ART-TRIBUTE:Infinite Blue,Part II

Boris Anisfeld, Clouds over the Black Sea-Crimea, 1906, Oil on canvas, 125.7 x 142.2 cm, Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Boris Anisfeld in memory of his wife, 33.416, Photo: Brooklyn MuseumThe Brooklyn Museum presents “Infinite Blue”, a major Collection exhibition in, that uses the color blue as a lens through which to explore art from ancient Egypt to the present. Through a cross-generational and multidisciplinary array of work, blue is examined as a link from the past to the present: as a historical force for global commerce; as an emblem of power, beauty, and spiritualism; and as a symbol for gender difference, among other uses and purposes (Part I)

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Brooklyn Museum Archive

Opened to the public in four phases, ”Infinite Blue” expands throughout its run to represent the breadth of the Museum’s global collections, including objects from our holdings of Asian, Egyptian, African, American, Native American, and European art, among them paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, the decorative arts, illuminated manuscripts, printed books, and contemporary art. The exhibition engages visitors from the moment they enter the Museum’s glass Pavilion with “Untitled (Water)”, an expansive curtain of blue iridescent beads by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and “Liquidity Inc.”, an immersive video experience by Hito Steryl in the Museum’s Great Hall. Significant works include Joseph Kosuth’s “276 (On Color Blue)”, in which he reproduces in blue neon a quotation from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that questions our perception of blueness; and five works from Byron Kim’s ongoing series of “Sunday Paintings”, which represent the sky on the day they were painted with a short text of activities from the artist’s life on that day. The exhibition is part of A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art through ten diverse exhibitions and an extensive calendar of related public programs.

Info: Curatorial Team: Yekaterina Barbash, Susan L. Beningson, Meghan Bill, Edward Bleiberg, Connie Choi, Joan Cummins, Susan Fisher, Barry R. Harwood, Deirdre Lawrence, Cora Michael, Kimberly Orcutt, Nancy Rosoff, Lisa Small, Sara Softness, and Eugenie Tsai, Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, Duration: 25/11/16-5/11/17, Days & Hours: Wed & Fri-sun 11:00-18:00, Thu 11:00-22:00, www.brooklynmuseum.org

Left : Louis Comfort Tiffany, Vase, circa 1900, Favrile glass, 33.7 x 10.2 x 10.2 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Charles W. Gould, 14.739.8, Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Right: Joseph Stella, The Virgin, 1926, Oil on canvas, 100.8 x 98.4 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Adolph Lewisohn, 28.207, Photo: Brooklyn Museum
Left : Louis Comfort Tiffany, Vase, circa 1900, Favrile glass, 33.7 x 10.2 x 10.2 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Charles W. Gould, 14.739.8, Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Right: Joseph Stella, The Virgin, 1926, Oil on canvas, 100.8 x 98.4 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Adolph Lewisohn, 28.207, Photo: Brooklyn Museum

 

 

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Water), 1995, Installation View, Courtesy Brooklyn Museum
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Water), 1995, Installation View, Courtesy Brooklyn Museum

 

 

Left: Krishna and Radha, India, circa 1690–1700, Opaque watercolor with embossed gold on paper, 25.7 x 17.8 cm, Brooklyn Museum Collection, 37.122, Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Right: Vase with Three Handles, Saqqara-Egypt; New Kingdom, circa 1352–1336 B.C., Glass, 8.7 x 6.5 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.340E, Photo: Brooklyn Museum
Left: Krishna and Radha, India, circa 1690–1700, Opaque watercolor with embossed gold on paper, 25.7 x 17.8 cm, Brooklyn Museum Collection, 37.122, Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Right: Vase with Three Handles, Saqqara-Egypt; New Kingdom, circa 1352–1336 B.C., Glass, 8.7 x 6.5 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.340E, Photo: Brooklyn Museum

 

 

Amulet in the Form of a Ba as Human-Headed Bird, Reportedly from Saqqara, Egypt; Ptolemaic Period, 305‒30 B.C., Gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise, steatite, 3.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.804E, Photo: Brooklyn Museum
Amulet in the Form of a Ba as Human-Headed Bird, Reportedly from Saqqara, Egypt; Ptolemaic Period, 305‒30 B.C., Gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise, steatite, 3.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.804E, Photo: Brooklyn Museum

 

 

Left: Bottle with Openwork Shell, Upper Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, circa 1070–718 B.C., Egyptian blue, 17 x 7.5 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 44.175, Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Right: Statuette of Aphrodite Anadyomene, Possibly from Thebtynis, Egypt; Ptolemaic Period, late 2nd century B.C., Faience, height: 36 cm, diameter: 10.8 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 44.7, Photo: Brooklyn Museum
Left: Bottle with Openwork Shell, Upper Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, circa 1070–718 B.C., Egyptian blue, 17 x 7.5 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 44.175, Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Right: Statuette of Aphrodite Anadyomene, Possibly from Thebtynis, Egypt; Ptolemaic Period, late 2nd century B.C., Faience, height: 36 cm, diameter: 10.8 cm, Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 44.7, Photo: Brooklyn Museum

 

 

Sioux (Native American) artist, Tipi Bag or Possible Bag, circa 1860–1900, Plains, United States, Hide, beads, tin cones, horsehair, 39.4 x 52.1 cm, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1111.1, Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum
Sioux (Native American) artist, Tipi Bag or Possible Bag, circa 1860–1900, Plains, United States, Hide, beads, tin cones, horsehair, 39.4 x 52.1 cm, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1111.1, Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum