2019 Exhibitions Not Just Another Pretty Picture Death of a Loved One - 1890s Fashion Dark Matter PB BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM Cover: Detail of painting by James Allen 3 BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM OR HANKS O HE FOLLOWN Berkshire Art Museum’s 2019 Exhibitions: PEOPLE AND NSONS WHO Not Just Another Pretty Picture ENEROSL DONAED SNE JL 1, 2018 Death of a Loved One - 1890s Fashion: Bill Kolis* Jim and Kris Allen Cire Corporation* Gail and Bill Oberst* Dark Matter Ellen Bernstein* Elinor and Stephen Long* Joan and Jim Hunter* Laurie Bank and Stuart Freyer* MountainOne Bank* Anne Tiffany While viewers can be moved by good art that has express something that might not be pleasing to Smith & Watson, CPAs* Daniel Jacobs color and beauty, this exhibition examines good the eye. But I am not alone; there is a history to art that minimizes those features. This exhibition this. Fortunately, museums are not trying to sell Desperados* Jytte and John Brooks* might not be for everyone who walks through our the art on exhibition. David Brown* Jennifer Thompson doors. Art, mostly representational art, has often Scrimo & Lynch, PA* James Sisto* presented horrific scenes. The church was the Exhibitions that I have curated often come about largest patron of western art, and the most obvious Else Steiner* Doris Hartheimer* from my personal experiences. When I was first example is the thousands of crucifixes that have Adams Community Bank* Brian and Elizabeth Cunningham* developing my own art, I often used a lot of been painted and sculpted over the centuries. Patricia Siskind* Astrid Hiemer and Charles Giuliano* black paint and then would hear from family and One is expected to be moved by this scene, not Lisa Avery and Robert Henriquez* Phil and Gail Sellers friends upon seeing my latest creation, “it’s not to smile. Similarly, battle victories have been very pretty.” My standard answer was “good art commissioned, and while there is much blood and William Archer and Arthur De Bow* Bonnie and John Lipa* need not be pretty,” or “sidewalk cracks can be gore in these war scenes, it also takes on the same Susan and Duncan Brown* Cathy and Robert Crosky as interesting as sunsets.” In most cases, my reply excitement as a modern-era action movie, where Sarah Sutro and Michael Bedford* Elizabeth and Brian Cunningham* was a hard sell. the hero saves something or someone in the wake of scores of mutilated bodies. Susanne Walker and Stephen Green* Palma Fleck and Francis Spina* Often, gallery patrons look to buy art to hang Shirley and Manny Finkelstein* Jane Hudson above a living room couch in order to liven up the While religion and war have been the most Barbara and Peter May* Alvin Ouellet room’s decor. Any gallery dealer will confirm dominant themes to show pain, there are many that colorful paintings sell better than dark other bloody subjects that have been depicted Bill and Frances Riley Jose Duran paintings. In the early 1970s, I was having a in art for centuries - from sexual encounters to Ling and Len Poliandro Bodil and Harry Wilson* show and my gallery dealer wanted to hang two medical postmortems to still lifes of hanging Ricky Barton and Art Kaufman Justyna and Gene Carlson* colorful paintings in the rear gallery room, while and butchered rabbits. Modern day artists have Michael and Licia Conforti Vincent and Margo Melito I wanted a somber black painting that I knew was continued this tradition; they are not immune to more powerful; I thought the room would take experiencing war and pain. For older living artists, Maria Siskind* Judith Weber on a Zen-like tranquility. I won the argument, the Vietnam War became harsh subject matter to Linda Ruberto* Stephen and Wilma Rifkin* but she was right – the black painting didn’t sell deal with. Today, Iraq/the Mid-East, terrorism Bold: $250 or higher (although eventually, to my satisfaction, it ended and sexual assault are predominant issues. *two or more seasons up in a museum collection). My art has struggled This program is supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, with this notion for a long time - I make art to Although abstract art can evoke painful a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. 