured a vibrant, large Renoir (</span><i>Oarsmen at Chatou</i>)<span style="font-family: inherit;">, the sleek and elegant rowing boat </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Nana</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and (finally!) a large map of France that helped orient me to where all of these works had stemmed from.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gDqU0xHXqWM/Up4rHNKUTMI/AAAAAAAAALE/N8wpteG_0zA/s1600/640px-Gustave_Caillebotte_Boating_on_the_Yerres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gDqU0xHXqWM/Up4rHNKUTMI/AAAAAAAAALE/N8wpteG_0zA/s400/640px-Gustave_Caillebotte_Boating_on_the_Yerres.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gustave Caillebotte, Boating on the Yerres, 1877, Milwaukee Art Museum</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The section on Gustave Caillebotte gave the most coherent justification for the blending of models and painting in the show and could have, as Sebastian Smee rightly points out in his review, made for a compelling boutique exhibition on its own. It was my opinion, however, that Caillebotte, however avid a yachtsman he may have been, was nowhere near as good a painter of the waters as Boudin, Isabey and Renoir, all of whose works we had already seen by the time we meet Caillebotte.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The final section, <i>The Open Ocean</i>, was again weak visually, so the show has no real big finish. This section features seascapes by Courbet and Monet that unfortunately remind you how many other artists painted the sea and surf better than they did. Le Gray's photograph, <i>The Brig</i>, was a standout exception to this last gallery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ugh, I hate being so negative, but <i>Impressionists on the Water</i> is a show that should not have privileged the impressionists to the extent that it does (as much as I recognize the seductive lure of doing so.) The show does not demonstrate that water was an exceptional subject for impressionism, nor that impressionist representations of water were particularly influential. It was very telling that as I was in the gallery, I overheard a docent-led tour begin by declaring to the group <i>"This is not an Impressionist show." </i>She was right, so why was it billed as such?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RW2gS2bvA3Y/Up4qbUNPyYI/AAAAAAAAAK8/tLgb59RTqrA/s1600/HDR-Photo-by-Gustave-Le-Gray-870x700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RW2gS2bvA3Y/Up4qbUNPyYI/AAAAAAAAAK8/tLgb59RTqrA/s320/HDR-Photo-by-Gustave-Le-Gray-870x700.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gustav Le Gray, <i>The Brig</i>, 1856</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I can't wrap up this review without mentioning some of the truly exceptional works that <i>are </i>in the show. There is a glowing, if modestly-sized Vernet (<i>The Bathers</i>, 1789), two wonderful Isabeys, three very good Boudin views of French ports, a strong Pissarro paired wonderfully with a lively Matisse, a couple of outstanding Le Gray photographs, and a brilliant Raffaelli (<i>View of the Right Bank of the Seine, Paris</i>, 1880). All of these works are supported by a spectacularly diverse array of French print work from the period.</span><br />
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<b>While You're There: </b>see the impressively-expansive and revealing <i>Future Beauty: Avant-Garde Japanese Fashion</i> and the exquisite <i>Toshio Shibata: Constructed Landscapes.</i><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970, USA42.52193 -70.89188316.999895499999997 -112.200477 68.0439645 -29.583289000000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-28131726855100289332013-11-25T17:17:00.000-05:002013-11-27T14:08:29.826-05:00CAMPUS BEAT MIT Museum/5000 Moving Parts<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aOCtZBIQP-8/UpPJYq0KPDI/AAAAAAAAAI4/cZuIX0KH13k/s1600/Haliades.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="478" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aOCtZBIQP-8/UpPJYq0KPDI/AAAAAAAAAI4/cZuIX0KH13k/s640/Haliades.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Douglas Powers, <i>Haliades</i>, 2012</td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Guest Curator:</b> Laura Knott</span></span></div>
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<b>Recommended For: </b>the kind of quirky inspiration you can expect from the MIT Museum</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Experience:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Less than a week since the last time, I was again hustling through chilly Central Square on my way to the MIT Museum. They must be doing something right, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As you turn the corner into the entrance of <i>5000 Moving Parts</i>, your ears are met with the pervasive <i>squueeeeeeeeeee!</i> of the moving sculptures. Trust me, do <u><i><b>not</b></i></u> turn and walk away. Thanks to the fabulous label writing of curator Laura Knott, this sound will have a very different meaning for you by the end of the show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The introduction rightly locates the show on a continuum from Marcel Duchamp's 1913 <i>Bicycle Wheel</i> and its modes of meditating and commenting on the <i>"kinetic world of material life."</i> The selection of works in the show eloquently demonstrate these voices of critique.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is a good choice to begin the show with the very interactive<i> Please Empty Your Pockets</i> by Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmel. This deceptively-simple illuminated conveyor belt uses a magical/mechanical form of intrusion to bond together one of the hidden spaces we all carry around with us. As Knott puts it, Lozano-Hemmer <i>"misuses technologies of control"</i> to relate us to each other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A cluster of works by Anne Lilly, <i>To Caress </i>(which was heartbreakingly out of order), the mesmerizing<i> Eighteen Eighteen</i>, and <i>To Conjugate </i>anchor the center of the gallery. <i>To Conjugate</i>, with its antique fire engine fly wheels brings visitors expressively back to Duchamp's quote in the introductory text,<i> "to see that wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of other avenues than material life of every day..."