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While the three exhibitions that opened Friday at the University of Maine Museum of Art vary in medium, location and era, each address the objects that create cultural identity while pushing the boundaries of art.
“Witty, Sexy Gimmicky: British Pop Art” and “Saul Liter: Early Color” are aesthetic explorations of material items dating from post-World War II, while photojournalist William Greiner’s “Blog* Katrina,” documents the material and devastation of the hurricane.
Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky: British Pop Art
The centerpiece of the British Pop Art exhibit greets you on your left. Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s “General Dynamic F.U.N.” is an ensemble of 50 prints depicting subjects as varied as Elizabeth Taylor, Jesus Christ, motorcycles and robots. Emblematic of pop art, the work is rich in bright, saturated colors and images from the glossy magazines of the post-World War II era.
The Pop Art movement in Britain began before its American counterpart, and while they share a name they differ in origin. Paolozzi, alongside artist Richard Hamilton, whose work is also featured in the exhibit, founded The Independent Group in the mid-1950s. The Independent Group is considered the precursor to British Pop Art and was composed of architects, young artists, sculptors and critics who were looking to create art appealing to mass audiences while challenging the conventions of institutional art.
Pop artists blurred the lines between high and low art by borrowing images from consumer culture and presenting them in a new light. Hamilton described his own art as “mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous and Big Business.”
The exhibition was developed around Paolozzi’s “General Dynamic F.U.N.,” according to Gina Platt, the education coordinator for UMMA. It includes works by other artists from the movement, such as Richard Hamilton and David Hockney.
Saul Leiter: Early Color
While photographers of the mid-20th century used mostly black and white film in their work, trained painter and photographer Saul Leiter used color to capture the street scenes of New York City in the 1950s. While black and white photography typically distances the viewer from the subject, Leiter’s color photography reveals much about post-war city life.
Leiter’s “Early Color” is an exhibition on loan from the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York City. The prints were made recently from slides and transparencies, so the color of the photographs appears contemporary though the fashions and signs are of an era past.
Bold, flat areas of color, like a woman’s canary-yellow scarf, characterize his images. Some of his most appealing work in the show is from a Harper’s Bazaar series depicting women wearing the fashion of the day. However, his street photography of barbershops, rain-streaked windows and traffic lights make the show stand out.
Blog* Katrina
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi in August 2005, photojournalist and New Orleans native William Greiner was struggling to make sense of what had taken place. In October, he grabbed his camera and began documenting life after the hurricane, blogging his photographs as he went.
A year later, Greiner’s work is on display in a gallery for the first time, under the title “Blog* Katrina.” Some photos are surreal – boats grounded in a parking lot, a car flipped upside-down under a building. Others are jarring – water-damaged wedding pictures or the water ring across the wallpaper where floodwaters invaded a house.
Museum visitors can access Greiner’s blog and view other pictures with visitors’ comments. The museum also mounted a board for visitors to tack up their responses.
“We’ve hung [the Greiner exhibit] in a very informal sort of way to encourage interaction with the art because it’s such an emotional subject,” Platt said.
As British pop art incorporated everyday objects and Saul Leiter explored color photography, Greiner’s work also pushes the definition of art. As one visitor writes, “I am already sick of the Katrina art. William Griener mocks the Katrina art on museum walls, but how would anyone else get a chance to see it? The more people who see it, the better the chance of prevention.”
The exhibits will be on display at the University of Maine Museum of Art through April 14. Admission is $3 for the public and free with MaineCard. The museum is located in Norumbega Hall in downtown Bangor.
Bangor Daily News