4 5 BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM associations, the bulk of what we think about in ago. I completed a very large relief painting and might expect. Dan Wolf similarly does tortured grieving fashion, “Death of a Loved One”- these terms - mostly human suffering - continue when I applied the title “Cancer” to it, the red portraits portraying a darker side to his people 1890s Fashion: Collection of Greg Lafave,” in to be expressed in representation art. From the shapes seemed to take on a more energized battle, and situations. Kevin Bubriski photographs the association with the main exhibition. Manet and Goya execution paintings to Picasso’s as if beating and taking over the healthy cells of aftershock from the Nepal 2015 earthquakes. famous Guernica painting, an argument can be one’s body. The artwork became more disturbing Firoz Mahmud reminds us of collateral damage The Berkshire Art Museum has a group of made that while there is beauty in seeing great than if I had not assigned that title to it. It was from historical wars. Sandra Moore takes on the advisory board members, many who are also art, there is also an uneasiness looking at, or being completely abstract, but still, that title gave it a mysterious assassination of Khashoggi. Likewise, artists. I asked for some smaller pieces that might reminded of, the subject. It is also true that time very powerful representational association. Saira Wasim artworks have that toughness and fit this gloomier narrative in a show called, “Dark changes one’s view. In its day, viewers were aghast I have had another personal connection to “tough sexual tension that might, at first, repel someone Matter.” In our Tower Gallery, we present works to see Picasso’s figures and faces; today, they are art.” Our museum annex displays more than 150 from looking, but taking more time, might just do by Keith Bona, Arthur De Bow, Robert Henriquez, classical abstractions. life-sized figures, many in disturbing positions. the opposite – bring the viewer in - as good art Maria Siskind, Sarah Sutro, and David Zaig. In the adjoining room of the repurposed former should. This is the sixth season of the Berkshire Art Many times, artists want to include shock value church, there is an installation that obviously Museum. Please thank our donors for their in their art; they are almost asking for a negative represents suffering. After all, religion has been Last summer we had an exciting installation from generosity and our advisory board members for viewer reaction. Shock for its own sake does not associated with war and death throughout its Greg Lafave’s extensive collection of fashion. all their hard work. Tell your friends to visit and make good art; there must be more. If the art is history, where one party wants to kill another Clothing can be fun, and we showed Edwardian do come back to explore all 25,000 square feet of good, then the shock value becomes an added party simply because of having different beliefs. era fashion- elegant clothing that might be the museum’s galleries in two re- experience. Because I dedicated the annex installation to the worn to a cocktail party in the early part of the purposed buildings. 9/11 victims, viewers who visited around that century. But clothing has other associations – Contemporary abstract art can cause this reaction time period would leave in tears, thinking about both as uniforms and as representations from Eric Rudd as well. Brushes with paint can seem like weapons, the 3,000 deaths from that tragic incident. In more somber moments. This season, we present Founding Director angrily attacking the canvas. De Kooning’s use of actuality, the art was installed six months before brushstrokes added to his violent figures, while that event happened; the association with 9/11 Basquiat continued that tradition. Even non- was coincidental. The installation could have objective art can present forceful emotions. represented the holocaust or any number of religious-death events; 9/11 was simply the closest Sometimes the title can make a difference as to to us both chronologically and geographically. how we react to an artwork If a work portrayed a couple making love, the viewer would have one These are personal experiences with art that is reaction; having a title of “Sexual Assault” would “not pretty.” As I indicated, historically, there are give the viewer an entirely different reaction. In an unlimited number of examples. I like to see another example, Serrano’s famous manipulated great art; I do not care if that art is pleasing or will photograph titled “Pissed Christ” made headlines beautify a room. I want to be moved and I want to as millions were insulted by the combination be taken in by what I am seeing. presented, pointed out by its title. Of course, what added fuel to the fire was the link to a With all this in mind, it seemed natural to try to government grant that the artist received. The separate art that is – at first glance - not pretty, “piss” was certainly just an abstract component, from what might be more pleasing to the eye. but it changed the artwork. Some artists came across my radar that seemed to fit the bill.