The Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design presents Painting Air. Spencer Finch a major exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch, on view February 24 through July 29, 2012.
Installation view of Painting Air: Spencer Finch (2012)
In this major two-part show, Finch creates an expansive, site-specific new installation—also titled Painting Air (2012)—that recalls his recent visit to Monet’s water garden in Giverny, France. More than 100 panels of suspended glass become a lens to view a color-filled, 150-linear-foot mural; light shifts across the highly-reflective surfaces of the gently swaying panels, evoking the movement of Monet’s pond and transforming viewers’ perspectives from one moment to the next.
Other recent works find inspiration in Finch’s studies of Franz Joseph Glacier in New Zealand and Thoreau’s Walden Pond; reveal a color that only honeybees can see; and capture 8,456 shades of blue—a response to Scottish philosopher David Hume’s musings on “the missing shade of blue.
Finch’s profound connection to Monet runs deeply through both sections of the show, and the Museum’s Basin at Argenteuil (1874), is an aesthetic touchstone that ties the two parts together. As a RISD graduate student, Finch copied the light-filled composition—and his studies of Monet continue to inform his creative process to this day. Delving further into the Museum’s collection, Finch curates a selection of more than 60 pieces—ancient objects to late-20th-century art—creating thematic groupings that reveal links and contrasts between artists, unexpected visual connections among disparate works, and his own personal sensibility.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design
224 Benefit Street
Providence, RI 02903
401 454-6500
www.risdmuseum.org