2020 VISION
Acadia Mezzofanti’s
EXPANDING BOUNDARIES E
2020 VISION:
2020 Vision: Expanding Boundaries Volume II of Artistic Identities/Expanding Boundaries Copyright © 2020 Acadia Mezzofanti ACADIAMEZZOFANTI.COM
First Edition All images and text by Acadia Mezzofanti.
2020 VISION: Acadia Mezzofanti’s
EXPANDING BOUNDARIES with contributions by
Barbara Alfond former President of the Board of Trustees, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Frederick Ilchman Chair of European Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Anne Havinga Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Chair of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Barbara Krakow Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston
Bernard Pucker Pucker Gallery, Boston
In memory of my grandfather, Ugo, a true artist.
“It is a good work in the world to support what is good, true, and beautiful, those things that unite and do not divide.� - Brother Thomas Bezanson
Volume 2
CONTENTS Introduction 1 What is Art? 5 The Power of Art 37 Art Lyricism 73 The Gallerists 105 Curator's Corner 153 Patron's Perspective 191 Portfolio Introspection 211 As I See 237
INTRODUCTION Ten weeks, a hundred appointments, a thousand miles, ten thousand images. Last summer presented me with a singular challenge and opportunity: with generous support from the Thomas & Hannah McKinley Scholarship & Entrepreneur Grant at Bowdoin College, I conceived and created a self-directed arts and culture project that would involve many people. Recognizing a dearth of dedicated visual coverage for artists and performers, not as publicity or entertainment, but as means to gain public support for new initiatives, I decided to examine artistic identity around Boston, through the prism of my personal experience. In my summer explorations, I set out to visually highlight opportunities for the underrepresented and expanding boundaries for women. To involve even a reasonably representative slice of the arts and culture scene in a single summer through a single lens, I first made overtures to a myriad of mostly unfamiliar names: cultural leaders and art patrons, galleries and cultural institutions, artists and performers; seeking consent as much as referrals and suggestions. The names you encounter over the following pages include those people and organizations who responded: the leaders, patrons, artists and performers, art institutions and cultural organizations who found my initiative above objectively worthwhile. Finding my way to private homes, painters’ workshops and sculptors’ studios, museum foyers and concert halls, underground offices and artist cooperatives from Western Massachusetts to the state’s easternmost tip, eventually even reaching Rhode Island’s Connecticut border and Maine’s lake region, I recorded my own impressions of classical ensembles, jazz musicians, singers, dancers, painters, printmakers and sculptors all summer long. 1
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Before my eyes, marvels would unfold. A figurative sculptress transforms nature into stone and bronze. An octogenarian Holocaust survivor blends Bosch with Giotto on canvases of intricately drawn iconography. A Mauritian concert pianist pours his soul into ferocious interpretations of Mussorgsky at a small seaside gallery pop-up concert. A lion stalks violet-hued futuristic cityscapes on a digital illustrator’s tablet. In passionate artistic moments, a range of human emotions would coalesce in harmony: loss and sorrow, exultation and hope. What immense privilege to engage such participants! From socially progressive museum department chairs to trailblazing minority musicians to female artists seeking wider recognition, my encounters encompassed a range of gifted practitioners, gracious leaders, and generous patrons. At summer’s end, the formidable task of making the final cut from my ten thousand summer photographs beckoned. Wrestling information and imagery, for several weeks I edited and re-edited, so I could publicly share, with artists, advocates, and a worldwide audience of friendly strangers, the wisdoms and surprises discovered through my lens. Early on, I had offered a caveat to my would-be contributors and participants: I am not a reporter, investigative journalist, or cultural critic. As an artist, I observe, reflect, contemplate, and through my images, constantly comment upon our time. What unfolds in these pages are my summer impressions. My project’s scale also reminds me of the impossibility for a single individual to render a comprehensive picture, though I trust the stories told and experiences shared will form a sweeping, if selective, tableau. The work comprises two titles: Expanding Boundaries (the current book here), which is preceded by the first volume, Artistic Identities, both released at the same time. 2020 VISION |
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Historically, few other fields have wielded such ultimate influence as art. Visually conveying ideas, truths, observations, and insights into life, while moving and motivating people, has long been among art’s functions. As an artist, I have always sought opportunities to influence the world through work that relates the human condition. I hope my images will encourage the underrepresented to seek more opportunities, reaďŹƒrm patrons’ conviction in the arts, and help cultural leaders gather support for new initiatives. I also hope my work will inspire a new generation of talented, mindful, and compassionate creators. Acadia Mezzofanti Boston, January 2020
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Introduction
What is art?
