A Tale of Two Exhibits

A Tale of Two Exhibits
 Transfiguration at the Wexner and Now-ism from the Pizzuti Collection

 Two very different exhibits are currently running in Columbus. Transfiguration is at the Wexner Center and features Modern masters: Picasso, Giacometti, Dubuffet, De Kooning, Degas, and Susan Rothenberg. Now-ism at the Pizzuti Collection, presents 21st century of the new abstract.

Just walking in the door gives you different experiences. At the Wexner timed tickets are required, no photographing allowed, my purse was searched and my pen confiscated (they gave me a stubby pencil to write with). I guess the recent defacing of artwork (Jeff Koons) has made them nervous. I think destroying or demeaning artwork because you don’t like it or don’t agree with it is the height of arrogance. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it has no value. Check your ego.

Meanwhile back at the exhibit, all these rules and regulations scream stuffiness and over-blown importance. The exhibit is very aware of the works place in art history. Being a grad student in the art department, I’m very familiar with the work and have seen images of most of the work repeatedly so it was a bit hard to get excited about them, not that I don’t think the work is important but as I said, I had seen them before. It became a game of “oh I know that one”. I did enjoy Picasso’s earlier figurative work as it’s not shown ad nauseum. I also appreciated the work by Dubuffet, I wasn’t familiar with those particular pieces, so kudos.

While Transfigurations was …..figurative, Now-ism was purely abstract. The difference I found most striking was COLOR. Now-ism had plenty of it and GLITTER and GEOMETRY and YUMMY PAINT. The colors used were bright and pretty (I’m sure the modernist would be appalled at the colors). Looking at Tim Bavington’s Midnight Blues, I thought, eye candy, which led me to candy, which is what a lot of the color reminded me of, it was visually stunning. Another favorite was Pia Fries, her(his?) painting contained thick juicy paint  that I wanted to lick off the surface, In contrast, parts of Patrick Wilson’s surfaces were so smooth, it was hard to believe it was actually paint. The last piece I saw was Mindy Shapero’s The Infinite Truths of Flatterland . Several circles of rainbow colors layered with ceramic (?) forms remind me of spiral lollipops. I kept returning to eye candy because of all the yummy paint and color and glitter, but the purely visual is a concept of modernism and no self- respecting contemporary artist would just give us that, so go to the Pizzuti website and check out the artist statements.  No one checked my purse on entering and they said,” sure you can take pictures”, so feast your eyes.       Connaught

Patrick Wilson

Tim Bavington

 Carrie Moyer

Pia Fries

 Mindy Shapero