Flashy silver and gold inspired artworks, some made especially for the current group show “Silver and Gold” at the Jean Albano gallery, reflect a mixed bag of media, sizes, razzle-dazzle and lasting artistic impression. Instead of showcasing so many artists — 26 — and some with multiple works, it might have been better if the bounty had been pruned a bit to display just the best. Yet, many are highly worthwhile, sensitive responses to the assignment of producing art inspired by the show’s title.
Margaret Wharton’s “For Joseph Beuys” consists of a book with a window through which can be seen leaves, flowers and what appears to be a time capsule. Wharton may be questioning the lasting value of objects that are beautiful only on their surfaces, versus those that offer more enduring pleasures yet sometimes fade or age. The leaves within her book are in decline; the book she has altered is also worn, but its subject, “Prose and Poetry of England,” remains timeless.
Another work that stands out is part of a series. Diane Cooper’s “Genteen” consists of Oriental-inspired, 12-inch wall-hung wooden boxes lavishly wrapped in fabric, threads, found materials and paint to create tough looking, highly tactile surfaces, so appealing that the contents within become inconsequential. Each can be enjoyed on its own, though Cooper’s large wall grid of a diverse selection makes the effect much more intoxicating.
In contrast, John Torreano’s two enamel-on-wood sculptures titled “Gold Oxygems,” one small and the other larger, both richly colored in gold, lack the magic and sparkle of his usual gems studded with fake jewels in a wonderful, almost kitschy way. The show continues at 215 W. Superior St. until Jan. 17.
If the painter Mary Cassatt’s name conjures images of mothers and children, you’re not alone, but gallery owner R. Stanley Johnson would like to correct what he says has been a major misconception about Cassatt’s limited subject matter. The American-born artist, who lived most of her adult professional life in France (1844 to 1926), chose the subject of mother and child principally for her later works, Johnson explains. “Over the course of her career, only a small portion of her work depicted that specific subject.” And, he continues, “Between about 1878 and 1889, she produced 101 aquatints, drypoints and etchings before portraying a single mother and child.”
In this show of 60 works titled “Retrospective Exhibition,” mostly prints and drawings are exhibited, taken largely from the Johnsons’ personal collection. The vast majority of what’s presented reflects the broader range of subjects that Johnson wants the viewer to associate with Cassatt. Furthermore, he says that her role, together with her friends and rivals Degas and Pissarro, in developing the Impressionist movement was determined mostly by her early career “when the depiction of the mother and child was a very minor component in her prints and drawings as well as her paintings.”
Cassatt executed her first etching about 1875, a time when etching was being revived and when Degas and Pissarro were also making prints, inspired by Manet. In the years between 1878 and 1883, she produced 80 prints, which Johnson attributes in part to her rivalry with Degas, whom Johnson says may also have been her lover.
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A drypoint on view titled “The Map” shows two young girls closely studying a piece of paper. Their eyes are cast downward; their bodies close together to indicate their friendship. Cassatt has skillfully filled in only minimally their hair, one girl’s blouse and the elegant sweep of the rounded table. She has also left most of the print’s surface bare. Nothing more was needed to create the impression of a serious mood, and her genius is in her restraint.
As he typically does, Johnson, who is as much an educator as a gallery curator, shows several states or stages of many of the prints, which helps the viewer to understand what Cassatt might have been thinking at the time she worked. In some, she wanted to darken or add to her lines; in others she softened or deleted. In “The Mirror,” dated 1891, which features a mother and child, we see the third or fourth and the sixth of seven states, with the latter lighter and more delicate and including several new lines that make the mirror stand out more.
Johnson believes that if an objective of the Impressionist movement was to convey artistic thoughts or impressions, it was more possible in printmaking than in painting because different states could be preserved while in painting those “thoughts” are wiped away when paint is applied to create the final work. The catalog for the show presents Johnson’s thesis in greater detail. The show continues at 645 N. Michigan Ave. through January.