Esmé Thompson: The Alchemy of Design
April 9 through May 29, 2011
Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH
The artist will give the exhibition’s opening lecture on April 15 at 5:30 PM; other related programming includes several Saturday tours and a lunchtime gallery talk. Over the last decade, Thompson has undertaken an investigation into the creative intersections of her many influences, creating veritable alchemies of design, pattern, and color. In so doing, she has fashioned a visual vocabulary that is distinctly her own, imbuing each painting and collage with the overlapping and intersecting language of symbols amid repeated articulations of line and color. She has created three-dimensional art installations as well, and several of the works in this exhibition draw upon this experience by occupying space as well as canvas. Blue Divide, Beatus II, and Djellaba are sectional works made up of paintings on the shaped galvanized tin covers of maple syrup buckets. Hung on the wall in a variety of arrangements, these shield-like bucket tops are painted in patterns that mirror one another. The artist writes of these works: “Over the past ten years, my interest in creating an interactive visual narrative resulted in the creation of multiple-panel pieces in which the relationship of the parts to the whole is fundamental . . . I respond to the sight of the buckets hanging, solitary, on trees, reminding me of the transitional and ephemeral nature of the seasons as well as the resurgence of new life.” Download full press release here. Read the May 2011 review in Art New England. |
In
Esmé Thompson’s art there is a luminosity and rich patterning that
engages both the eye and the mind. Colorful and bold, these objects attest to
a considered and lifelong interest in the decorative designs that infuse art
in a variety of media, from the Renaissance paintings of Pisanello to the designs
of medieval illuminated manuscripts, the complex patterns of Moroccan textiles
and ceramic tiles, and the painted harmonies of French artist Edouard Vuillard
(1868–1940). This spring, the Hood Museum of Art showcases approximately
thirty works by this accomplished professor of studio art at Dartmouth College
in the exhibition Esmé Thompson: The Alchemy of Design, which runs from
April 9 through May 29, 2011. Recently Added Work
December, 2008 - New paintings and drawings; added collages and links pages. |
Upcoming Exhibits Featuring Esmé Thompson
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