“But is it interesting?” — Gertrude Stein “Marny” Solomon never ceased to find Peter Lipsitt’s sculptures, of whatever mode or material, interesting. Frequenting his solo exhibitions at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, she would croon, “Oh, Peter, I lo-o-o-ve it!” and once again demand a piece for her living room or buffet. She and her husband Arthur K. Solomon, the distinguished head of Biophysics at Harvard Medical School, continued to purchase Lipsitt’s sculptures for two decades, even after cutting back on their pursuit of late 20th century American abstraction that, by 1985, they’d promised, along with the rest of their superb collection, to the Fogg Museum at Harvard University. How did this admired collection of two highly regarded Cambridge art connoisseurs come into the Harvard Art Museums’ teaching galleries to join Harvard’s world-renowned holdings? Mariot F. and Arthur K. … [Read more...] about FOR LOVE OF SCULPTURE
Issue Articles
IMMENSELY DETAILED, LABOR INTENSIVE
Imagine how challenging and rewarding it must have been for the Worcester Art Museum’s (WAM) Assistant Curator of European Art, Delaney Keenan, to explore the museum’s acquisition records to search for data on “textiles, tapestries or weavings” — and then to locate these tapestries in storage or vaults — many that had not been seen for decades. The result of Keenan and staff’s year’s long exploration and conservation is “From the Vault: Collecting Tapestries at the Worcester Art Museum,” a magnificent display of the museum’s finest tapestries. Another outcome of their efforts is an elegant and informative catalogue, “From the Vault,” written and edited by Keenan and Claire C. Whitner. The photography by Steve Briggs, who used a forklift to rise high above the tapestries laid out on the floor, is exquisite. Tapestry conservation was completed by Camille Myers Breeze, owner of Museum … [Read more...] about IMMENSELY DETAILED, LABOR INTENSIVE
UNLOCKED MEMORIES AT AMA
Whimsical and playful, surreal and profound, “Fragments of Memory” at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown firmly places Armenian American artist Varujan Boghosian in the company of influential assemblage artists like Joseph Cornell, Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. Art lovers who appreciate oddities, hidden stories in nooks and crannies, and finding something new every time they take a second look, will delight in digging deep into the incredible portfolio of Boghosian. Raised in Connecticut by working class parents, young Boghosian was inspired by his teacher, and poet, Constance Carrier, who led him to a love of stories. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he attended art school in Boston, Italy and under the tutelage of Josef Albers at Yale. Throughout his career, his works have been exhibited in museums across the country … [Read more...] about UNLOCKED MEMORIES AT AMA
WAKE-UP CALLS IN OUR TIME
In a period in which America’s political, social and environmental certainties are being steadily eroded and dismantled, cutting edge art is needed more than ever to lead us to explore our feelings and hone our critical skills. Three solo exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) by painter Nicole Wittenberg, sculptor Elizabeth Atterbury and installation artist Carlie Trosclair demand that the art audience steadfastly question appearances and explore our inner experience. Only with our brains fully engaged can we creatively overcome or adapt to the alarming dislocations and disruptions confronting us both at home and afar. In the lofty daylit hall abutting the entrance to the CMCA, Wittenberg’s supersized, semi-abstract oil paintings, intensely pigmented and charged with flaming orange, leap out at the viewer. Invited by CMCA curator emeritus and former director … [Read more...] about WAKE-UP CALLS IN OUR TIME
AND ANOTHER THING …
When the British illustrator Ralph Steadman came to prominence in the early 1970s, the underground press was flourishing. The wild west of ad hoc leaflets and magazines — filled with outrageous cartoons, stoned musings by hippies, yippies and zippies, and the seeds of the burgeoning self-help movement — connected the counterculture in a way comparable only to the later internet forums of the 1990s and 2000s, before the omnipresence of social media leveled both. These periodical’s illicitness and mind-expanding promises created a sprawling network that kept the in-the-know informed and the soon-to-know on a path to vulgar psychedelic enlightenment. It also made the names of the people who created and contributed to them, from Lester Bangs to the dubious Tom Forçade. While his stay in the underground pages was only a pitstop, Steadman was one of them; and even now, with awards, acclaim … [Read more...] about AND ANOTHER THING …
TIMELESS GRACE IN BLOOM
The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts has been transformed into a space where botanical beauty meets historical majesty. “Chinese Empresses,” the culminating exhibition of Xiang Li's extraordinary 12-year artistic journey, brings together over 200 hand-painted portraits of Chinese imperial women, each a testament to grace, power and cultural memory. This exhibition, on view through August 24, marks the first time the collection is shown after years of partial showings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard Museums, Worcester Art Museum and beyond. Surrounded by blooming gardens, visitors are invited into a world where history and art unfold across silk with gemstone watercolors. Xiang Li's career is as storied as the women she paints. For 37 years, she was a Master Artist at the Forbidden City in Beijing, where she restored and preserved some of … [Read more...] about TIMELESS GRACE IN BLOOM