Living & Arts

List Gallery exhibit offers news perspectives on art

In print | March 27, 2008

Let’s say that we are walking in the city, and happen to glance across the street. We all see the same image, but some of us will remember the sharp lines of perspective that the skyscraper traces upward. Others will have an impression of the sunlight that glares off the tinted windows and casts the scene in stark blacks and whites. Some might remember the blur of movement on the street before us, or try to capture a perfect photograph of the scene in our minds.

All of these perspectives and more are represented in the “Painting Structures: Specificity and Synthesis” exhibit at the List Gallery. Open March 1-30, this collection examines some of the myriad ways we can view a structure. This show features artists Rackstraw Downes, Sarah McEneaney, David Kapp, Sharon Horvath, Yvonne Jacquette, Stanley Lewis and Kevin Wixted.

Each of these seven artists “draws his or her inspiration from architecture,” Andrew Scott Taylor ‘09 said. On Monday, March 24, Taylor and Clare Kobasa ’10 gave a guided tour of the exhibit, detailing the artistic style of each painter and drawing the audience’s attention to the specific details of each painting.

The first artist whose work appears in this exhibit is Rackstraw Downes. Downes’ photographic paintings capture scenes such as the underside of a bridge in exquisite detail. He uses lines to “frame and direct the viewer’s attention” Taylor said, and in each painting, the audience “can clearly see all the sources of light,” Kobasa added. In one painting, for example, Downes uses somber tones and lines of shadows to capture the silence and emptiness that fill an attic.

Stanley Lewis, the next artist, shows the depth both within the paintings and through his use of paint as a medium. Each of Lewis’ paintings is composed of so many layers that the scene actually appears to change as it is viewed from different angles. “The three dimensionality of the paint creates a unique experience for the viewer,” said Kobasa.

This multi-dimensionality creates stark contrast with the works of the next artist, Sharon Horvath, whose paintings utilize flatness to explore the abstract and surreal nature of the empty baseball field. Horvath has an “extraordinary use of line” Kobasa said, and indeed the multitude of curving, intersecting lines surrounding the stark and empty field create an interestingly surreal scene.

Wixted, on the other hand, uses simple colors and two-dimensional shapes to model a city scene. In his paintings, “structures are broken down into their most simplistic forms,” Kobasa said. Yet despite this simplicity, Wixted’s use of shading from multiple light sources and different colors “hints at three-dimensionality” Taylor said. Wixted compellingly captures the essence of a city scene through effective use of simple shapes and simple colors.

The next artist in this gallery is Sarah McEneaney. According to Taylor, the warm colors and open perspectives of her paintings “convey more intimacy” and the choice of intimate settings such as her private garden and her workroom “invite the viewer in.”

Yvonne Jacquette, however, captures a perspective that “the viewer is not used to,” Taylor said. Jacquette’s aerial views of buildings convey a very real sense of distance and the lines in each painting interestingly separate the different elements of each scene.

The final painter whose works appear in this exhibit is David Kapp. Like Jacquette, Kapp captures aerial views of the city. However, Kapp utilizes the stark contrast of blurred white on a dark backdrop to capture the inherent motion of the city. Perhaps more than in any other painting in this gallery, Kapp’s view of a curving highway overpass strongly suggests movement in the sweeping curves. As Kobasa pointed out, his “brushstrokes really powerfully convey a sense of motion.”

Every artist has a very specific and unique way of viewing structures, and the synthesis of all of these varied works creates an exhibit that is well worth seeing. Each painting shows us a new perspective, a way of looking at a scene that we might not have thought of before.

However, words cannot truly do these paintings justice, so if you have a few moments to peruse the List Gallery before March 30, consider stopping in on your way past LPAC to get your own perspective.