Vital Curiosity
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OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Vital Curiosity at the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery at Bennington College explores the use of color and abstraction by artists associated with the College from the 1940s to the 1990s. The exhibition includes work by Helen Frankenthaler ’49, Grace Wapner ’55, Stephen Mueller MFA ’71, Carrie Moyer ’82, Odili Donald Odita MFA ’90, Noam Rappaport ’94, and Paul Feeley (faculty member, 1940–66).
Vital Curiosity focuses on the ways each of these artists—who represent a diversity of generations, formal approaches, and experiences—seize upon color as a dynamic, and often ineffable, element in their abstraction.
One of Frankenthaler’s major canvases, Red Square (1959) will be on view, drawn from the College’s collection. The exhibition aims to demonstrate the ways in which Frankenthaler's well-known engagement with color is part of a long history of Bennington artists exploring the possibilities of pigment.
The show is curated by painting faculty member Josh Blackwell ’95 and Erin McKenny, Design and Planning Coordinator at the College.