Renaissances (2015)
Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis, IN, 2015
“Renaissances”
Brian Prugh
Harrison Gallery, Harrison Center for the Arts, July 1-29, 2016.
1505 N. Delaware, Indianapolis, IN 46202
About the show
Classical culture, while it never really dies, is constantly being “reborn.” Occasionally we mark these re-births in history as a “Renaissance.” Teaching just across 16th street at Herron High School – a classical liberal arts high school – gave me occasion to reflect on whether we are at the beginning of a new “Renaissance.” If we are, I believe it is urgent to ask two questions: To what are we returning? How shall we make it our own? Or is there a different question that should trouble us: are we living in a new dark age?
Renaissances is a provocation to consider these questions and a manifestation of my own (provisional) answers to these questions. The installation is loosely based on Michelangelo’s design for the Laurentian Library foyer and reading room in Florence, a design which in turn influenced Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals and his later chapel paintings, which have been influential in my own thinking about painting.
Works List
Order of works is moving clockwise around the gallery beginning with the north wall (to the left of the main entrance).
Renaissance Window 1 (Left), 2016, cut tulle, fishing line and Duralar tabs mounted directly to the wall, 104 x 57 inches.
Renaissance Window 2 (Center), 2016, cut tulle, fishing line and Duralar tabs mounted directly to the wall, 104 x 57 inches.
Renaissance Window 3 (Right), 2016, cut tulle, fishing line and Duralar tabs mounted directly to the wall, 104 x 57 inches. Double Column (two total), 2016, cut tulle, fishing line and Duralar tabs mounted directly to the wall, 156 x 46 inches.
Gothic Window, 2016, cut tulle, fishing line and Duralar tabs mounted directly to the wall, 101 x 99 inches.
Swags, 2016, cut tulle, fishing line and Duralar Tabs mounted directly to the wall, with gouache text above. 22 x 46 inches overall.