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The Power of Art
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Art Lyricism
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At Boston’s SoWa Art & Design District
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The Gallerists
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BARBARA KRAKOW Krakow Witkin Gallery
“We don’t actually have to understand what they’re saying. All that’s important is our reaction.”
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“The Gallery space, for the younger generation, is unapproachable, inaccessible, and unwelcoming.�
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“The greatest challenge for a working artist today is getting seen.”
“Ten thousand artists to one wall.”
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One Artist to Ten Thousand Walls
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BERNARD PUCKER Pucker Gallery
“Art, though not an immediate necessity, is essential to uplift our spirits and provide higher inspiration.”
“I seek to integrate live and lived experiences with the art, encouraging moments of humanity and transcendence.”
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“The greatest challenge for the working artist today is survival.”
“Patronage alone cannot remedy the lacking reverence for the arts today.”
“Money is not the issue. The issue is engagement.”
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ALMITRA STANLEY Boston Sculptors Gallery
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“There is an emphasis for today’s artist on bringing political and social issues to the fore.”
“Past purpose: spiritual. Today: social and political engagement.”
“Artist-activists question, represent, and ultimately challenge injustices.”
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“We may see stagnation for galleries that serve an exclusively economic function, unless they evolve to engage the public.”
“Artistic grants tend to be project-based, and the work often serves a political function.”
“The most definitive challenges for the working artist today are the triad of money, space, and self-promotion.”
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ALEXANDER CIESIELSKI The Guild of Boston Artists
“In these troublous times, our art museums and galleries must inevitably become a life-giving oasis in a desert of fear and uncertainty… restful places in which peace and inspiration may be found.” - Guild of Boston Artists, 1917
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“The Guild principally serves as a sanctuary of the higher life, with beauty taking precedence above all else.”
“The Guild’s ethos is to revere and build upon the past.”
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“Profound meditation on the purpose of art, the role of beauty, the delights of color, light, and form exquisitely rendered.”
“The pendulum of art history has swung from Pop Art zeitgeist and abstraction to classical realism.”
“Conceptual art excludes people because it is cerebral, and the message often indirect. Representational art requires immense training and great skill to clearly convey ideas and subject matter.”
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“Men fit better into established traditions because those were already made for men.”
“Today, women are communicating in their own voices.”
“It is up to the individual artist as to what degree identity and gender should factor into their work.”
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“At its founding in 1914, the Guild’s female membership was surprisingly strong.”
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CHRISTINE O’DONNELL Beacon Gallery
“There is a social function of published works.”
“Upon entering the public sphere, art becomes an object to be interpreted, irrespective of the author’s original meaning.”
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“Trends in Boston art lean towards smallness of scale and scope, a tradition that can lead to stagnancy at the expense of innovation.”
“Boston art exists in the shadow of New York’s vastness and diversity.”
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“Art is often too male and too white.”
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Curator’s Corner
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FREDERICK ILCHMAN Chair of European Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“The history of art is, to some extent, the longest continuum we have...art has continued relevance as it also plays a fundamental role in our collective memory.�
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“At the outset of the sixteenth century, patrons would request works of art by specific artists, subject unimportant.”
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“Our post-industrial age of information longs for the tactile, for carefully constructed creations.�
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“Talking about the best in any field today, we don’t even have to prefix ‘woman’ or ‘female’ – as in woman poet or female artist.”
“By the time I retire, I believe women will be dominating the field of arts.”
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ANNE HAVINGA Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Chair of Photography Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Photography’s immediacy and accessibility have allowed it to reach audiences in unique ways.”
“Exceptional photography is both innovative and fresh, and enters contemporary conversation.”
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“Exclusion may stem from a number different reasons, gender being only one of them.”
