Page 025 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 1 of 2 | Next |
|
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
Loading content ...
£»tn l l l£ THE FINE ARTS Cenfv. Aft Rewards and Regrets at Seattle ALL THE art at the Seattle World's Fair is not in the vast Fine Arts ■ Pavilion. Some distance away at the U.S. Science Exhibit, a remarkable fourteen-minute film, produced by Charles Eames with the assistance of his wife Ray, qualifies as creative art on a high level. In a specially designed oval room the visitor watches multiple images, cast from seven 35-millimeter motion picture projectors, unfold a dramatic prologue to the Science Exhibit (a project for which our government should be roundly applauded). The pictures, thrown on a large concave wall six images at a time, spotlight the complex and comprehensive world of modern science. Eames has actually invented a new cinematic technique expressly designed to combine many separate visual experiences at once. Varying his rhythm, perspective, and emphasis with lightning speed, he synchronizes six adjacent moving scenes into a powerful composite statement about science and scientists. The dazzling "Fountain of the Northwest" by James Fitzgerald. SR/May 26, 1962 In front of one of the new theatres at the Fair, I came on another unheralded experience—a dazzling fountain that seems to combine water and metal organically. Three vertical units, composed of innumerable cast-bronze segments welded together, project water in vigorous opposing streams, the total effect a joy to hear no less than to see. James Fitzgerald, the gifted Seattle sculptor commissioned to make this appropriately named "Fountain of the Northwest," told me he "tried to use the natural movements of water that are common to the unique Northwest landscape — patterns of water from melting mountain snow coursing over rock projections—the feeling of water you find in the rain forests out here, dripping and cascading down through natural shapes." In the sun the fountain is surrounded by a web of rainbows; in the night strong lights turn it into a triumph of racing water and gleaming metal. It is a sad commentary that, were it not for this privately commissioned work, visitors to the fair would leave without seeing Fitzgerald's sculpture; for though Seattle is his home, and though there are six separate exhibitions in the Fine Arts Pavilion, not one of these is specifically earmarked for contemporary art of the area, unless a small nondescript group of Mark Tobey's work could be so described. True, there is a large show selected by Sam Hunter, Director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, and devoted to American painting and sculpture of the last ten years, but this is predominantly a fashionable report stressing the New York School and what Manhattan dealers are showing these days. One questions why Mr. Hunter, usually a most perceptive connoisseur, did not represent the countiy more broadly, why he did not study the entire West Coast more intensively, why he did not show certain key figures in greater depth, why he did not feel it necessary to vary his menu with at least a few interesting un- Tsimshian stone mask. knowns, why he chose more objects than he had space for (the show, particularly the sculpture, is cruelly overcrowded), and why he represented occasional outstanding artists with sometimes trivial works. If this is an accurate survey of American art during the last decade, then heaven help us. I found myself comparing some of the more chic modern paintings with various exhibits in the Science Pavilion, where functional graphs, diagrams, and models sometimes inadvertently possess extraordinary beautv. For example, I saw several mathematical colored graphs resembling involved target-like designs that for me were esthetically more convincing than an enormous painting of a target (79 x 114 inches) by the recent best-seller, Kenneth Noland. JL HERE is no doubt that all the exhibitions in the Fine Arts Pavilion suffer from unwieldy architectural surroundings; for due to highly obtrusive acoustical decorations, the paintings and sculpture are everywhere burdened by disturbing competition. Even the international section (again covering the last ten years), selected and installed con amore by Willem Sandberg, Director of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, must fight against architectural interference. It seemed to me that this exhibition was not only better hung but more representative than its American counterpart. Each painter is shown with several top examples grouped together so that the work has individual impact. Mr. Sandberg was faced with the added difficulty of including artists from all parts of the world, and to do this judiciously in a moderate-sized show is no mean feat. From his exhibition one remembers a galaxy of artists: the Italian Pinot Gallizio with his curiously knotted compositions, the Englishman Francis Bacon with a new, less nebulous kind of horror, Dubuffet 25
Object Description
Description
Title | Page 025 |
File Format | image/jp2 |
Collection | Century 21 Digital Collection |
