Albright-Knox Art Gallery Visit

 Mirror on wood, 1966

A.) Which artworks make an impact or impression on me? Why?

The mirrored room

Lucas Samara’s mirrored room was meant, as he put it, to create a “space, an environment, a fantasy, a world of artificiality, a complicated panorama” and he succeeds in doing this and more in this deceptively simple take on reality. The feeling of infinite space and time that is felt when one steps inside this mirrored space invokes such a great feeling of eternity I found myself wondering if it just might just be possible to fit the whole universe inside that small space. That sense of twisted reality that Samara calls “polite claustrophobia” is so pervasive in its totality, so suffocating in its embrace, it is almost panic inducing. The biggest lesson the mirrored room left me was this: we create our own realities and our own sense of space. Whether we choose to believe that our world extends beyond our immediate reach or whether we choose to believe that it goes on forever far into the unknown, everything ultimately reflects back to and on us.

Plaster and glass, 2014

Gazing Ball

     There is something deeply crude, crass and irritating about James Coon’s Gazing Ball. Perhaps it’s the blue ball that sits between the two carved figures like a stray balloon that is desperately begging to be blown away by the wind. Or maybe it’s the pervasive air of pretense and fake sense of generosity that seems to drip in bucketfuls from the statue.            Whatever it is, the Gazing Ball is such a tepid and pedestrian work of art, I can’t help but think it was conceived to test how far illusions of grandeur can be stretched. It is one thing to unintentionally make bad art. That much I can understand and forgive. What I find unforgivable and beyond redemption is to take a fairly decent work of art and defile it so effectively and so thoroughly, one can’t help but think “well, surely there has to be a joke somewhere in that piece and I seem to be missing it.” 

      That was my very first thought when I saw the Gazing Ball. Those handbags! Goodness gracious, those handbags! Whoever thought that hanging those handbags on the statue was a good idea probably thinks the Mona Lisa is not complete because Ms. Lisa is not smoking a big fat Cuban cigar. Why, dear God, why? To take a work of art displayed in a respectable museum and turn it into a mannequin is simply beyond comprehension. 

       Maybe that’s the message the artist intends to convey: to utterly bamboozle his audience and leave them with a profound sense of disbelief. Perhaps the two barefoot figures that are depicted on the piece sharing a bowl of steaming soup are not enough. Perhaps the mother figure, bent over by responsibility and poverty as she looks down forlornly on the little girl in a solemn moment of humility was not enough. No. Apparently, the only thing that was needed to complete what would otherwise have been a timeless scene was a few designer handbags. If the intent here was to contrast the materialistic with the spiritual, the piece fails on more than one level. The atrocity that is the Gazing Ball is something that I find strangely fascinating but only for the same reason I think train wrecks are interesting too. 

B.) Which artworks do I feel a connection with? Why?

The Temple of Albers 

Acrylic on canvas, 1984

Richard Anuszkiewicz’s piece shimmers and blurs the vision in one of the most brilliant depictions of 3D illusions I have ever seen. This masterful work of art caught my eye as soon as I saw it. I was drawn by the exclusive use of straight lines to create a depth that made me wonder if I was inside looking outside or on the other side looking inside. Using just two colors, the Temple of Albers manages to be both delightful to look at while conveying a feeling of strength as depicted by the Romanesque pillars that seem to hold the whole structure together.

The Marina Piccola 

Oil on canvas

I have always been a sucker for a beach scene and Albert Bierstadt’s piece took me back to a time when the idea of moving inland away from the coast would never have occurred to me. In spite of the stormy seas, the cloudy skies and what appears to be approaching nightfall, the beach seems busy but relaxed. The looming and treeless mountains were a bit overwhelming for me but their presence suggested to me that this scene was possibly inspired by a view of a lakeside as opposed to an ocean. 

Steel, 1961

C.) Which artworks would I like to know more about?Why

Steel

     John Chamberlain’s Steel is nothing more than a tangled mess of scrap metal that I found hard to define. It is safe, I think, to assume that this particular piece wasn’t exactly crafted to be art and perhaps that’s what makes it worth a second look. Where did that chunk of metal come from? From the looks of it, something forceful and violent must have happened to cause the rough tears and deformities in this piece. I would really like to know what was so compelling about this very unattractive piece that it sits in a museum.

Papier-mâché, 2015

1. Left behind                                                         This piece, which was made by students of Fredonia Middle School, made me wonder who modeled for the statue and whether they realize their likeness now sits in a museum, sharing space with works by Picasso and other world famous artists. I thought the imagery in itself was impersonal largely because of the faceless and expressionless nature of the girl. The girl did not give me any particular sense of being “left behind.” What I found fascinating was the old fashioned pair of spectacles that look like they might have belonged to her grandmother. Which made me wonder: was the whole idea of the piece meant to convey a sense of being left behind in time and being stuck in the past? Of living in a bygone era while the rest of the world moves on, unmindful and uncaring?