amamblog:Now on View - “Between Fact and Fantasy: The Artistic Imagination in Print”: This semester,
amamblog:Now on View - “Between Fact and Fantasy: The Artistic Imagination in Print”: This semester, the Ripin Print Gallery is filled with images of the imaginary, the unreal, and the fantastical. In response to the Allen’s theme of Realism this year, over 140 woodblock prints, engravings, etchings, lithographs and mezzotints from the AMAM’s collection are brought together in an attempt to answer the question: how did artists depict something they did not observe? Prior to the commonplace use of abstraction and photography, artists used imaginative interpretations of traditional forms to portray miracles, mythological figures and creatures, visions, abstract concepts, and places and historical events they did not witness. Although they often framed their musings within established iconography and modes of representation, they frequently used those moorings as a point of departure, creating something entirely new.Perhaps the most fascinating prints in the exhibition are those that address the role of the artistic imagination itself. From allegories on beauty, love, and genius to displays of whimsy, fantasy, and the mysterious, the section on “The Artistic Imagination” presents a wide array of images representing the workings of the inventive mind. One of the most famous is Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes’s Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from his landmark album of aquatints, Los Caprichos. Asleep at his work table, the artist—identifiable by the etching tools at his side—dreams of swarming nocturnal creatures, signifying ignorance, evil, and deceit. In his original publication of this print, Goya provided this explanation: “Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.” Although Goya intended the image to be a commentary on the follies of society, it also locates imagination at the heart of the creative process. To explore it can be both terrifying and exhilarating.This exhibition is on display through June 22, 2014.Image:Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)Los Caprichos [sixth edition], 1799 Etching and aquatint Bequest of Elisabeth Lotte Franzos, 1983.1 -- source link