ART REVIEW
Quick looks at 'Discovering James Joyce' at UB, 'Strange Brew' at Albright-Knox and 'Grey Dreams II' at Indigo Art
Published: August 14, 2009, 12:30 am
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“Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection”
Through Sept. 13 in the University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery,
1 Martha Jackson Place
829-3754 or www.ubartgalleries.org
From what Michael Basinski calls “the immense and sprawling realm of imagination” that is the University at Buffalo Poetry Collection comes this extensive and fascinating exhibition of notebooks, manuscripts, artwork and ephemera surrounding the life and works of James Joyce, arguably the most important literary figure of the 20th century.
The collection, which Basinski curates, contains a number of artworks of varied importance and quality, many of which are on display at the Anderson Gallery. Though the manuscripts and notebooks are by far the most interesting segment of the exhibition, which appeals primarily to literary types, the art itself helps to provide vital context for Joyce’s work.
Particularly notable is a whimsical little sketch of the author by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Its an off-handed doodle that manages to capture Joyce’s eccentricity in just a few strokes of the pencil. This hangs next to a series of portraits, the most accomplished being a watercolor by Tullio Silvestri. The show also contains an uninspiring series of illustrations by Matisse, an elegant oil portrait of the author’s wife Nora Barnacle Joyce by Frank Budgen and a glass-encased 1998 edition of “Ulysses” illustrated by Robert Motherwell.
The exhibition is a massive accomplishment, and though the artistic segments don’t rate much on their own, they serve to connect Joyce’s work, in all its sprawling glory, to the longer story of Modernism across all the arts.
“Strange Brew: The 1960s”
Through Sept. 20 in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery,
1285 Elmwood Ave. 882-8700 or www.albrightknox.org
This potent little show in the Link, a subterranean corridor joining the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the Clifton Hall library, manages to distill much of the spirit of 1960s West Coast counterculture into a few dozen pieces of wall candy. Tinged with psychedelia and heavily focused on the graphic design of the time, the show draws its improbable strength from the inclusion of album art from the personal collections of its curator, Holly E. Hughes, and other members of the Albright-Knox staff.
Sure, there’s a beautifully tripped-out series of prints by William F. Weege (“Song of Songs: Which Deals With Solomon”) from 1969; a fascinating, large-scale collage by the artist Jess from 1978;and a handful of simple, nonchalant and unsettling pieces by Larry Slezak. But what really draws the eye and rewards wide-ranging cultural appetites—no doubt with the contextualizing help of the aforementioned pieces—are LP covers for such bands as Cream, Santana, the Zombies, Jimi Hendrix and the Moody Blues.
Many employ the “horror vacui” approach of the time, in which the artist neurotically fills every space with detail. This LSD-fueled tactic, especially evident in Martin Sharp’s cover for “Disraeli Gears” and the 1961 Mati Klarwein painting used on the cover of Santana’s “Abraxas,” has since trickled down to countless artists.
“Grey Dreams II: Works on Paper by Jeffrey Vincent”
Through Aug. 30 in Indigo Art,
74 Allen St. 984-9572
Most of us, just after waking from a dream, can’t remember much. We grasp for details, but as the seconds tick by, we’re usually left with nothing more than a vague impression, a half-reminiscence of a place we’ve been but can’t quite recall or describe. Instead of letting that sensation escape, Jeffrey Vincent captures it in graphite and charcoal.
His work in this show, two large-scale charcoal-on-paper works from his “Alien Landscapes” series and dozens of smaller pieces from his “Grey Dreams” series, are small snapshots of an otherworldly abstract universe. Rendered with grace and dexterity, the content of Vincent’s two large, vertical pieces resembles the creases and folds of an endless piece of fabric —
A piece by Jeffrey Vincent from his “Alien Landscapes” series. think of the billowing garments on the “Nike of Samothrace” — amid an ethereal landscape of strange objects and sourceless light.
Some of the smaller works of graphite-on-paper hint at natural forms, like trees and animals, while others seem content to describe the abstract turmoil of a restless mind. •
cdabkowski@buffnews.com
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