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At one end of the gallery there is a collaboration, or perhaps symbiosis might be more appropriate, between pioneer Arthur Ganson's <i>Machine with Breath</i> and Christina Campanella's <i>BREATHE.</i> I found Campanella's soundscape of Ganson's work is worth spending some time with. Listening to the headphones as I watched <i>Machine with Breath</i>, the layers of mechanical rhythm expanded until they gave the impression of great physical volume and distance. It was an uncanny sensation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is Knott's label writing for John Douglas Powers's seductively sinuous <i>Haliades </i>and deeply hypnotic <i>Ialu </i>that transform the dissonance of the gallery into the purposeful groan and squeal of ocean-going ships and the skirl of seabirds. Sound impossible? Come experience it for yourself! I have to say that I have rarely experienced an exhibition in which the label text adds as much to the experience and appreciation of the objects across to board as in <i>5000 Moving Parts</i>. Knott's clear and eloquent voice finds details and connections that enhance the power of the objects themselves without crowding them or coming across as overly didactic. These wonderful mini-essays are helped greatly by the placement, size and design of the labels themselves. Well done, Laura and MIT Museum!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If I have one critique of <i>5000 Moving Parts</i> (other than the one sculpture that was out of order), it is that the show should have been mounted in the Epstein Innovation Gallery on the ground floor so that these works could have beckoned through the windows to the "kinetic world of material life" passing on Massachusetts Avenue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">-Vident Omnes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>While You're There:</b> See<i> Stanley Greenberg: Time Machines</i> reviewed by me <a href="http://videntomnes.blogspot.com/2013/11/campus-beat-mit-museumstanley-greenberg.html">here.</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA42.362078 -71.097619716.840043499999997 -112.4062137 67.8841125 -29.789025699999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-57690034922066241432013-11-21T12:05:00.001-05:002013-11-27T14:09:45.601-05:00The Concord Museum/The Best Workman in the Shop<b></b><br />
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website:</b> <a href="http://www.concordmuseum.org/best-workman-in-the-shop.php">http://www.concordmuseum.org/best-workman-in-the-shop.php</a><br />
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<b>Curator: </b>David F. Wood<br />
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<b>PR Buzz: </b><i>"The Best Workman in the Shop explores William Munroe's (1778-1861) life and career through the objects he made - including some of the most beautiful clocks crafted in Massachusetts, exquisitely crafted furniture and his detailed shop records."</i><br />
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<b>Recommended For:</b> a fall family outing to historic Concord<br />
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<b>The Experience:</b><br />
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I took the kids over to the Concord Museum today to see their relatively new show on the life and work of William Monroe. I thought it a valuable fieldtrip primarily because time-telling is one skill they are learning in school and the exhibition promised an opportunity to see some very different clocks than ones they were used to seeing.<br />
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The show opened with a gallery dedicated to Monroe's period of apprenticeship during which he learned his craft. We then passed through a long (an architecturally awkward) gallery about working Concord in Monroe's day and finished with a large gallery featuring some of Monroe's more ambitious creations. Overall, the installation was concise, tidy and attractively installed.<br />
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The kids enjoyed the hands-on interactive about inlay work and we were able to then go around and (carefully) point out examples of inlay on the historic pieces.<br />
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I do wish that more could have been made of the manuscript autobiography that Monroe penned that was the source material for most of the details of his career.<br />
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One enjoyable surprise was the tall case clock in the final gallery striking the hour as we worked on our inlay patterns.<br />
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-Vident Omnes</div>
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<b>While you're there: </b>see <i>From the Minute Man to the Lincoln Memorial: The Timeless Sculpture of Daniel Chester French</i>, also very popular with my children.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Concord Museum, 200 Lexington Road, Concord, MA 01742, USA42.4575466 -71.34217560000001942.4560821 -71.344697100000019 42.4590111 -71.339654100000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-18660799040532461202013-11-20T14:54:00.001-05:002013-11-27T14:11:08.423-05:00CAMPUS BEAT: Peabody Museum (Harvard)/Translating Encounters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Noteworthy; line-height: 24px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Plaque Depicting Chief Flanked by Two Warriors</i>, 1550-1650, (detail)</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); line-height: 24px;"><b>Link the the Exhibition Website: </b></span><a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/node/572">https://peabody.harvard.edu/node/572</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Co-Curators: </b></span><span style="line-height: 24px;">Stephanie N Krysiak, Emily P Pierce and Drs. Diana Lauren, <i>Peabody Museum Associate Curator</i>, and Christina Hodge<i>, Peabody Museum Senior Curatorial Assistant</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>PR Buzz: <i>"</i></b><span style="line-height: 24px;"><i>This exhibition broadly explores the material ways in which encounters were experienced, translated, and memorialized by peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas."