The roar of the greasepaint‘The World as a Stage’ at the ICA, ‘British Prints 1914–1939’ and ‘Traveling Scholars’ at the MFA, and Colombian Artists at GASP January 23,
2008 5:52:43 PM
Rita McBride, Arena
|
“The World as a Stage” at Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | February 1–April 27 | 617.478.3100
“Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939” and “SMFA Traveling Scholars” at Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston | January 30–June 1 (“British Prints”) and February 2–March 2 (“Traveling Scholars”) | 617.267.9300
“The Dynamics of Belonging” at GASP, 362-4 Boylston St, Brookline | February 1–March 8 | 617.418.4308 or
|
“Theatricality” used to have negative connotations when used to describe fine art: glitzy surface rather than nourishing substance, suspiciously melodramatic gesture, the faked as opposed to the Real. Recently, however, artists have been challenging this idea with work that looks at the art-object/art-viewer relationship itself as a kind of performance, training a light on the elements that make up the staged experience: sets, performers, props, audience. Organized by Tate Modern curators Jessica Morgan (former ICA chief curator) and Catherine Wood and opening at the ICA on February 1, “THE WORLD AS A STAGE” presents work by 16 artists. Jeremy Deller’s 2004 installation and video, The Battle of Orgreave, documents the artist’s epic re-enactment of a violent 1984 clash between police and striking miners in South Yorkshire. Rita McBride’s immense 1997 sculpture Arena brings a great expanse of oversized stadium seating to the ICA. Pawel Althamer, Andrea Fraser, Mario Ybarra Jr. are also represented; the show is accompanied by a smart little catalogue designed like a Playbill.
The social and economic upheaval in Britain between the outbreak of World War I and the beginning of World War II was reflected in the visual arts in the form of increased experimentation with abstraction and a fascination with the newly mechanized pace of modern life. Opening at the Museum of Fine Arts on January 30, “RHYTHMS OF MODERN LIFE: BRITISH PRINTS 1914–1939” offers more than 100 examples of work by 14 British modernist printmakers whose art during this period ranged from a somber response to the first fully mechanized war to colorful depictions of the zippy age of motorcar racing and jazz orchestras. Also at the MFA, “SMFA TRAVELING SCHOLARS,” opening February 2, presents new work by recipients of the Museum School’s Traveling Scholarship Awards, which are granted each year to a juried selection of SMFA alumni and Fifth Year Program students. Bill Durgin, Mathew Clay Freeman, Leslie Hall, Will Pappenheimer, Laurel Sparks, and Elizabeth H. Wallace were inspired by travel to Europe, Australia, India, and destinations within the United States.
The ideas of “place” and of “context” are slippery ones in our mobile society, and that can confound a soul’s sense of belonging anywhere. Curated by Gonzalo Fuenmayor and opening at GASP on February 1, “THE DYNAMICS OF BELONGING” brings together work by nine Colombian artists — only half of whom live in Colombia at the moment — as it explores identity and nationhood through drawing, collage, photography, painting and video.
On the Web
“The World as a Stage” at Institute of Contemporary Art: www.icaboston.org
“Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939” and “SMFA Traveling Scholars”: www.mfa.org
“The Dynamics of Belonging”: //www397.pair.com/gasp1/
|
 |
|
- How Herald publisher Pat Purcell could pitch inside — and brush back the Globe
- Reconciling the irreconcilable
- The wars of evolution are louder than ever. What Ben Stein, Bad Religion, and a physics professor from Quincy can tell you about where you came from.
- Win or lose, Obama's small donors may have already brought a revolution in campaign financing
- Israeli magic realism
- Some Things at Trinity
- How Herald publisher Pat Purcell could pitch inside — and brush back the Globe
- Nancy Goldner on Mr. B
- Swan Lake in Boston and Providence
- Dolly Parton rolls out the big guns
- Keep your hands on the pole and not on your neighbor’s ass, bucko.
- The wars of evolution are louder than ever. What Ben Stein, Bad Religion, and a physics professor from Quincy can tell you about where you came from.
|
-
Botanical Forms at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History, Carroll Dunham and more at the Addison, and Renzo Piano at the Fogg
-
The DeCordova Annual, New Orleans after Katrina, ‘Superartificial,’ 19th-Century Leisure Travel, and El Chango Verde
-
‘Alexis Rockman,’ ‘The New Authentics,’ and ‘Paper Trail II’ at the Rose, and Chantal Akerman at MIT
-
‘Wedded Bliss’ at the Peabody Essex, Toys and Games at the Revolving Museum, and Chad Walker at Space 242
-
‘El Greco to Velázquez’ at the MFA, ‘Artadia Boston’ at the Mills Gallery, Harmonious Noise on the Roof at Tufts, and Animal Estates at MIT’s CAVS
-
Frank Gohlke at the Addison, ‘Pulp Function’ at the Worcester Center for Crafts, and ‘Expanded Sculpture 2’ at 119 Gallery
-
‘On Drawing’ at the New Art Center, Gateway Arts at Simmons, Jeff Koons at Harvard, and Jenny Saville at BU
-
“New England Survey” at the PRC, American Mobility at Gasp, 18th-Century Porcelain at the Busch-Reisinger, and Viktor Schreckengost in Attleboro
-
Spring Arts Preview: Landscape, road trips, weddings, and Spain
-
Monumental Prints and Small Ponds at the Davis Museum, ‘Art and Math’ at Axiom, Glass Sea Creatures at Harvard, and New Rationalists at Proof
|
- The peculiar American brashness of George Bellows
- Walid Raad’s installations seek the “truth”
- The DeCordova Annual, New Orleans after Katrina, ‘Superartificial,’ 19th-Century Leisure Travel, and El Chango Verde
- ‘Alexis Rockman,’ ‘The New Authentics,’ and ‘Paper Trail II’ at the Rose, and Chantal Akerman at MIT
- Compelling new work by Neal T. Walsh and William Schaff
- ‘El Greco to Velázquez’ at the MFA
- ‘Wedded Bliss’ at the Peabody Essex, Toys and Games at the Revolving Museum, and Chad Walker at Space 242
- The mature art of longtime Maine artists
- Malcolm Grear at RIC; plus, Roger Mayer’s ‘Soundless’
- A local collective subverts with the tiny
|
|