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“The greatest problem artists face today are getting the work out there, and money.�
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ELLEN TANI Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
“The single greatest challenge artists face today is how to make a living.�
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“Artists, when confronted with the task of articulating their relevance, encounter many obstacles.”
“In the past, critics deemed female artistic output merely derivative of male artists’ work.”
“Second- and third-wave feminism, as well as postcolonial studies, have aided women’s pursuit of the arts.”
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“The Internet has altered our perception and concept of reality, a modern phenomenon that artists and thinkers have grappled with in their work.”
“Artists in the digital age create ‘artwork as experience’, fulfilling the needs of our time. They have more channels of knowledge, and of communication.”
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“The ubiquity of images flooding our visual field has led to a more superficial reading of deeper meanings.�
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Patron’s Perspective
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BARBARA ALFOND Philanthropist Former President of the Board of Trustees, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“One outcome of the contemporary art market frenzy is that it has allowed people to recognize the existence of art.�
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“Men and women collect in distinctive ways.�
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“I would want people to honestly believe that MFA stands for Museum for All.”
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“Today, the message through art is one of ‘immediacy’. Contemporary art has a resonance and immediacy that reaches the young.”
“College museums foster lively, ongoing discussions that will propel young people to effect change.”
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EVA ROSENBERG The Boston Foundation Harvard EdPortal
“Creators and cultural leaders have shown great resourcefulness in showcasing impactful and relevant work.”
“New models of patronage engage a community to support an individual artist.”
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“Boston in particular has lagged behind its peer cities in terms of artistic and cultural incentives.”
“The public needs to understand art’s intrinsic, not only economic, value.”
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“Space and affordability are the biggest challenges working artists face today.”
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Portfolio Introspection
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ON PHOTOGRAPHY
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As I See In the blink of an eye, I release the shutter to create an image that evokes emotions, and expresses what I feel. Minutes turn into hours, and days into years, as my photographs accumulate, embedding themselves into the vast fabric of modern history. Images may be born in a mere fraction of a second, but in that fleeting instant, my mind’s eye must unite every element into a flawless composition of heightened expression. Because once I miss a decisive moment, it is forever lost. Photography is my greatest passion, capturing my curiosity with the world and all that my eye discovers. Two early pioneers whose work ignited my photographic pursuits are Edward Steichen, whose artistic oeuvre bespeaks mastery of rendering abstract form and tonal variation, and Henri CartierBresson, whose gift for storytelling in visually complex and exquisitely composed photographs transcended language barriers. The sweeping influence of prominent image-makers on our collective visual memory has been profound. Photography’s power to communicate ideas and impressions in an immediate, unmediated manner, while merging popular consciousness with a unique yet universal vision, is unrivaled by any expressive medium in our modern epoch. Protean visual icons of our time, photographic representations shape our self-image by subverting our expectations and thereby fundamentally altering our perceptions. Meticulously crafted images evoke an array of visceral reactions, imbuing each with special significance—which I wish to remain constant throughout my own work. Unexpected ramifications of the sudden worldwide boom of this formerly exclusive creative domain have been sweeping and diverse, while an unprecedented ubiquity of photographic imagery has also radically transformed how we pose problems and offer solutions. And the democratization of self-expression has promoted active participation of communities worldwide, transcending boundaries of class and creed, background and ethnicity, gender and age. 239
