Category Archives: Visual Arts

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.] – A poignant portrait of a little girl in a rose garden, a graceful trio of young women picking apples, and a gardener harvesting brilliant green cabbages are among the many marvelous paintings in Pissarro’s People, the fascinating exhibition of works by Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), that opened Saturday and will be on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute through October 2.

Pissarro’s People, curated by Richard R. Brettell, is the first major exhibition to explore the philosophy and political outlook of the painter relative to his portrayal of the human figure, in approximately forty paintings and fifty works on paper.

Pissarro’s People begins in the first floor Manton Gallery with an enormous black and white photograph of Pissarro and his family, sitting together out-of-doors, on a haystack. The image is emblematic of the show, which portrays the artist’s devotion and dedication to his family, his appreciation of and engagement with the agricultural community and rural life, and his philosophy of a better world to come, one where people were respected for the work they did, whether they were farmers or servants or artists.
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Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck
Three extraordinary sculptures by celebrated African artist El Anatsui are on view in two galleries in the Clark’s Stone Hill Center through October 16. Pissarro’s People, a major exhibition of works by Impressionist master Camille Pissarro and Spaces: Photographs by Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth are also on view at the Clark this summer.
The sculptures by El Anatsui resemble enormous fluid tapestries, draped and pleated against the gallery walls, but they are not textiles at all; rather, they are made of small pieces of aluminum, cut from discarded bottle caps and linked together with tiny twists of copper wire.
The sculptures are of exceptional beauty, made up of swaths of articulated matte aluminum fragments in brass or silver punctuated with strips or clusters of rich reds, yellows, and blues. Continue reading →

PITTSFIELD, MASS.–The Pursuit of Porcelain, an installation of ceramic sculpture, photography, and works on paper, arranged as they would be in a European eighteenth-century porcelain room, filled with figurines, plates, and objects, is on view now through July 24 at the Ferrin Gallery. Sculptor Chris Antemann conceived the installation, which includes her own sculpture and photography and interpretations of the concept by other invited artists who share her passion for porcelain and its history.

Using plates, drawings, painting, and photography, Chris Antemann, Molly Hatch, Sergei Isupov, Mara Superior, and Jason Walker created composed installations to present their sculpture on four-by-eight-foot painted panels.
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