Glass
activism
Private Visions, Utopian Ideals: The Art
of Howard Ben Tré is an
ambitious exhibition including sculptures, works on paper, and a selection of
drawings, models, and photographs of Ben Tré’s public art projects. And
although the exhibition space is relatively small, the work, for the most part,
is not.
Patrons of the
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library should be familiar with his Ring of Knowledge: Ground, Water, Fire,
Wind, Void; visitors to the Albright-Knox might recognize a pair of
cast-glass benches, Chazen Bench I and II. (Although currently
unavailable for viewing due to the renovation of the library, the Ring of Knowledge installation will
re-emerge in October as part of a planned display to attract “new and diverse
audiences as well as high caliber lecturers.” For more information, see
www.buffalolib.org/events/centralconstruction)
Thirteen years
ago, I was initially seduced by Ben Tré’s early cast forms — such as the Dedicants, Primary Vessels, and Basins — for their elegant evocations of Egypto-Greek architecture as well as for being
quietly contemplative totems that seem to celebrate life and its energies. They
were then, and many still are, large, watery green forms. Given the extremely
high heat of the molten glass, it can take months for one of these sculptures
to cool. And when it does, it’s not uncommon for there to be a little crack
here, a fissure there: what Ben Tré calls “controlled accidents.” He accepts
them with all the aplomb of a non-Western philosopher.
Indeed, with
influences far and wide combined with a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright and his famous Arts and Crafts predecessor
William Morris, Ben Tré’s public and private sculptures reflect a Wrightian
respect for the nature of materials. That said, what’s new or noteworthy about
this current exhibit is the opportunity it provides to grasp and thus more
fully appreciate the depth and breadth of Ben Tré’s commitment to urban
planning, to social and “utopian ideals.”
Chief among
these ideals is how to create a public work of art that somehow becomes part of
or contributes to the community space it inhabits. For Ben Tré, he was able to
take the meditative quality of his glass forms when experienced privately —
say, in the inner sanctum of the art gallery — and transport it outside to
the middle of the hustle and bustle of a busy bank plaza, a dying city center,
a public library.
These kinds of
projects reveal “Ben Tré’s belief that city dwellers deserve places both for
gathering and communal interaction and for private, quiet contemplation,” as
the catalogue says. You’ll notice that the very gallery in which these quietly
majestic glass forms and their artistic companions temporarily reside is in the
midst of a quiet urban neighborhood ripe for interaction.
— Heidi
Nickisher
Private Visions, Utopian
Ideals: The Art of Howard Ben Tré through July 24 at the University at Buffalo Anderson
Gallery, 1 Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo. Hours: Wednesday through
Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. 716-829-3754,
www.ubartgalleries.buffalo.edu/UBartGalleries.html
Believing is
seeing
The end of
painting was proclaimed (for the second time) in the 20th century with two
artists’ monochromatic paintings. Ad Reinhardt made a series of black paintings
in the late ’50s and early ’60s on which he left no discernable mark, and
Alexander Rodchenko made three paintings using only one primary color on each.
“It’s all over,” he said.
But a collection
of monochrome paintings is included in the The
Natalie and Irving Forman Collection, a recent donation to Buffalo’s
Albright-Knox Art Gallery. And since those pieces range in date from the
mid-’50s to 2003, it would seem that painting is far from over.
Instead of an
end, monochromatic art can actually be seen as one of the many new beginnings
in painting. Of all the modern approaches to painting, monochromes really need
to be seen in person. No reproduction will ever show the subtleties that are
involved in producing these intricate objects. And although meanings are
definitely present, there is no “picture.” What has to be seen is the painting
itself in all its glorious object-ness.
Painting is the
picture. These works are quiet and contemplative, and they need time to be
absorbed. What holds this collection together is an extreme love of the
beautiful object juxtaposed alongside beautiful, albeit subtle, ideas.
Rodney
Carswell’s Two Grays and Orange Around an
Empty Rectangle is oil and wax on canvas that “frames” a space on the wall
of the museum. In other words, the empty, white wall becomes a monochrome
“painting” surrounded by a three-color frame. The question is, which is the
art: the frame, the wall, or the concept? (Told you it was subtle.)
Meanwhile, three
paintings by Rudolf de Crignis are intensely blue. Upon closer examination, you
realize that the blues are all different. Crignis’s process is to apply as many
as 40 layers of oil paint to the canvas. Turns out most of these colors aren’t
blue at all but orange, red, and silver, which in the end give the proper
luminosity to the coats of blue on top. The surface is so amazingly smooth and
unblemished that it seems as if this work couldn’t possibly be on canvas, much
less made by a human hand. But it is.
Light Stone Veil,an
acrylic painting on aluminum by James Howell, is a subtle gradation of gray —
lighter at the top and darkening towards the bottom. You get a feeling of
staring into a dense, gray fog. As such, and although there’s no pictorial
reference, the painting is eerily representational.
Joseph Marioni’s
White Painting at first seems like a
joke because it looks anything but white. In fact, it’s actually a creamy
orange color. But the point is that Marioni wants us to look closer. And when
you do, that’s when you realize that the orange actually lies below a translucent
white coating.
And don’t miss
John Beech’s Large Elmer Painting.
The materials may surprise you.
— Alex Miokovic
and Heidi Nickisher
The Natalie and Irving
Forman Collection,
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo. Hours: Wednesday and
Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. $10, $8 students and seniors, free admission Friday 3 to 10 p.m.
716-882-8700, www.albrightknox.org
This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2005.