</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Recommended For</b>: a trip to the Peabody is always recommended by Vident Omnes</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Experience:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On a sunny weekday, I threaded my way through the idiosyncratic warren that is the Peabody Museum of </span>Anthropology and <span style="font-family: inherit;">Ethnolog. The inspiring noise of an enthusiastically engaged school group echoed through the halls. I eventually found my quarry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Translating Encounters</i> is a terrific idea on a number of levels that falls down a bit on execution. The exhibition is the product of a collaboration between two Harvard classes working with the collections of the Peabody and various Harvard library and archival holdings. That, in itself, is a wonderful experiment that I hope is repeated in the future. The subject of the show is a fascinating topic that deserves room to be explored.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately, room is something this show is not given. Tucked into a corner of the 4th floor galleries, Translating Encounters is difficult to distinguish from the Pacific cultures material and dioramas of Native Americans that surround it. The exhibition takes a swing at some very big ideas it doesn't ultimately have the bandwidth to deliver. This shortcoming is compounded by the inclusion of some late 19th or early 20th century African objects, such as the magnificent Kuba royal masks, whose presence in the show is not fully explained.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I found myself wishing that the true early-17th century materials that were displayed had been featured, or brought to the fore, more effectively. Among these objects are a spectacular bronze Plaque from Benin depicting a chief flanked by warriors, a remarkable Spanish (or Spanish-American?) painted leather shield, and a ceramic Jaguar Warrior figurine. The period prints, drawings and engravings were all shown in reproduction- a disappointment as surely the Harvard collections have more than a few of these in the original. An image of an elaborate 17th century celestial globe from Harvard's own collections is shown. Why not have the real thing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In summary, the exhibition should have either been given more real estate to make its statement, or should have focused on the thoughtful juxtaposition of fewer, more original objects and artworks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">-Vident Omnes</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">While You're There</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">: see the wonderfully-intalled </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Wiyopiyata: Lakota Images of the Contested West</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> on the first floor just as you enter.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA42.3781608 -71.11496899999997416.856126300000003 -112.42356299999997 67.900195300000007 -29.806374999999974tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-41557228023352200382013-11-20T14:54:00.000-05:002013-11-27T14:11:46.389-05:00CAMPUS BEAT: MIT Museum/Stanley Greenberg Time Machines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website: </b><a href="http://web.mit.edu/museum/exhibitions/greenberg.html">http://web.mit.edu/museum/exhibitions/greenberg.html</a><br />
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<b>The PR Buzz:</b> <i>"New York-based photographer Stanley Greenberg has long entranced viewers with his stunning black-and-white photographs that provide unparalleled access to objects and places ordinary prople might otherwise never see- from New York's century-old water system to the hidden infrastructure of some of the world's most impressive architectural works. In this exhibition, Greenberg turns his lens on the unfailingly strange world of nuclear and particle physics."</i><br />
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<b>Recommended For: </b>a unique cross-over of art and science.</div>
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<b>Curator:</b> Gary Van Zante, <i>Curator, Architecture & Design</i>, in collaboration with Dr. Janet Conrad, MIT Professor of Physics<br />
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<b>The Experience:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 24px;">Brrrr, it's getting chilly in the Hub! I hustled along the breezy sidewalks of Central Square to the MIT Museum on Mass Ave and made my way up the stairs to the second floor galleries. The Kurtz Photography Galleries are tucked in the far back corner, so you have to make your way through a number of other exhibitions to get to the Greenberg show. This is hardly an imposition. I got to pass through </span><i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 24px;">5,000 Moving Parts</i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 24px;">, an exhibition of kinetic sculpture, while it was under installation. It opens Nov. 21st, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 24px;">and I can't wait to see it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Time Machines</i> is attractively installed in the Kurtz galleries. Greenberg's silver gelatin prints look just right on the walls and encompass the mind-boggling array of inscrutable geometries- from retro scifi to angularly futuristic- involved in the engineering of subatomic inquiry. The prints are devoid of human presence so the scale of what you are looking at is often ambiguous and requires careful study to figure out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The photographs are accompanied by fascinating, but<i> excruciatingly</i> small labels. Less dedicated label readers than I will miss some of the more compelling descriptions. For example; did you know that there was a neutrino observatory at the South Pole that is installed in a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice? Or that Argentinian cows once upset the observation of cosmic rays? Or that a subatomic detector at Stanford was made from steel recycled from a ship sunk at Pearl Harbor because the immersion of the metal meant that it was less radioactive than new steel produced today? Or the dizzying alphabet soup of acronyms including LIGO, TRIUMF, IceCube, CERN, ATLAS, KEK, DESY, OPERA, MINOS, LHC, KLOE, CMS, KamLAND, CEBAF, SLAC and SNO. And then if you're a really careful reader you'll also find ZEUS, which is actually a physics joke, and a reasonably funny one at that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You would also miss this compelling quote from Greenberg himself about film negatives used in the observation of the results of particle collisions,<i> "Just as most physics experiments have shifted to electronic and digital representation of particle collisions, the photographic world has largely abandoned film for digital media. The idea that the photons from particles actually touched the substrate reminds me that film has an unparalleled tactility that has never ceased to work visual- and scientific- miracles."</i></span><br />