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I have always considered myself an explorer, creating an ever-expanding tableau of the human condition through my lens. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s notion of living deliberately, I apply his transcendental view of “extracting the marrow of life” to my own experiences. The infinite versatility of my medium, with its narrative and persuasive potential, can reach far beyond mere capture of surroundings. I cannot simply “take” photographs; I must create them. While no simple formula exists for creating a great photograph, to me it is a felicitous blending of mind, heart, and soul leading to intellectual, spiritual, and emotional fulfillment. Photography as fine art is an old debate, first raised by eminent British thinkers, soon after William Henry Fox Talbot’s presentation of his new photographic invention in 1839. Minds as dissimilar as Sir John Herschel, Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and John Ruskin expressed their respective views. Later, a wide range of luminaries, from Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston to Walter Benjamin and Rudolf Arnheim, Roland Barthes and Clement Greenberg to Beaumont Newhall and Susan Sontag, among countless others, have made their contributions. Rife with doubts and replete with implications about art and representation, causality and intention, this debate on the unique nature and deeper meaning of photography remains quite contentious and unresolved. A beguiling human intuition, spurred on by partiality, has often undermined clarity and coherence in this exchange of ideas. And although I find some of the historical arguments convoluted and recondite, as I briefly state my own position on contemporary photographic art, I shall mention certain salient points in the standing debate, as well as my own objections. Carefully constructed logical ideals have cast an irresistible intellectual spell. Here, acts of artistic representation—that all-inclusive, unmistakable expression of the artist’s view about what is being depicted—all occur before the shutter is released. Photography, then, can be demoted to the status of a mere automatic recording process. However, once initial assumptions of mutual exclusivity about causation and intentionality are challenged, and the entirety of the photographic creation process is understood, such ideals lose even their theoretical, let alone practical, appeal. Photographic imagery can, indeed, represent expressed artistic vision. 241
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Contemporary reincarnations of “chance” producing photographic art are mistaken beliefs that revisit arguments predating the above philosophical perspective, and they often lack clarity. Chance here sometimes means arbitrary, other times accidental, or even lucky. Likewise ambiguous here is the use of terms such as causality, contribution, expression, and intention. And in the analysis of photographic images, exaggeration of unintentional minutiae at the expense of overall meaning sows further confusion. By implication, legitimate artistic mediums included paintings, because they are incrementally “built up” 2-D images; and sculptures, which are incrementally “shaped” 3-D objects. Although, to complicate matters, 2-D may be “cut” by a tool, as in engraving, or by an acid, as in etching (among countless other methods), while sculptures may be carved from a marble block, or cast by a mold and molten metal (among countless other methods). Regardless, images “taken by/with” a camera were excluded wholesale from all these overlapping processes, and they are legion, through which art could legitimately be created. Some stipulated that not even visionary minds, possessed of a unique gift, could create art this way, because their process is ill-chosen—whereas legitimate art could be created simply by choosing the right process. Conversely, pondering intentionality, causality, even automatism, do we classify extreme photorealist painting (especially after centuries-old emphasis on verisimilitude in art, cf. models, life-drawing) as essentially just a human recording mechanism? Is it mere skill, which may rise to art only when fused with commensurate content? How does it differ from photography, especially if created from a photograph in the first place? Physical existence before a lens begets a swarm of such thorny issues as representation and expression, intention and manifestation, control and vision. But the camera is a tool. Early photographers felt their medium was a novel way of marking surfaces with light, making the camera a mere tool in the hand of the creator. Like a paintbrush and its extended technical arsenal, the chisel and other sculpting equipment, or a pencil in its infinite variations on endless surfaces, the use of photographic technology can be artistic in the hands of some. And while you and I may express incredulity about a virtuoso drawing horsehair across strings to fill a concert hall with sublime music, or a ballerina gliding mid-air to communicate rapture, our disbelief will conflict with the fact that those gifted practitioners in their respective fields do exist and perform such astonishing feats. 2020 VISION |
