Rebecca Gray Smith at Bert Green Fine Art, through June 21
In 1391, Gaston
Phoebus, the brilliant , warlike Count of Foix,
was hunting in the hills of his
mountainous domain, when he stopped for
lunch and dropped dead as a servant
washed his hands. That was death
in the pre-modern era: universal and often inexplicably, unpredictably sudden.
In the following centuries, that became the theme of danse macabre –
those quaint depictions of grimacing Death rudely interrupting medieval life,
from peasant’s hovel to prince’s palace.. Over the past 20 years, printmaker
Rebecca Gray Smith, impacted by the Aids epidemic, has updated that theme to contemporary
life. Death is still a malicious joker,
but sometimes it is preventable, and that is the message that Smith presents in
her alphabet of morbidity: G is for guns, N is for Narcotics, E is for
education (about Aids) etc. But while she’s free associating, there are other kinds of issues she would like raise: H is for Harlots
and Hookers, P is for Petroleum , and B is for Banks, Bailouts, and Baseball. Baseball ? -- what’s wrong with Baseball ? Is she a Cubs fan ? And what’s wrong with “L” (Law) or “T”(time) If everything is already in the
grasp of Death’s bony hand, why be concerned about anything at all? So though this project bears some resemblance to the passionate, skull-filled
social satires of the great Mexican cartoonist
Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), it’s theme is more universal – and more despairing. “C” is for Crucifixion, but “R” is definitely
not for Resurrection. The universe is a
big cruel joke at our expense – all presented in the grim, gray light of a netherworld. It’s as if the artist never recovered from the
demise of her youthful idealism. But at least, some images are funny – like the
violins serenading the exit of the poor dunce who’s just lost her job in “F”
(Fired). And there’s plenty of life in the variety of
Smith’s compositions. If one thing
refuses to die, it’s the Classical traditions of perspective, anatomy, and design that this artist employs almost well
enough to give a convincing reason to
live.
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