Vanguard

Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: Fine Arts

The month of October is an exciting
month for the Mobile Museum of Art.
Several exhibits are opening including
Magdalena Abakanowicz's "Drawings" on
Oct. 5, "Alabama Folk Pottery," "Master
Prints" and M.C. Escher's "Rhythm of
Illusion" on Oct. 12. The Museum has been
fortunate enough to receive the opportunity
to present these special and unique exhibitions.
Magdalena Abakanowicz's presents
"Drawings" which is a collection of 25
years' worth of work. The artist uses both
charcoal and ink to develop her intense
images. Her strokes are expressive and energetic,
usually covering the entire surface on
which she is working. The theme of individuality
hidden in a nameless mass is a vital
aspect of both her sculpture and her figure
drawings. Even though her figurative images
lack a head, feet and hands, they still appear
unique from one another and express an
animated interpretation of the subject. She
seems to enjoy removing subjects from their
original context, such as removing flowers
from stems or heads from bodies.
Abakanowicz seems to be revealing to the
onlooker the unseen angle of an image. Her
goal is for the viewer to become aware of the
previously unnoticed and to become
absorbed in her expressionistic and passionate
strokes that form her images.
"Alabama Folk Pottery" is a presentation
ranging from pre-historic pottery to mid-
20th century work. According to Fine Lines
Magazine, the exhibition covers three chief
threads: "the migration, diffusion of knowledge
and establishment of pottery regions in
historic Alabama, the importance of kinship
in the formation of distinct traditions are
artistry, creativity and craftsmanship."
Around 70 pieces of 19th and 20th century
pottery will be on display and will be accompanied
with photographs of related time
periods. The "Alabama Folk Pottery" was
organized by the Birmingham Museum of
Art and made possible by a substantial grant
from the National Endowment for the Arts,
a federal agency.
"Master Prints" refers to the artworks that
developed during the 60s with the explosion
in technology. Commercial publishers collaborated
with painters, sculptors, conceptual
artists and the growing technological
advances to form "Master Prints." The
Mobile Museum of Art contains a vast
amount of 20th and 21st century American
and European prints, and this innovative
exhibition displays the extraordinary evolvement
and change that prints have undergone
throughout the past two centuries.
M. C. Escher's exhibition titled "Rhythm
of Illusion" is a collection of 81 prints and
drawings that represent each period and
change present during his career. Escher
seems to have been inspired by early
Renaissance artists, evident in his numerous
interpretations of cityscapes and ports. He
later transformed these sketches into woodengravings
and lithographic prints. The concepts
of Italian architecture, linear and aerial
views, seemed to remain a consistent
theme throughout Escher's career. He also
seems to have been influenced by Spanish
mosaics, with his use of division within his
picture plane. Over time, his work became
famous for its manipulation of perspective.
Echsner was able to bend and play with perspective,
thus fooling the eye of the onlooker.
He was also able to ignite interest and
change his and his viewer's reality.
For more information, visit
http://www.mobilemusuemofart.com.

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