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Unlike a camera, I look with two eyes in real space and real time. I am not an automatic recording mechanism. And once we reject the unwarranted assumption that an existing, material reality before the lens has much to do with the ensuing image (excepting the purely, and therefore intentionally, documentary/recording photography), the potential for creating art is born, as with any other primarily artisanal tools, crafts, and processes. The mind, liberated from rigid constraints of abstract automatism, will become creatively involved: the artist will take action to express her own vision. Therefore, the image principally must emerge as a result of the artistic disposition and the creative mind—not the tools, techniques, and processes used for visual expression. In my view, then, theoretical challenges to photography as art invariably make the cardinal error by insisting that the pre-existence of an objective reality, reflecting or emitting light toward a light-gathering apparatus, would prevent the creation of representational art, as defined above. This is an intuitively agreeable, seemingly rational, but demonstrably false assumption. Even when looking at what appears to be exactly the same scene, you will not see as I see. I present here no logic puzzle, aesthetic inquiry, or art criticism; nor do I aim at any scientific proof. Based on my observation, this is simple common sense: unless we all see alike, the images in our mind’s eye will diverge, whatever objective realities may surround us. And while from a purely analytical standpoint as regards physical details, two photographers’ representation of the very same scene may scarcely differ, those important nuances often make all the difference between an ordinary image and a great one. A portrait by Rembrandt and “by the school of ” may display only subtle differences, but ones that make a masterpiece. My mind’s eye will determine the images I create with whatever tool I use for expression. As I see that specific moment on a concert stage, street, or studio, it only exists to me, the observer of time and space. And no matter how intellectually tempting the notion may be, that moment is certainly not selected from some vast set of possibilities that could equally be generated by an automatic mechanical process. Since the moment only exists to that particular creator, artists may appear as conduits of a unique point of view, expressed as they transport the viewer to their mind, to share their feeling about that moment. Creativity for me has a lot to do with a playful mind and 2020 VISION |
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soaring spirit: creating memorable images being so much more complex than pressing tiny buttons, applying brushstrokes, or striking a chisel—none of which, in itself, is particularly involved. Indeed, still no one has satisfactorily explained the consistent exceptionality of photographic images whenever, say, Cartier-Bresson or Steichen “released the camera shutter behind an objective material reality”, as it were. I will suggest that perhaps during photography, a seemingly fast creative process, the mind’s visual editing network relies on a type of perpetual final cut in the brain, by incremental superimposition of successive images—until the shutter is released. Over the next decades, more may become known about the brain’s dynamic and involved workings during such creation. Regardless, rigid insistence on specific artistic medium, art form, or process, and the perennial preoccupation with tools and techniques, overlooks the unique vision by the creative eye. Great artists are distinguished by the quality and depth of their ideas. Centuries ago, it was their unique articulation of ideas that distinguished Leonardo or Dante, not mere brush technique or the use of terza rima. How they perceived the world around them would determine what they created. Medium and method were wholly subordinated to the creator’s vision. Improvements in photographic technology since 1839 have eventually placed uncomplicated and affordable digital tools into hands around the world. Technological progress has also impressively reduced the time required for the creative process, so that tools now are keeping up with the speed of our minds. Shrinking the time required for the creative process to express an artistic vision is vital when dealing with any time-sensitive medium. When I work, I fully absorb my environment. My visual sense is especially acute; I react and shoot lightning fast. Akin to a sculptor who chips away with a chisel at a block of marble to realize his vision (incidentally, he may wish to sculpt faster, but “technology” is his ultimate constraint, too), I consider my entire work an iterative process. By mentally capturing a multitude of moments in a theme, a final image emerges over time. Indeed, I constantly sculpt across time, to shape and form the moment when I release the shutter. This iterative aspect to express vision may be the missing representational link that elevates certain photographic images to fine art. 249
