Bouke de Vries: War and Pieces
February 2 through May 12, 2019
In War and Pieces, 2012, Bouke de Vries (Dutch, born 1960) simulates a tablescape like those created for seventeenth century banquets. His central theme is the concept of war and conflict as it is familiar to twenty-first century audiences. A former conservator of art objects, de Vries assembles pieces of broken ceramic that would previously have been discarded and gives them new life.
De Vries found his inspiration for War and Pieces in the elaborate tablescape sculpture that was created by master chefs of the seventeenth century using sugar, which was a rare and valued commodity at the time. Not meant to be consumed, these assemblages were prestige objects that signaled the wealth of the host. In the eighteenth century, porcelain companies such as Meissen and Sévres began to manufacture replacements for these sugar forms.
This large-scale installation links sugar, which once defined the status of the patron, with the beginnings of European porcelain-making. Presented as a grand war banquet similar to those held on the eve of important battles in the seventeenth century, de Vries combines porcelain shards with modern plastic elements. The past and present clash in a battle of objects, climaxing in a nuclear mushroom cloud.
February 2 through May 12, 2019
In War and Pieces, 2012, Bouke de Vries (Dutch, born 1960) simulates a tablescape like those created for seventeenth century banquets. His central theme is the concept of war and conflict as it is familiar to twenty-first century audiences. A former conservator of art objects, de Vries assembles pieces of broken ceramic that would previously have been discarded and gives them new life.
De Vries found his inspiration for War and Pieces in the elaborate tablescape sculpture that was created by master chefs of the seventeenth century using sugar, which was a rare and valued commodity at the time. Not meant to be consumed, these assemblages were prestige objects that signaled the wealth of the host. In the eighteenth century, porcelain companies such as Meissen and Sévres began to manufacture replacements for these sugar forms.
This large-scale installation links sugar, which once defined the status of the patron, with the beginnings of European porcelain-making. Presented as a grand war banquet similar to those held on the eve of important battles in the seventeenth century, de Vries combines porcelain shards with modern plastic elements. The past and present clash in a battle of objects, climaxing in a nuclear mushroom cloud.
About Face: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture
February 2 through May 12
About Face: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture explores the lineage and influence between the revolutionary first generation of artists working in the figural genre and contemporary artists. The exhibition will investigate how history and place inform the work of contemporary ceramists bringing approximately 44 objects by 30 emerging, mid-career, and master artists from around the nation who work within a narrative figurative clay tradition. Creating both sculptural and relief objects, from busts to full figures, the artists all highlight the human form as a way to explore issues relating to the body, to various cultural ties, and to ideas of the female/male gaze.
Josef Albers/Donald Judd Thematic Variations
February 9 through April 28
Working with serial imagery, both Josef Albers (American, born Germany, 1888–1976) and Donald Judd (American, 1928–1994) created works that explore variations on color and form. With a great awareness and respect of each other’s work, they both approached geometric shapes formally in order to explore the inherent aspects of any artwork: form, structure, and color.
In his landmark series, Homage to a Square, 1962, and later in the portfolio Formulation: Articulation, 1972, among other works, artist and mathematician Josef Albers investigated color interactions and how the human eye processes the shifting characteristics of color when placed in various configurations.
Utilizing repetitive shapes combined with bands or blocks of color Albers played with perception in works of art that pulse and shift with movement.
78 Similarly, Judd proposed that art could be logical, direct, and unemotional. He wrote, “A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn’t be concealed as part of a fairly different whole.” His austere and reductive forms are neutral, avoiding any symbolic associations. Instead, he sees his forms as either a part of a mathematical sequence or a meditation on mass and voids, tranquility and motion, and illusion and reality, as seen Untitled Portfolio of 16 Etchings, 1978, a portfolio of prints exploring the parallelogram.
Pairs and Partners: Curatorial Conversations
June 1 through August 4
Pairs and Partners is all about points of view—specifically the points of view of museum curators. In this series of exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection of the MMFA, curators and other “guests” demonstrate the variety of ways in which works of art might be interpreted, based upon an individual’s education, experience, and judgment. In each installation, the curators select two works of art from the museum’s collection that address the show’s specific theme. They will then compare and contrast the works they have chosen, specifically explaining how they feel their chosen works address that theme.
The second exhibition in the Pairs and Partners series is devoted to the concept of portals, that is, something which functions as a passageway from one place (or state of being) to another. Interpreters will be examining the idea of portals (for example, doorways) as the viewer might discern them in the work of art. The idea of the portal is specifically tied to the concepts of position, space, and time; artists may exploit those references to encourage the viewer to assess how concepts or objects can convey a sense of physical or psychological passage.