It is the Year of Romania at Kennesaw State University, hence, the presence of “Invisible Body, Conspicuous Mind,” a fascinating exhibition featuring a dozen contemporary Romanian artists.
I confess, and I doubt I’m alone, that I walked into the gallery with no preconceptions, since Constantin Brancusi is the only Romanian artist I know. The sampling here certainly piqued my interest. The dozen artists represented here ably deploy the languages of the global art world — video, photography and conceptual art as well as drawing, painting and sculpture — to compelling ends.
Ciprian Muresan swings from the conceptual wit of “Leap into the Void, After Three Seconds” — a riff on Yves Klein’s fake flying picture in which the figure has fallen splat on the ground — to the dramatic “Pioneers,” a monumental yet delicately limned drawing of a little boy beating up a little girl. Serban Savu is represented by a suavely executed realist painting of a lone man waiting by the railroad tracks, titled “No Train Coming,”
Innocents’ violence. Isolated man on tracks to nowhere. Clearly, there’s more going on there than craft and sophistication. Unfortunately, the presentation does nothing to help the viewer appreciate what that might be. The one exception is curator (and daughter of the collectors) Lara Taubman’s statement, which explains that the artists belong to the generation who were children during the repressive reign of Nicolae Ceausescu and experienced the struggles of progress that followed the dictator’s 1989 demise as well as the lingering psychological legacy of totalitarianism.
A little information can make all the difference in the viewing experience. When you know even a bit about Romania’s history, Muresan’s leap-and-fall photo, for instance, resonates as a metaphor of the ups and downs of a fledgling modern society and art scene. Similarly, a line on the label explaining that “Pioneer” is the name of the Communist youth group would have given viewers insight into that drawing’s symbolic intent.
For an educational institution, and one dedicating this year to learning about Romania, the lack of context is a disappointment, not to mention a lost opportunity.
Poor Blanche duBois had to depend on the kindness of strangers. KSU has benefited from the kindness of friends: All of the works in its collection are gifts.
As one would expect from such a history, the collection has pockets of strengths that reflect its patrons’ interests, and that DNA is evident in “Modern & Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection.” One example: The university is particularly rich in the examples of American Scene movement, thanks to the goodwill of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bentley, collectors of American art.
The sampling selected by guest curator Diane McClintock hops around from an illustration by N.C Wyeth to a towering ceramic figure by Viola Frey. A mixed bag still serves well as a study collection, as evidenced by the catalog entries on the pieces written by KSU students.
Gallery review:
“Invisible Body, Conspicuous Mind: Romanian Contemporary Art from the Collection of Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman and Mrs. Jenny Taubman.”
Through March 3. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 7-9 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. The Art Gallery, Horace Sturgis Library.
“Modern & Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection.”
Through April 28. Noon-4 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays. Don Russell Clayton Gallery, Bailey Performance Center. Kennesaw State University. 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw. 770-499-3223. www.kennesaw.edu/arts
Bottom line: Modern, contemporary art in two exhibitions on campus offer food for thought.
Catherine Fox is chief visual arts critic of www.artscriticatl.com.
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