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By now, you probably get the fact that I liked this show.<br />
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-Vident Omnes</div>
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P.S. If you ask nicely at the desk, you can get a free booklet entitled <i>Backstories: The Physics Experiments Behind Stanley Greenberg's "Time Machines"</i></div>
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<b>While You're There: </b>I bookended my visit with stops at Central Square's <i>Mariposa Bakery</i> and <i>Cafe Luna</i>, both highly recommended!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA42.362078 -71.097619716.840043499999997 -112.4062137 67.8841125 -29.789025699999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-40240324704726206202013-11-15T14:30:00.000-05:002013-11-27T14:12:31.728-05:00ICA Boston/Amy Sillman: one lump or two<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amy Sillman, <i>Unearth</i>, 2003, detail</td></tr>
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website:</b> <a href="http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/AmySillman/">http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/AmySillman/</a><br />
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<b>Curator:</b> Helen Molesworth, <i>Barbara Lee Chief Curator</i></div>
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<b>The PR Buzz:</b><i> "Through her dramatic shifts in style, sophisticated writings, and her role a the head of the painting program at Bard College's prestigious MFA program, she has proven that the basic building blocks of 20th-century painting are as relevant as ever."</i></div>
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You can read Sebastian Smee's laudatory and vocabulary-building review of the show<a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1395148494"></span> here:<span id="goog_1395148495"></span></a></div>
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<b>Recommended For:</b> an art-induced rejuvenation on a gloomy winter's day.<br />
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<b>The Experience:</b><br />
I got to the ICA as the doors opened and made my way up to the fourth floor galleries. Sillman was not a painter I was very familiar with, so I was not really sure what I would be walking into. In the opening gallery, however, I was greeted by the compassionate and very human community of the <i>Williamsburg Portraits </i>(1991-92), disarmingly affixed to the gallery wall with push pins. Also in this gallery hung the killingly- and cuttingly funny <i>Seating Chart</i> (2006). Here was an artist, then, with a powerful connection with the messy, personal and embarrassingly honest trials of the human condition.<br />
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This unabashed, intimate voice carried through the rest of the exhibition, through grand-scale canvasses and ephemeral sketch work alike. In an introductory video on the ICA's website, Sillman describes her "devotion to a procedure of transformation." The effort behind that devotion is evident in every clearly-defined brushstroke of her work. I came out of the show refreshingly validated for all my own foibles and neurotic idiosyncrasies- a rare accomplishment for an art exhibition.<br />
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A few works glowed in my mind after I left the show. Among them the regal <i>Regarding Saturna</i> (2003), the fearless series <i>Shape that Stands Up and Listens</i> (2012), the provocative juxtaposition of Sillman's "memory paintings" of romantic couples she was acquainted with and the abstract works those paintings engendered, and the pairing of the painting <i>#841</i> with the digital print <i>#841</i> that probes the very essence of painting.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Regarding Saturna</i>, (2003)</td></tr>
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The installation is what I'd call Contemporary Traditional- voluminous white boxes hung sparsely with work. The choice is appropriate for much of Sillman's bold and vibrant work. The labels are discrete and low- to the point that I found them something of a challenge to read. One wall-sized installation of 30 drawings was somewhat compromised by the reflections of the walls and lights on the glazing in the frames. I understood from one of the gallery attendants that the glazing was stipulated in the loan of the works from the Brooklyn Museum and it is, in my opinion, a real shame that the drawings could not be allowed to "breathe." The sequence of Sillman's works through the show is loosely chronological.<br />
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After exiting the show and contemplating for a moment, I turned around and went through the show again from back to front, starting with the raw and insistent <i>Draft of a Voice Over for Split Screen Video Loop</i> (2012), and finishing with the camaraderie of the <i>Williamsburg Portraits. </i>And do you know what? I found the sequence of works even more satisfying in that direction! If you go through a chronological show backwards, does it become a show about memory?<br />
