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David Ford, Perception, 2009, dimensions variable. By BLAIR SCHULMAN |
By STEVE SHAPIRO Erich Consemüller, Untitled (Woman in B3 club chair by Marcel Breuer wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and a dress in fabric designed by Lis Beyer). c. 1926, Gelatin silver print, 5 x 6-3/4", Private collection. © Estate of Erich Consemüller. |
Although the art of the late 19th Century is most often associated with impressionism — a celebration of the open air and the café-concert, evoking the pleasures of the landscape and the radiance of Paris, city of light — there is another side to the story. That is, an art of sober contemplation, of recherché, often poetic and melancholy subject matter that explores an altogether different dimension of human experience. Due to the fact that they tended to be stored away and viewed discreetly on chosen occasions, prints in particular encouraged the investigation of suggestive, sometimes disturbing themes, including complex states of mind and expressions of deep social tension: opium dreams, the obsessions of a lover, the abject despair of an impending suicide, meditations on violence, the fear of death. The print medium drew the attention of many artistic camps that saw it as an ideal medium for experimentation. Félix-Hilaire Buhot, The Spirits of Dead Cities, 1885, etching. |
Kiki Smith, Messenger I, 2008, Cast aluminum, white gold and gold leaf, 10-½ x 39 x 55", Courtesy of the artist and PaceWildenstein. Kiki Smith: Sojourn, a major site-specific installation, explores ideas of creative inspiration and the cycle of life in relation to women artists. The exhibition draws from a variety of work by Kiki Smith in a range of media, including cast objects, unique sculpture, and works on paper. Inspired, in part, by an important 18th-century New England needlework, Prudence Punderson’s The First, Second and Last Scenes of Mortality (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford), Smith focuses on a variety of universal experiences, from the milestones of birth and death to the quotidian, such as the daily chores of domestic life. |