In Fearful Symmetry, Northrop Frye wrote that a “line is a denial of all inertia and paralysis, all doubt and hesitation…(it) is both movement and purpose: whatever the medium of the art, the line exists neither in time or space, but in their eternal and infinite union.” Poet Susan Goldwitz has curated a show about line that was a Curatorial Opportunity Program Selection at the New Art Center in Newton, MA. In her curatorial statement, which begins with the Northrop quote, Goldwitz writes that all of the artists in the exhibition, both emerging and emergent, reinvent and individualize line to explore and redefine the very bones of form, the vowels of visionary language.
“Not a traditional drawing show – there�s not one graphite mark in the collection – this is a challenging, unexpected, and ineffable discussion of the radical possibilities at the very
‘opening’ of the creative imagination. The exhibition�s purpose is to examine line anew: solid or supple, sensuous or rigid, expansive or contractive, insistent or tentative. Here we see line as means, beginnings, and ends of the process of inspiration and result: equally path, journey, and destination.”
In the Boston Globe, Cate McQuaid reports that the show “leaps through a startling variety of materials, from the little plastic ties that make up the cinched tube shape of Tina ManWarren Roche-Kelly’s gossamer ‘Wingspan’ to the 12-inch spike nails curled into the daunting thicket of John Bisbee’s ‘Cradle.’ Michael Beatty’s gorgeous sculpture ‘The Trouble With Painting’ has metal elbow joints holding undulating lengths of pale wood; the result looks like logic attempting to contain grace.”
Note to curators and artists: The New Art Center has a 31-year tradition of using the Main Gallery for group exhibitions (two persons or more) curated by an exhibiting artist or independent curator. Since May 1991 they have continued this tradition through a public call for proposals. The next deadline for the Curatorial Opportunity Program is April 8, 2009
“Opening Lines,” curated by Susan Goldwitz. A Curatorial Opportunity Program Selection
at New Art Center, Newton, MA. Through February 22, 2009. Artists include Michael Beatty, John Bisbee, Catherine Carter, Christine Hiebert, Masako Kamiya, Sol LeWitt, Anne Lilly, Agnes Martin, David Moore, Jennifer Perry, Tina ManWarren Roche-Kelly, Richard Serra, Jill Weber.
Upcoming lecture:
Strings & Geometry: An Intersection bewteen Art and Modern Physics
Lecture by Dr. Cumrun Vafa, Harvard University
Thursday, February 5, 7pm
How does abstraction run through both science and art? How different- and similar- are artists and scientists? What do lines, strings, and particles have in common? What role does aesthetics play in the work and process of artists & physicists?
Related post:
I like line, too