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<b>While You’re There:</b> See the soul-scouring <i>LaToya Ruby Frazier: Witness</i>, curated by Dean Daderko, Curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and introduced by Anna Stothart, ICA Boston Curatorial Associate</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0The Institute Of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA 02210, USA42.352739 -71.04319269999996316.8307045 -112.35178669999996 67.8747735 -29.734598699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-30621917778150776422013-11-14T05:40:00.001-05:002013-11-27T14:13:41.089-05:00Boston Athenaeum/Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum in the 21st Century<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r98JNWWA2To/UoSmwJfMFFI/AAAAAAAAAGE/WLQ6z2RuYmA/s1600/elizabeth-oakie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r98JNWWA2To/UoSmwJfMFFI/AAAAAAAAAGE/WLQ6z2RuYmA/s320/elizabeth-oakie.jpg" width="203" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William McGregor Paxton, <i>Elizabeth Vaughan Okie</i>, ca. 1895</td></tr>
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website: </b><a href="http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/node/1856">http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/node/1856</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Curator:</b> David Dearinger, <i>Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture and Director of Exhibitions</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>PR Buzz:</b> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em style="text-align: left;">Collecting for a New Century: Paintings and Sculptures </em><span style="text-align: left;">is the first in a series of four exhibitions that will be held in the Athenæum’s Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery between 2013 and 2018. Respectively, these exhibitions will focus on paintings & sculpture; rare book; maps; and prints & photographs. Collectively, they will celebrate the Athenæum’s continuing commitment to scholarship, preservation, and the dissemination of knowledge as represented by its extensive collections of rare and unique materials.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b style="line-height: 24px;">Recommended For:</b><span style="line-height: 24px;"> a mid-morning escape on Beacon Hill</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Experience:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Collecting for a New Century</i> is a fascinating assemblage of objects acquired by the Athenaeum since 2000. Dearinger has arranged the show into a neo-classical sequence of portraiture, figural work, landscape, still life, cityscape and genre works. He has also penned a thorough guide and checklist which makes for good reading after having seen the exhibition. When I visited the cozy galleries on the first floor of the Perkins mansion, I was the only one viewing the show which allowed me to take my time and intimately take in a selection of works with surprising emotional range.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my own mind, a few of my favorite works rearranged themselves into a new set of categories. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There was the <b>Curiously Intriguing,</b> encompassing Enrico Meneghelli's <i>Studio Interior</i> (1879) and <i>Picture Galleries, the Museum of Fine Arts at Copley Square</i> (1877), David D. Neal's <i>Winter Fishing on the Charles River</i> (1857) and Russell Smith's <i>Study for the Drop Curtain of the Boston Theatre</i> (1864).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <b>Delicately Beautiful</b>, with William Trost Richard's <i>Breakers and Dunes</i> (ca. 1885) and Maurice Prendergast's <i>Telegraph Hill, Nahant</i> (1896-97).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <b>Surprisingly Emotional</b>, featuring John Sloan's defiant <i>Miss Boston</i> (1935), William McGregor Paxton's effusively romantic <i>Elizabeth Vaughan Okie</i> (ca. 1895) and Alexander Brooks's warmly affectionate <i>Going, Going, Gone (Peggy Bacon)</i> ( n.d.).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And then there was the <b>Downright Funny</b>, with Polly Thayer's <i>Shopping for Furs</i> (1943), George Deem's <i>George Washington and His Portrait</i> (1972) and Peter Lyons's <i>Kaleidoscope</i> (2011).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A small show to be sure, but one you will be happy you saw.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Boston Athenæum, 10 ½ Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108, USA42.3580058 -71.06210629999998216.702934300000003 -112.54648129999998 68.013077299999992 -29.577731299999982tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-71523333257831312412013-11-13T14:46:00.000-05:002013-11-27T14:18:12.686-05:00Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum/The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors byJohn Singer Sargent in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website: </b><a href="http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/exhibitions/current_exhibitions/inscrutable_eye">http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/exhibitions/current_exhibitions/inscrutable_eye</a><br />
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<b>Co-Curators:</b> Oliver Tostmann, <i>William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection</i>, and Associate Curator Anne-Marie Eze</div>
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<b>The PR Buzz:</b> <i>"This exhibition offers a look at the vibrant watercolors Sargent made for his own pleasure that were avidly collected by Gardner towards the end of her life. With their brilliant technique and fresh colors, these pictures reveal the stupendous quality of Sargent's draftsmanship"</i></div>
