By James Foritano Waterville, Maine - Fresh, honest, engaging — even ‘crafty’ — have been some of the adjectives lavished on the Bernard Langlais solo exhibit now at the Colby College Museum of Art. And yes, they’re all true, in all senses; yet, I didn’t drive the three hours plus up to Waterville, Maine just to repeat them. So, here are, I hope, some new or half-new insights, or maybe just self-addressed explanations, glimpsed from standing on the shoulders or peering between the legs of those previous insights. Langlais went out of his way to come back to his family farm from near apotheosis in the bubbling ferment of the 1960’s N.Y.C. art scene. Was he afraid of the loneliness of pre-eminence, too sensitive to the heat and venom of competition — just a backwoods boy, in other words, yearning for the barnyard A.S.A.P.? Maybe, but my take is that, like Br’er Fox in the … [Read more...] about Bernard Langlais at the Colby College Museum of Art & the Bernard Langlais Art Trail
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What About War at Resnikoff Gallery Roxbury Community College
By James Foritano Roxbury, MA - “Ars longa, vita brevis” keeps bobbing into my consciousness ever since some Latin sage (go Google him) launched that pithy phrase so many vanished empires ago. It certainly described my recent experience at the Joan Resnikoff Gallery at Roxbury Community College. I had been assigned by Artscope to track down the sculpture of Ruth Rosner, soon to appear at Copley Place Center Court in an exhibition titled “(Un) Covering Violence Transformed,” but available for viewing right now at the Resnikoff Gallery in its current “What About War” exhibit. So, intrepid reporter that I am, I hopped on the Orange Line to arrive at Roxbury Crossing and step gingerly across Columbus Avenue to arrive at my goal. Ms. Rosner’s sculptures were indeed on view and did indeed brim with the virtues I expected to experience after a brief, intense online preview. Filling … [Read more...] about What About War at Resnikoff Gallery Roxbury Community College