Thursday, July 31, 2014

Sfumato (Epic)





I should probably call this Mass MoCA week.  I will be posting images from my visit there last Friday, while staying in Vermont.  Every year I go there, and every year I am blown away by at least one of the exhibits.  There were several this year, and I will begin with this artist - Teresita Fernandez.  When you enter the downstairs galleries, this is the first thing you see.  It looks like a swarm of insects, perhaps.  What is astounding is that you are looking at little pieces of graphite, fastened to the wall, but first the wall behind each piece was smeared with a long smudge of graphite.  It was an amazing thing to encounter in several rooms, and I spent a lot of time wandereding around looking at the work from different angles.  I finally decided that I needed several photographs, at least,  In order to give a better idea of what this piece looked like.

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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 1, 2014 at 9:19 AM

    Incredible! Unbelievable! Glad you posted four photos. Betsey and I need to go on a road trip.
    Joan

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  2. AnonymousAugust 1, 2014 at 10:41 AM

    I don't pretend to know what this art represents, but when I see something like this (and Mass MoCA displays some really cool things of this scale) I tell myself, "I can do that."
    That may sound arrogant because if I could, why haven't I? Or have I? Seeing exciting new art may have inspired me to change the color of my living room, or to wear a color combination that draws the eye rather than helping me blend into a wall. And so it changed me, maybe in ways no one could detect.
    And maybe that's part of the beauty of something like this exhibit that is awesome, yet seems so simple to achieve. Bravo to the artist whose work can stimulate folks into thinking that they, too, might do something creative and encourages them to take a step into a world they'd never thought to enter before.
    That may be an even better gift than the artwork itself.

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  3. AnonymousAugust 2, 2014 at 9:48 AM

    Road trip? Absolutely!! Exhibit looks very cool! Can't wait to see this in person...bsk

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  4. Ken SpencerAugust 2, 2014 at 9:33 PM

    Anonymous: Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments. I appreciate you taking the time to think and write about our personal reactions to art. I have no idea how artists can be so creative, or why we are so moved by their work. I never know what to expect from my yearly visits to Mass MoCA, and to other museums, but I always leave changed in some way. And I feel that I have been taken out of myself during the time I have spent in these places.

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