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<b>Recommended For:</b> More Sargent goodness, just steps away from the show at the MFA</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Experience:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I found <i>The Inscrutable Eye</i> something of a tease. It had a number of intriguing elements that did not hang together as a coherent experience for me. Instead of reciting my frustrations, let me tell you how I wish I had seen the show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The first thing I should have done is get the exhibition brochure, available inside the gallery, and retreated back out to the Spanish Cloister. I then would have read the concise and eloquent essay, <i>A Singular Friendship</i>, by Associate Curator of the Collection, Anne-Marie Eze, while relishing in the moody passion of Sargent's<i> El Jaleo</i>. Once I'd finished the essay, I would return to the Fenway Gallery to take in the selection of watercolors on display. I would have started with the Italian views on the left and then worked my way around to finish with the case of letters and ephemera.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For me, there were two standout works in the show. I was stunned by the delicately glowing <i>A Tent in the Rockies</i>. Sargent's ability to capture the play of bright sunlight on the exterior and interior of the canvas tent is truly masterful. Finally, there is the tender and heartbreaking <i>Mrs. Gardner in White</i>, a picture made all the more poignant if one has read Ms. Eze's essay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After taking in this show, and the MFA show, the Sargents hung in the adjacent rooms of the palace leapt off the walls for me without needing to resort to the room guides.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As I left the museum back into the chilly Fenway, I found myself wondering, "Why was it called <i>The Inscrutable Eye?</i>"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">-Vident Omnes</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mrs. Gardner in White</i>, 1922</td></tr>
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<b>While You’re There:</b> See <i>Sophie Calle: Last Seen</i>, the art of the unhealed wound.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 Fenway, Boston, MA 02115, USA42.3383188 -71.098762942.335368800000005 -71.1038269 42.3412688 -71.093698899999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-77007803900063851222013-11-12T13:55:00.001-05:002013-11-27T14:18:52.527-05:00MFA/John Singer Sargent Watercolors<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bridge of Sighs</i>, 1903-04, courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum</td></tr>
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<b>Link to the Exhibition Website: </b><a href="http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/john-singer-sargent-watercolors" style="font-family: inherit;">http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/john-singer-sargent-watercolors</a><br />
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<b>Co-Curators:</b> Teresa Carbone, <i>Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art</i> from the Brooklyn Museum and Erica Hirshler, <i>Croll Senior Curator of American Painting</i> from the MFA</div>
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<b>The PR Buzz:</b> <i>"A triumphant show combines the two best collections of John Singer Sargent's dazzling watercolors."</i></div>
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<i>John Singer Sargent Watercolors</i>, a collaboration between the MFA and the Brooklyn Museum, opened in Brooklyn in April of this year and was on view there until July. It was greeted with rapturous reviews by the NY media such as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/arts/design/john-singer-sargent-watercolors-at-brooklyn-museum.html">New York Times</a>, the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/07/sargents-watercolors.html#slide_ss_0=1">New Yorker</a> and the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324767004578489454252054508">Wall Street Journal</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Recommended For: </b>an adult excursion to take advantage of a rare opportunity to see an assemblage of exceptional works by a true master of the medium and giant of American art.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Experience: </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On a chilly November morning, I hurried to the MFA to try and get in before the crowds built up. Watercolors are most rewarding when viewed intimately and a crowded gallery can really impact the gallery experience. Did it work? Not as well as I might have hoped. A crowd of others waited at the Huntington St entrance for the doors to open and most of them, it seemed, had the same destination as I.</span></div>
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As I descended the steps from the Shapiro Courtyard, I was greeted with a really stunning video wall installation of blending detail views of works in the show. The effect was vibrant and welcoming and brought more than a few people to a stop to enjoy the display.<br />
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Turning the corner through the glass doors brought me into a moody blue room hung with exquisite Venetian views. I had arrived.<br />
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The works themselves, it's fair to say, should get top billing in any review: they are exceptional. Sargent's hand is free, immediate, effortless, liquid, his composition stunning. The works are, at their best, works of genius. The opportunity to see this number of fragile Sargent watercolors together is extremely rare and this show gives what is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really appreciate this period of Sargent's life as an artist.<br />
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The works are hung grouped by subject matter, an organization that allows the visitor to easily relate adjacent works to each other. I was surprised sometimes, when I checked the dates of the works, to see the wide span of years over which Sargent would paint works of similar subject matter or composition. The themes are presented in the following order as one moves through the show- <i>In Venice, Arab Encounter, Lying Down, Mountain Heights, Portraits at Hand, Watercraft, At Work, Villa Gardens, the Knoedler Exhibitions </i>and finishing with <i>Sunlight on Stone. </i>Each gallery contained a rich and rewarding selection of paintings.<br />
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In short, I loved the works. I did not love the installation. Other than the video wall outside the galleries, there was no big opening visual statement heralding the show. Even as one entered <i>In Venice</i>, the title label for the show was crammed awkwardly in a corner to your left. Too often, the sectional theme signage ended up behind your shoulder as you entered a gallery. The <i>Knoedler Exhibitions </i>section, with its fascinating insight into Sargent's relationship to the art world of his day and the genesis of the remarkable Brooklyn Museum and MFA holdings of his watercolor work, was shunted off in a dead-end appendix gallery. The visually-rich and captivating video demonstrating Sargent's technique in action was far too easily passed by. The loudest visual statement in the closing gallery <i>Sunlight on Stone</i> was the glass door into the lobster trap-like boutique shop dedicated to the exhibition.<br />
