REINTRODUCING MARY ANN UNGER

Upon entering the expansive, light-filled space on the second floor of the Williams College Museum of Art, one can’t help but notice the elegance of the placement of the two- and three-dimensional works by Mary Ann Unger. Each area of the gallery is immensely focused, and the exhibition reads as a chronological map of the artist’s experience. There are a significant number of drawings that not only support the sculpture, but clearly depict the artist’s process. The exhibition makes a point of acknowledging the transformation from 2D surface into the sculptural, and all the stops in between.

Co-curated by Allison Kaufman, the director of the Mary Ann Unger estate and curator Horace Ballard, this is the first solo exhibition in more than 20 years for the artist. The curatorial team was joined by Unger’s daughter, Eve Biddle, among other contributors, whose work is presented alongside the work of her mother. The aesthetic legacy is not lost on Biddle and mirrors the union of precision and organic freedom of Unger’s sculptures. A powerful wind brought ritualism to be recognized in earthly materialization.

Along the periphery of the exhibition space are several watercolor and graphite drawings that begin the artist’s foray into the consequent three dimensions of space. There is an element of Sol Lewitt in the language of balance of the geometrical and organic; in these works, the shapes rise out of the confluence of geometric meeting points. It is within egg-like shapes, curves and pipes, resting on the grid, that one becomes aware that the complexity of form itself is born of linear values dissecting and reproducing. These drawings are formally drawn yet experiential, and nothing is arbitrary.

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