Baby It’s (Still) Cold Outside, but Not at the Hood Museum
The Hood Museum is awash in sumptuous color.
Nothing will get the cold gray winter out of your bones better than an immersion in Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth. The exhibition—recently opened on February 8 and on view until June 22, 2024—exudes light and warmth in a collection that shares a unitary theme of color and sense of alchemy but is otherwise eclectic. Among the works is “Third Ward”by Radcliffe Bailey, a golden door (photo, top) that “was reclaimed from Houston’s Third Ward, a predominantly black community originally occupied by freed slaves. Known in the early 20th century for its rich music scene and economic vibrancy, it has suffered in the wake of freeway development and urban flight.” Bottlecaps around the back.
At the far end of the gallery is Angela Fraleigh’s “These things are your becoming.” (Photo, just above) Fraleigh is audacious: “In her recreations of historic paintings, the artist extracts the male figures, drawing our attention to the women and creating space for them to exist on their own. In this image, Fraleigh combines figures from a 17th century painting of the biblical story of Lot and his daughters, with a thistle pattern, taken from a 19th century textile.” It’s fun to compare the original (photo, just below) and Fraleigh’s re-vision.
Switching from gold to blue . . . In Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, there is much to see and learn about quilting and the indigo plant responsible for the color blue.
“Bhasha Chakrabarti's It's a Blue World (photo, above) represents the globalized histories of indigo, the etymology of which identifies the blue dye as a "product of India." Major eighteenth-century indigo plantations were found in India and the American South; Chakrabarti maps these imperial cartographies in yellow thread-tracing ancient and colonial era indigo trade routes. The work itself is crafted with indigo sourced from throughout the world.”
Visitors of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to design a cardboard quilt square and add it to a quilt-in-progress on the wall of a gallery that incorporates the museum’s beautiful vitrine. Of course each square is a unique work of art, but one struck me as a little “more unique.” Quilt square meets sculpture meets text.
Admission to the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire is free. Among other times, it’s a satisfying place for a pre-lunch, lunch, or post-lunch visit. More information, including available days and hours and summaries of all current exhibitions, can be found here.
(Photos by Susan B. Apel, quoted text taken from museum labels accompanying the displayed works.)
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word..