Word: artes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...alternative-spaces movement of the 1970s, which was a great push on the part of artists to create their own institutions to exhibit their own work just the way they want, without having to deal with stuffy curators or pushy gallery directors looking for the next big-bang art star. Some of the spaces now in Boston, like Bromfield and Mobius, started in the '70s; others have started up more recently, but with much the same spirit. While a few spaces, like Kingston and Mills, resemble commercial galleries, most are more like ramshackle clubhouses for artists. Many are inside artist...
...between visiting an alternative space instead of a museum or commercial gallery is the kitchen-table cozy atmosphere. The artists running these places must be among the most affable people in the city of Boston. The person looking after the gallery is often the same person who made the art on display, and very often is eager to talk about his or her work...
...moment, a lot of alternative spaces are feeling shakier than usual about their futures due to impending development in the Fort Point area, currently home to Mobius, FPAC (Fort Point Art Community Gallery and Studios) and the Revolving Museum as well as nearly 500 artists. This part of Boston used to be a decaying area filled with block upon block of abandoned warehouses. Artists, attracted by the cheap rents and wide-open industrial spaces, began moving in in the early 1970s. However, artists are the unwilling shock troops of gentrification, followed into once-gritty neighborhoods by young professionals who drive...
Both Artschwager and Bleckner are contemporary artists who have received a great degree of renown and acclaim. In recent years, the Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of Artschwagers work and the Guggenheim did the same for Bleckner. This exhibition at Harvard features a small selection of the recent work of each artist. Artschwagers six sculptures, all untitled, were constructed in 1995-1996. Bleckners works in oil on linen, also all untitled, were painted this year. Neither artist provides clues for the viewer as to how to interpret their enigmatic work...
...Artschwagers sculptures look equally foreign; his wooden structures, built to resemble either furniture or boxes, would be highly unnatural in any environment. This commentary on interior and exterior (a la Rachel Whiteread), packaging and contents, and meaning in art, would be trite and dull if not for the sheer beauty and subtlety of the forms. There is a radiance and sheen to the light wood which fills these works with an uncanny ebullience and optimism. By carving out space where conventional forms would otherwise protrude, at the top of the bed, for instance, Artschwager complicates his works further. He negates...