Category museums

Artists Help Us Learn from Trees: Maren Hassinger and Josephine Halvorson at deCordova Sculpture Park

Josephine Halvorson’s Measure (Tree) and Maren Hassinger’s Monuments 3 and 6 have expanded my range in relating to trees. That is true for several other artworks at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, so I’ll hope to follow up in future posts with more examples. But I’ll start with these two artists because their processes give specific attention to trees. Measure (Tree) involved the artist in close observation while painting a tree’s elements onto a wooden plank. Both Monuments involved many people in carefully weaving assorted branches of local trees into geometric structures and patterns. Quotes from the Trustees website explain more. Links to each artist’s site offer context. My photos give glimpses of the presence of these artworks among trees in the park in different seasons.

Mural for the Movement Makes Statements in Many Languages with Faces, Flags, and Fist in front of MFA Boston

After visiting the mural “No Weapon Formed Against Thee Shall Prosper,” currently on the Huntington Avenue lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts, I want to urge everyone in the Boston area to see it before it leaves November 19, 2020. So, this quick post includes photos, quotes and resources that could help you appreciate the mural in person, or at least through connected stories about it.

Rob “Problak” Gibbs’ New ‘Breathe Life’ Mural Looks Wonderfully Alive at Madison Park High School

The recently completed ‘Breathe Life’ mural by Rob “Problak” Gibbs’ takes in the sky above Madison Park Technical Vocational High School where he was a student, graduating in 1995. Here are photos from my first visits with quotes and links to valuable resources that promise to enrich your perspective on this significant artwork.

Structure Guides Discoveries in Alicja Kwade’s Art at Castle Hill and MIT

I visited Alicja Kwade’s TunnelTeller at Castle Hill in Ipswich in mid-November and hope to do so a few more times before it goes on April Fools’ Day! This post shows my photos of Kwade’s impressive work , including outdoor art at MIT. It provides links to more persuasive photos and information. I’m posting now so local friends and colleagues can plan to go before Kwade’s art has gone.

Steve Locke’s Temporary Art Makes Lasting Connections

This is my temporary post, mainly to let people in the Boston area know that Steve Locke’s temporary art will be gone from the Gardner’s front facade after January 21, 2019. If you can pause in its presence before entering the museum and again after leaving, you can sense its strength as a memorial. Yet if you miss that opportunity, you can still connect the stories of how the memorial for Freddie Gray came to be.

Temporary Art by Teresita Fernández Activates Harvard Yard until October 1: Autumn (…Nothing Personal)

Day by day, this space generates staged and spontaneous creative activity. I’m posting now with basic information (see Key Resources below) so that anyone who lives near enough, as I do, can truly be there while it’s still up in September. Photos from events I’ve been to might hint at how they were.

A Radiant Painting Generates Sixth Mural for Greenway Wall

“Carving Out Fresh Options,” Diptych Painting by Shara Hughes Leads Up to a Monumental Mural on the Rose Kennedy Greenway
 
 
The mural was scaled up about twelve times from the original painting, but also cropped and shaped to fit the curving, choppy features of the Greenway Wall (one side of the air intake structure building).

The diptych (two-part) oil painting will be on view at deCordova in the museum through May 2019, while the mural is up on the Greenway Wall in Dewey Square Park, Boston.

Clara Wainwright, Sydney Roberts Rockefeller, and other Artists Created Creature Pond

To keep up with the timing of my goal to post about women artists represented on Public Art Walk Boston, I’ll focus on the known facts now. This could lead to future posts with more fluent followup.

Being in the Hands of Ursula von Rydingsvard

In connection with the exhibition Expanding Abstraction at the deCordova Museum (April 7—September 17, 2017) the museum’s Process Gallery highlights the art of Ursula von Rydingsvard and other women artists with work in deCordova Sculpture Park. I’m posting now to extend the connection to a recent monumental sculpture by Ursula von Rydingsvard at MIT.

Matthew Hoffman on the Greenway and Rachel Perry Welty at the Gardner

Artists Choose Words for Us to Ponder:
On a mild sunny February Sunday, I set out to see Rachel Perry Welty’s statement at the Gardner Museum and Matthew Hoffman’s phrases along the Greenway Fence. These two temporary installations have been up since early January 2016 and will be down again in several months.