Contributing Institution | The Seattle Public Library |
Rights and Reproduction | For information about rights and reproduction, visit http://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/rights |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Transcript | £»tn l l l£ THE FINE ARTS Cenfv. Aft Rewards and Regrets at Seattle ALL THE art at the Seattle World's Fair is not in the vast Fine Arts ■ Pavilion. Some distance away at the U.S. Science Exhibit, a remarkable fourteen-minute film, produced by Charles Eames with the assistance of his wife Ray, qualifies as creative art on a high level. In a specially designed oval room the visitor watches multiple images, cast from seven 35-millimeter motion picture projectors, unfold a dramatic prologue to the Science Exhibit (a project for which our government should be roundly applauded). The pictures, thrown on a large concave wall six images at a time, spotlight the complex and comprehensive world of modern science. Eames has actually invented a new cinematic technique expressly designed to combine many separate visual experiences at once. Varying his rhythm, perspective, and emphasis with lightning speed, he synchronizes six adjacent moving scenes into a powerful composite statement about science and scientists. The dazzling "Fountain of the Northwest" by James Fitzgerald. SR/May 26, 1962 In front of one of the new theatres at the Fair, I came on another unheralded experience—a dazzling fountain that seems to combine water and metal organically. Three vertical units, composed of innumerable cast-bronze segments welded together, project water in vigorous opposing streams, the total effect a joy to hear no less than to see. James Fitzgerald, the gifted Seattle sculptor commissioned to make this appropriately named "Fountain of the Northwest," told me he "tried to use the natural movements of water that are common to the unique Northwest landscape — patterns of water from melting mountain snow coursing over rock projections—the feeling of water you find in the rain forests out here, dripping and cascading down through natural shapes." In the sun the fountain is surrounded by a web of rainbows; in the night strong lights turn it into a triumph of racing water and gleaming metal. It is a sad commentary that, were it not for this privately commissioned work, visitors to the fair would leave without seeing Fitzgerald's sculpture; for though Seattle is his home, and though there are six separate exhibitions in the Fine Arts Pavilion, not one of these is specifically earmarked for contemporary art of the area, unless a small nondescript group of Mark Tobey's work could be so described. True, there is a large show selected by Sam Hunter, Director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, and devoted to American painting and sculpture of the last ten years, but this is predominantly a fashionable report stressing the New York School and what Manhattan dealers are showing these days. One questions why Mr. Hunter, usually a most perceptive connoisseur, did not represent the countiy more broadly, why he did not study the entire West Coast more intensively, why he did not show certain key figures in greater depth, why he did not feel it necessary to vary his menu with at least a few interesting un- Tsimshian stone mask. knowns, why he chose more objects than he had space for (the show, particularly the sculpture, is cruelly overcrowded), and why he represented occasional outstanding artists with sometimes trivial works. If this is an accurate survey of American art during the last decade, then heaven help us. I found myself comparing some of the more chic modern paintings with various exhibits in the Science Pavilion, where functional graphs, diagrams, and models sometimes inadvertently possess extraordinary beautv. For example, I saw several mathematical colored graphs resembling involved target-like designs that for me were esthetically more convincing than an enormous painting of a target (79 x 114 inches) by the recent best-seller, Kenneth Noland. JL HERE is no doubt that all the exhibitions in the Fine Arts Pavilion suffer from unwieldy architectural surroundings; for due to highly obtrusive acoustical decorations, the paintings and sculpture are everywhere burdened by disturbing competition. Even the international section (again covering the last ten years), selected and installed con amore by Willem Sandberg, Director of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, must fight against architectural interference. It seemed to me that this exhibition was not only better hung but more representative than its American counterpart. Each painter is shown with several top examples grouped together so that the work has individual impact. Mr. Sandberg was faced with the added difficulty of including artists from all parts of the world, and to do this judiciously in a moderate-sized show is no mean feat. From his exhibition one remembers a galaxy of artists: the Italian Pinot Gallizio with his curiously knotted compositions, the Englishman Francis Bacon with a new, less nebulous kind of horror, Dubuffet 25 |
Date created | 2012-06-24 |