We are quite often interested in artists who have exceptional lives. And if those lives involve scandal, intrigue, or illness, we become fascinated. This fascination manifests itself not only in the biographical, but in the work itself. We want to see the life illustrated in the work of these artists — Vincent Van Gogh […]
Art
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How art talks to itself
In one form or another, the biennial Rochester-Finger Lakes exhibition has been a showcase for Western and Central New York artists for over 100 years. And this year is no exception, as the exhibition celebrates its 59th anniversary. Of course, what exactly the exhibition showcases has often been a source of controversy. And in […]
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A Texan in Corning
As a material for sculpture, glass is more durable than either granite or steel. And in the hands of Robert Willson, hot molten glass — “rich and utterly sensuous,” as described by the artist — is richly and utterly transformed into solid, evocative, and bold forms. Willson, born in West Texas in 1912, graduated from […]
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Mellow Bellows
In 1969, thousands of peace-loving music devotees gathered near a small town in the Catskills for what was to become a landmark in American cultural history. The Woodstock that George Bellows knew and loved, half a century earlier, was an altogether smaller affair. But for many of the artists who came to work there, it […]
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Art is long
In 1914 Kathleen McEnery was a rising figure on the New York art scene when suddenly, at the age of 26, she disappeared. What happened? She got married and came to live in Rochester. A year earlier, in 1913, she had exhibited two paintings at the legendary Armory Show in New York. This was […]
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When art speaks louder than words
It’s hard to write about art that is just beautiful. Or perhaps I should say, mostly beautiful. The artists whose work is on show at the Visual Studies Workshop are variously able to elaborate on spiritual dimensions… philosophical connections… historical underpinnings. But I find most of it unnecessary. For me, the value of their work […]
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The big picture
Focusing on greatness: Gordon Parks’ “Muhammad Ali”, 1970. Gordon Parks has done a lot. Even before he picked up a camera in 1938, at the age of 25, he had tried his hand at “you name it, you know, just about everything.” He worked in a bar, washed dishes in a restaurant, played piano in […]
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Sweet nothings
Pow! Roy Lichtenstein’s brightly colored enlargement of a fight scene from a comic strip in Sweet Dreams Baby (1965) smacks you right in the face. But the impact is purely visual. Pop Art rarely offers much more than this kind of immediate thrill, but that is its greatest strength. Sometimes you just don’t want to […]
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Creative cultivation
Artists can be solitary creatures. For many, shutting out the world with all its demands is an essential part of the creative process. Isolation though, has its downside and, as the saying goes, it’s good to get out once in a while. At some point, whether it be through exhibition, publication, or performance, the work […]
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Excavating the obvious
Andy Warhol once said, “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am.” If you want to know all about Joy Episalla, you’ll need to do exactly the opposite. You need to dig. The subjects of her photographs, […]
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Still amazing after all these years
Dance lovers owe a lot to Nazareth Arts Center, which brought us two of the world’s greatest dance companies just weeks apart: the Paul Taylor Dance Company on November 9 and Rochester’s Garth Fagan Dance December 4-8. Regular readers may be tired of my referring to the Fagan dancers’ beauty, virtuosity, precision, energy, and commitment. […]
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Automatic art
The Art-o-mat cometh. Yes, thanks to a collaboration between Rochester Contemporary and the Record Archive, our city finally gets to experience the joys of “vended art.” In 1997, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Clark Whittington invented the Art-o-mat by turning an abandoned cigarette vending machine to the service of art. Initially, it dispensed Whittington’s own […]
