letter blocks say what?: last week at the IMA

Friday, March 8, 2013

last week at the IMA

last week mindy and i decided to spend our extra time in indy at the art museum after setting up for first friday. indy really has an underrated art museum if only for their collection of contemporary art.

since our last visit, the museum has been gifted a collection of prints by Gabor Peterdi. after wandering, bored, through the museum's pride and joy post-impressionist collection, there is a little room featuring an incredible collection of prints from throughout peterdi's career. his influences are obvious at different times of his career. and his printmaking techniques feel very raw and his surfaces are just awesome. this was worth the trip alone. especially since visiting this museum is always free.

The Power of Spring, 1953: etching and engraving with stenciled coloring

Flowering, 1965: color etching and aquatint

Tommy's Pond, 1965: color etching and aquatint

Germination III, 1951: etching and engraving with stenciled coloring

Spawning II, 1952: etching and engraving with stenciled color

White Caps, 1965: lift-ground etching and engraving

then it was straight up the stairs to the top floor for the contemporary art. a show called graphite was the feature. all the work was, well, graphite. some were better than others, but it was a truly well put together show. matching large scale installation in pencil with interactive current-conducting graphite line drawings; photorealism in pencil with xerox-realism. i cannot remember any of the artists, but it is great as a show. every piece shows what artists have done to the simplest of drawing media.