Alfredo Arreguin, Frida’s Messengers, 1992. Serigraph, 24 x 17 1/4 inches. Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of Alfredo Arreguin and Susan Lytle. |
This seems to be one of
those in-between-shows periods at Tacoma Art Museum when they trot out stuff
from their permanent collection to fill the galleries. It’s a good thing, too,
because they have some outstanding art that we’d otherwise seldom or never get
to see. One such show is the Optic Nerve exhibition, which I reviewed in this
column last week; another is Sitting for History: Exploring Self-Identify
Through Portraiture, an exhibition of more than 60 paintings, drawings and
photographs by artists such as Pierre August Renoir, Chuck Close, George Luks,
Mary Randlett, Gilbert Stuart and Andrew Wyeth, plus some sculpture and
jewelry.
It is an intriguing show
juxtaposing historical paintings and ultra-modern art.
Randlett, a Northwest
treasure, is represented by a group of handsome, black-and-white portrait
photographs including a great shot of Mike Spafford in his studio.
There are two paintings
by the great French Impressionist, Renoir, including a portrait of two young
girls that has been previously shown at TAM. Renoir is sometimes dismissed as
being too sentimental, but the glowing colors and lively brushstrokes in this
painting confirm that he earned his place in history.
One of the more
fascinating works in the show is Raphael Soyer’s lithograph “My Studio,” which
shows the model behind a screen apparently getting ready to disrobe and the
artist with his back to her working on a painting. It is voyeuristic and it
shows the strange connection/disconnection between artist and model. And it is
a beautiful composition of dark and light contrasts.
Norman Lundin’s “Sleeping
Model” is a disturbing image that makes the sleeping woman look like a dead
woman in a casket.
Blythe Bohnen’s
self-portraits use selective soft focusing to make intriguing mysteries of her
face.
Eric Bashor’s series of
portraits of Robert Fucci go from full face to extreme close-ups that become
increasingly abstract with heavy layers of high-contrast paint application. The
full-face, frontal image and the one-eye-only are quite powerful.
Overall this is an
enjoyable show with wide ranging looks at the human face and body over time and
across gender, age and ethnicities.
[Tacoma Art Museum, Sitting for History, Wednesdays–Sundays
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Third Thursdays 5–8 p.m. through April 20, 2014, adult $10, student/military/senior
(65+) $8, family $25 (2 adults and up to 4 children under 18), 5 and younger
free, Third Thursdays free from 5-8 pm.,
253.272.4258, www.TacomaArtMuseum.org]
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