An "eh" that I wish were a "Wow!"
Earlier this week I read in Tyler Green's blog the announcement that the Carnegie has recently acquired a photograph by Luisa Lambri and that in the Forum Gallery it was being shown along with other Lambri photographs on loan and an Ernesto Neto sculpture. I knew we would be going to the museum on Thursday (you know, Library and Museum Day) so I was excited to experience these photographs I have never seen in person that Tyler describes as
What an endorsement. So I made sure we made a stop in the Forum Gallery.
Eh.
It wasn't that the Lambri photographs aren't incredible. However, I didn't quite get to have that hold-my-breath moment. Paired with the Lambri photographs is a large sculpture by Ernesto Neto that is suspended from the ceiling.
The Neto.
And example of a Lambri. The photographs are less than a yard wide and a little more than a yard tall.
Unfortunately the Neto is visible before you even enter the Forum Gallery and remains the dominant visual in that gallery. On the website for the Carnegie the Neto is shown in a room by itself. Perhaps that would have been better. The curator's brochure singles out "Gravity" as a defining feature of this sculpture. Perhaps it also would have been more interesting to pair Neto with a painter who also considers "Gravity," like Paul Henry Ramirez and his ever- shifting gravitational frameworks.
Additionally, the Neto seems to emit a lovely spicy fragrance, being that two of the components of the sculpture are clove and tumeric. Until I realized that the smell was part of the art, I was looking around for a Glade plug-in. Again, with a sculpture that overwhelmingly makes its presence known, maybe it is best viewed on its own. It is clearly space defining, maybe even possessing.
With the Neto hanging above from the high ceiling of the Forum Gallery, it was hard to be grabbed by the Lambri photographs (there are five from the Barragan House series, three from the Palacio dos Arcos series, and one from the Palacio da Industria series). They felt too small and colorless, of which they are neither. That wonderful light, sometimes blinding and sometimes in slivers, is fantastic in these photographs. There was just too much competition in that room. It didn't harmonize for me.
Of course, I am probably completely wrong. Mr. Fogle, the curator, is much more educated than I in these subjects. But when your own brochure has to argue this juxtaposition, even acknowledging the complete opposition of the forms.....well maybe that says it all right there. The level at which these pieces are similar (according to the brochure) strike me as very academic.
I really wanted to appreciate Louisa Lambri as Tyler did. Perhaps in the coming weeks (every Thursday is Library and Museum Day) I'll be able to. It will take effort, though. The situations where Tyler was when he first saw the Barragan photographs were quite different. Lambri had one-woman shows in commercial galleries, probably much more intimate a setting than a room off the main hallway at the Carnegie Museum.
Lambri's best photographs -- and these are among them -- make a viewer stop and hold still. At two recent solo shows (at Marc Foxx in LA and at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea), I found myself holding my breath in front of Lambri's pictures. It was as if I was afraid that little bit of movement would affect my ability to soak in the meditative space that Lambri had captured for me
What an endorsement. So I made sure we made a stop in the Forum Gallery.
Eh.
It wasn't that the Lambri photographs aren't incredible. However, I didn't quite get to have that hold-my-breath moment. Paired with the Lambri photographs is a large sculpture by Ernesto Neto that is suspended from the ceiling.
The Neto.
And example of a Lambri. The photographs are less than a yard wide and a little more than a yard tall.
Unfortunately the Neto is visible before you even enter the Forum Gallery and remains the dominant visual in that gallery. On the website for the Carnegie the Neto is shown in a room by itself. Perhaps that would have been better. The curator's brochure singles out "Gravity" as a defining feature of this sculpture. Perhaps it also would have been more interesting to pair Neto with a painter who also considers "Gravity," like Paul Henry Ramirez and his ever- shifting gravitational frameworks.
Additionally, the Neto seems to emit a lovely spicy fragrance, being that two of the components of the sculpture are clove and tumeric. Until I realized that the smell was part of the art, I was looking around for a Glade plug-in. Again, with a sculpture that overwhelmingly makes its presence known, maybe it is best viewed on its own. It is clearly space defining, maybe even possessing.
With the Neto hanging above from the high ceiling of the Forum Gallery, it was hard to be grabbed by the Lambri photographs (there are five from the Barragan House series, three from the Palacio dos Arcos series, and one from the Palacio da Industria series). They felt too small and colorless, of which they are neither. That wonderful light, sometimes blinding and sometimes in slivers, is fantastic in these photographs. There was just too much competition in that room. It didn't harmonize for me.
Of course, I am probably completely wrong. Mr. Fogle, the curator, is much more educated than I in these subjects. But when your own brochure has to argue this juxtaposition, even acknowledging the complete opposition of the forms.....well maybe that says it all right there. The level at which these pieces are similar (according to the brochure) strike me as very academic.
I really wanted to appreciate Louisa Lambri as Tyler did. Perhaps in the coming weeks (every Thursday is Library and Museum Day) I'll be able to. It will take effort, though. The situations where Tyler was when he first saw the Barragan photographs were quite different. Lambri had one-woman shows in commercial galleries, probably much more intimate a setting than a room off the main hallway at the Carnegie Museum.
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