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My quibbles over the installation aside, <i>John Singer Sargent Watercolors</i> is a not-to-be-missed treasure for American art and painting lovers alike.</div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">While You’re There: </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">See Michelle Finamore's </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Think Pink</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, a delightful boutique show with a great installation! See the website </span><a href="http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/think-pink" style="font-family: inherit;">here</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<b>Some of My Favorites:</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W0zRTX0OQdA/UoJ2FpgzXRI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/Gpga8LuStfU/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W0zRTX0OQdA/UoJ2FpgzXRI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/Gpga8LuStfU/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early, but not early enough!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9qSWRpBCNEo/UoJ2KRwreCI/AAAAAAAAAEY/Pe7I6VvC8H8/s1600/photo+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9qSWRpBCNEo/UoJ2KRwreCI/AAAAAAAAAEY/Pe7I6VvC8H8/s320/photo+(3).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bedouin Women</i>, 1905-06</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8LEX53TKr1w/UoJ2K8LhJgI/AAAAAAAAAEk/QYY1zMlKQzk/s1600/photo+(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8LEX53TKr1w/UoJ2K8LhJgI/AAAAAAAAAEk/QYY1zMlKQzk/s320/photo+(4).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Poperinghe: Two Soldiers</i>, 1918</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WKhnERgq38M/UoJ2LJhxPRI/AAAAAAAAAEw/lpKrs4m_xgE/s1600/photo+(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WKhnERgq38M/UoJ2LJhxPRI/AAAAAAAAAEw/lpKrs4m_xgE/s320/photo+(5).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Simplon Pass: The Green Parasol</i>, about 1911</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a_SON8SQZl4/UoJ2LdtTWpI/AAAAAAAAAE4/DFFMGS5mJkU/s1600/photo+(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a_SON8SQZl4/UoJ2LdtTWpI/AAAAAAAAAE4/DFFMGS5mJkU/s320/photo+(6).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Spanish Soldiers</i>, about 1903</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7JzSrz9qoEI/UoJ2LUWqUcI/AAAAAAAAAFI/lAax-U6HQm4/s1600/photo+(7).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7JzSrz9qoEI/UoJ2LUWqUcI/AAAAAAAAAFI/lAax-U6HQm4/s320/photo+(7).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Unloading Plaster,</i> about 1908</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ex_FQrkWZf0/UoJ2Lwyu6YI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/SBRIks-TX18/s1600/photo+(9).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ex_FQrkWZf0/UoJ2Lwyu6YI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/SBRIks-TX18/s320/photo+(9).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>La Biancheria</i>, 1910</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com1Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA42.3393838 -71.09396479999998142.3364338 -71.099028799999985 42.3423338 -71.088900799999976tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-61275153699946450322013-11-11T21:55:00.003-05:002013-11-27T14:22:17.419-05:00deCordova/Red, Yellow and Blue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: center;">Installation by Orly Genger</span></div>
<b>Link to the Installation Website: </b><a href="http://www.decordova.org/art/exhibition/red-yellow-and-blue">http://www.decordova.org/art/exhibition/red-yellow-and-blue</a><br />
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<b>The PR Buzz:</b> <i>"The miles of crocheted and layered rope articulate the topography of the sculpture park, reference the familiar low-lying stone walls that line the New England countryside, and offer fresh opportunities to engage with the landscape."</i><br />
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This installation was originally commissioned by New York City's
Madison Square Park Conservancy and was on view there, in a very different
configuration, during the summer of 2013. An in-depth review of this work, and
Orly Genger's career, can be found <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/arts/design/orly-genger-in-madison-square-park.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1384207740-mxGwJy1QaQkx1W47e/YASw">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Recommended For: </b><i>Red, Yellow and Blue</i> is a weighty, delightful, adventurous work that is well worth the journey to Lincoln.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dbiZLxh76RA/UoGV14ANlrI/AAAAAAAAAEA/j_4wJe46hcs/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dbiZLxh76RA/UoGV14ANlrI/AAAAAAAAAEA/j_4wJe46hcs/s320/photo.JPG" width="239" /></a><b>The Experience: </b><br />
I went to see the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Red, Yellow and Blue</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>installation by Orly Genger at the
deCordova in Lincoln. It was a crisp November afternoon with bright
watery sunlight. The drive to Lincoln was lovely as always and turning
into the park, I could see the red of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Red,
Yellow and Blue</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>running up
the hillside behind the stylish entry kiosk. We parked and headed back through
the grounds to the site of the installation. I say we, because I brought
my children along with me, something I encourage anyone with children to do. It
strikes me that Genger’s work has an implicit child-like impulse to it and
experiencing the adventure of <i>Red, Yellow
and Blue</i> vicariously through my children added greatly to the experience.
