“New England Survey” at the PRC, American Mobility at Gasp, 18th-Century Porcelain at the Busch-Reisinger, and Viktor Schreckengost in Attleboro
By RANDI HOPKINS | March 18, 2008
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“New England Survey” at Photographic Resource Center, 832 Comm Ave, Boston | March 28–May 11 | 617.975.0600
“Are We There Yet?” at GASP, 362 Boylston St, Brookline | March 28–May 3 | 617.418.4308
“A Taste Of Power: 18th-Century German Porcelain For The Table” at Busch-Reisinger Museum, 32 Quincy St, Cambridge | March 29–June 30 | 617.495.9400
“The Viktor Schreckengost Legacy Exhibition” at Attleboro Arts Museum, 86 Park St, Attleboro | March 21–May 16 | 508.222.2644 |
The stubbornly beautiful New England landscape has inspired poets as varied as Emily Dickinson and Donald Hall, and their collective words contribute to our geographic, historical, visual, and emotional picture of this area. Opening at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University on March 28, “NEW ENGLAND SURVEY” takes as its jumping-off point a poem by 20th-century Amherst poet Robert Francis, who finds parallels between our landscapes and ourselves. The exhibition features work by six photographers, each from, or presenting a project based in, one of the six New England states: Barbara Bosworth (Massachusetts), Tanja Alexia Hollander (Maine), Janet L. Pritchard (Connecticut), Thad Russell (Vermont), Jonathan Sharlin (Rhode Island), and Paul Taylor (New Hampshire). Meditative photographs of a Maine marsh, the Rhode Island woods, and abandoned fields and stone walls in Connecticut observe natural surroundings while contemplating larger issues of place and regional identity.Cruising down the open road in your car is considered an American birthright, symbolic of our freedom, and it’s celebrated in film, song, and literature as the very picture of rebellion and high spirits. “ARE WE THERE YET?”, a group exhibition curated by artist Dawoud Bey and opening at GASP on March 28, takes a close, political-edged look at that experience though the eyes of nine artists using cameras and video to examine the tradition of American mobility even as it’s becoming harder to take moving freely through the world for granted. Howard Henry Chen, Rula Halawani, Surendra Lawoti, and Oscar Palacio are among the artists on view.
The 18th-century dinner table is the very tight focus of “A TASTE OF POWER: 18TH-CENTURY GERMAN PORCELAIN FOR THE TABLE,” which opens at Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum on March 29. The five porcelain figurines in the show evoke the experience of the elaborate Baroque court festivals and banquets where these little table decorations were first shown off — a source of prestige and a demonstration of power by their privileged owners.
More useful but arguably no less artistic, the wide variety of objects designed by industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost have touched the lives of many, from his mass-produced dinnerware for American Limoges in the 1930s to the Sears Spaceliner Bicycle, which was introduced in 1964. Opening at the Attleboro Arts Museum on March 21, “THE VIKTOR SCHRECKENGOST LEGACY EXHIBITION” pays tribute to the prolific designer, who died at age 101 this past January.
On the Web
www.prcboston.org
www.g-a-s-p.net
www.artmuseums.harvard.edu
www.attleboroartsmuseum.org
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