Monday, October 26, 2009

Surrealism at Nashville's Frist Center

Published: September 16, 2009




Surrealism: seeing the ordinary as extraordinary- was the theme of Dr. Therese Lichtenstein's photography and film exhibition, called 'Twilight Visions', which opened Thursday night at the Frist Center.  The exhibition featured more than 120 photographs by French artists from the 1920's and 1930's, such as Man Ray, Eugene Atget, Hans Bellmer and Brassai, and offered a unique insight to the social and political hardships during their culture's transition between world wars.  This mixture of documentary and experimental photography beautifully captured the celebration of electricity and encouraged observers to excite their vision and to be active participants as the walked through the disoriented structure of the exhibit. "It is so important for our culture to appreciate surrealism, considering all the things going on within our nation today," Dr. Lichtensteing commented when asked about how the exhibit could be inspiration even to the American culture today. Percieving the ordinary as extraordinary serves as inspiration to us during this time of economic crisis and emphasizes the concept of the Twilight Exhibit both literally and metaphorically. In the exhibit, twilight represents the undetermined time occuring between night and day, in a more literal sense, where everything is both hidden and exposed.  Metaphorically, the exhibit also represents a comparison; be it between the grotesque and the beautiful or reality and fantasy- and sometimes when things become difficult it helps to not be able to determine a clear divide between the two. "I found it really fascinating. It’s abstract. I really enjoyed the photos by Man Ray and would like to revisit again soon, remarked Libby Robinson Lacocke, a former personal finance professor at MTSU. The exhibition will be held at the Frist until January 3, 2010 then will travel to the International Center of Photography in New York from January 29 through May 9, 2010 and lastly, to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia from June until September 30, 2010.

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