“Follow it!” called one of my children, and follow it we did up from the lower
grounds, over the rocky outcropping at the top of the ridge and down the other
side to where the blue end tailed off near the forest. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The installation did not “<i>reference the familiar low-lying
stone walls that line the New England countryside</i>” for me, but there was a wonderful gnarled tactility of the massed of
rope that did feel very true to the New England aesthetic. The vivid colors of the installation referenced
by the title, harmonized interestingly with the colors of the Massachusetts
foliage- an echo made particularly poignant in the fading natural colors of
late autumn. This drives me to mention that <i>Red, Yellow and Blue</i> will be
on view at the deCordova for a year and I am eager to make return visits in
other seasons. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBxUTyiwYbk/UoFPVdogl7I/AAAAAAAAADg/chbbgv0R6-w/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBxUTyiwYbk/UoFPVdogl7I/AAAAAAAAADg/chbbgv0R6-w/s320/photo.JPG" width="239" /></a>Genger’s choice of rope as a medium
gave the added appeal that the installation rewards experience from close up as
well as from far away. From a distance,
the work flowed softly and organically across the grounds. However, when I
stood close, the stiff and fibrous texture of the rope gave a spiky
counterpoint to the smooth curves of the overall work. Moreover, as I got
close, the sheer weight of the deliberately piled walls made its presence felt-
particularly in the red section where the barrier rose high over my head.<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Vident Omnes<br />
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<b>While You're There: </b>While there, take in the <i>2013 deCordova Biennial</i>. However, be warned that this is far less child friendly. My hopes of viewing this in the same trip were dashed as one of my children started to de-install Laura Bracialle’s whimsical <i>Rods and Cones</i>. Deciding to quit while ahead, I gathered us up and headed back to the car after a very satisfying visit.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA 01773, USA42.4308457 -71.31080609999997942.4249857 -71.320891099999983 42.4367057 -71.300721099999976tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-1892304984583417542013-11-11T21:00:00.000-05:002013-11-27T14:23:11.528-05:00First BlushHow to begin, then? This November, I hope to get to the Sargent show at the MFA, the <i>other</i> Sargent show at the Isabella Stewart Gardner, the Amy Sillman show at the ICA, the Impressionists on the Water show at PEM, in Salem, the Collecting for the 21st Century show at the Boston Athenaeum, the <i>[remastered]</i> gallery installation at the Worcester Art Museum and Orly Genger's <i>Red, Yellow and Blue</i> installation at the deCordova in Lincoln. That should prove if I can chew what I've bitten off.<br />
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Once I've gotten these shows under my belt, I will go hunting among the various campus-based museums in the area, as well as some of the less-prominent (but no less wonderful) museums scattered around greater Boston.<br />
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-Vident OmnesAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8342710688363334238.post-78432767517529906482013-11-11T09:19:00.000-05:002013-12-03T21:33:01.983-05:00The Goals of See It All<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I love exhibitions. As a life-long museum junkie (and 20-odd year museum professional), I've seen hundreds- probably thousands of exhibitions at museums all over the world, and I've been on the creative side of a fair few as well. A constant fascination for me has been the experience of an exhibit. Aside from the real or claimed merits of the objects and content on view, what is the show like to the visitor walking through it. Is it clear? Are the objects presented effectively? Does the supporting content enhance or distract from the overall experience? And lastly, who is the exhibition for?<br />
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And then there's the Boston-area. I love that too. A wonderful, intellectually-vibrant community with an impressive (but manageable) portfolio of large and small museums that present a kaleidoscope of exhibitions year in and year out. A fantastic environment for the avid museum-goer.</div>
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One resource I've always longed for was a centralized overview of what was going on in museum galleries around the area. Sure, there are various newspaper and online listings- typically in excruciatingly small print- that might carry a one- or two sentence plug for the show. But how about a survey of highlights that gave a slightly more in-depth description of what one could expect to see? It is into this breach that I hope to step.</div>
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-Vident Omnes</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13176303981006094461noreply@blogger.com0