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I recommend taking into account the entire flow of time enveloping the photographic act of creation that consciously leads to a single moment. I never just randomly “shoot a lot”; I am always intentional. In the analogy with a sculptor, in this sense, my material is time. As in all visual arts, I must work through the passage of real time and changing physical space to achieve what I want, which only happens through conscious effort. Unlike the sculptor’s studio or painter’s workshop, you may not see my process. But it is there, in my mind, constantly engaged. And I only press the shutter once I have already pulled together what I want. People often notice that I create many of my images using various layers, and ask about the effect I try to create. Their observation, although accurate, is incomplete. I am not seeking an effect. Most of what you see in my images is what I actually see; it’s just that if you had been there, you may not have seen what I saw. You see, it is really all there: the metaphysical in my art is perhaps my ability to show you what exists beyond your senses. In my images, those layers are actual, physical realities that I see my own way and then integrate into one seamless whole, whether achieving it by transparence (for instance, glass displays in a museum); multiple mirrored reflections (gleaming surfaces, bodies of water in nature); superimposition real-time in my camera; or projected images intersecting with the physical space and models on the set. In other words, I unite several existing physical realities based on my vision into a single, new visual representation. But all those were, in the strictest sense, co-existing physical realities, not disparate images conjured up on a computer. Indeed, few of my images include major photo-manipulation; what you see most often comes directly from my camera, post-production and editing largely limited to emphasizing existing detail, or augmenting by the creative use of hues. This is just my own method, and as I suggested above, there are countless other ways to create art; nor am I against creative photo-manipulation: when my artistic vision requires it, I do not hesitate to do so. But more often, I create visual complexity in a compelling picture real-time. Such rare combination is what I strive toward in my work: a potent synthesis of original thinking and striking imagery. 2020 VISION |
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Acknowledgments Support by the Thomas & Hannah McKinley fund of Bowdoin College has allowed me to bring this project to life. By the spirited and generous participation of a select group of exceptional artists and performers, I was privileged to discover inner wisdoms, make keen observations, and behold a panorama of talent. The fusion of individual perspectives into a single work reflects my belief in the power of offering multiple, and often divergent, accounts of the human condition. All summer long, these artists and performers welcomed me into concert halls, studios, and their homes. I am greatly indebted to the swift and steady fingers wielding paintbrushes and pencils, chisels and bows, and to all those inspired minds behind them, for creating works of great charm and beauty, and for conjuring up a wondrous atmosphere for me to experience, absorb, transform, and share. The following visual artists volunteered their time to participate in my project: Samuel Bak, Serena Bates, Patrica Busso, Marcia Crumley, Kathryn Graven, Carolyn Latanision, Oana Lauric, Jennifer Maestre, Brian Murphy, Kat O’Connor, Paula Ogier, Kim Radochia, and Sharon Whitham. I thank you all. Profound appreciation on my part is further extended to the wonderful performers, dancers, and models in my complementary and supplementary images, including Leigh Tanji, Keren Alfred, Derek Bermel, Liana Branscome, Aria Cheregosha, Kate Dreyfuss, Anita Dumar, Jessica Rose Flynn, Caleb Georges, Abigail Hong, Chih-Yun Hsiao, Joy Huang, Elizabeth Hung, Annette Jakovcic, Sophia Janevic, Xin Jiang, Arah Kang, Reuben Kebede, Julie Lee, Minji Lee, Hanzheng Li, Charles Magnus, Daniel Miles, Ye Jin Min, Nikki Naghavi, Reonel Rafols, Georgina Rossi, Matthew Schultheis, Troy Stephenson, Pedro Sánchez, Augusta Schubert, Alexandra Simpson, Sophia Szokolay, Xinyuan Wang, and Kamyron Williams. Rockport Music and Shalin Liu Performance Center’s artistic director Barry Shiffman, president Tony Beadle, and Josue Gonzalez were all most supportive, and Karen Herlitz in particular provided considerable help and guidance in my summerlong musical explorations. My sincere gratitude is extended to the 2019 summer guest solo lineup of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, including cellist Allison Eldredge, pianist Kevin Ahfat, violinist Danny Koo, and violist Paul Laraia; members of the Aizuri Quartet, Garbriela Diaz, Miho Saegusa, Ayane Kozasa, and Karen Ouzounian; the members of A Far Cry; mandolinist Avi Avital, along with Andrea Marcon and his Venice Baroque Orchestra.
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The Rockport Jazz Festival at Shalin Liu followed, where I wish to thank Jazz Workshop director, saxophonist Alexa Tarantino, as well as her accomplished colleagues, singer Alita Moses, Mike Conrad on trumpet, Steven Feifke on piano, Nick Finzer on trombone, Emiliano Lasansky on bass, and Levi Saelua on saxphone. The Hot Sardines, led by Elizabeth Bougerol and Evan Palazzo put on a splendid show as the finale of their world tour, while the Rockport Fireworks backlit the Shalin Liu concert stage: Ben Golder-Novick on saxophone and clarinet, Todd Londagin on trombone, Noah Hocker on trumpet, David Berger on drums, Victor Murillo on bass, and tapdancing by A.C. Lincoln. I wish we all had more time to share, and hope my images will serve as a memento of that special evening. My further thanks are extended to Benoît Rolland, Amanda Gorman, the BoSoma and Luminarium Dance Companies, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, the town of Marblehead, and the Nahant Victorian Promenade. With heartfelt gratitude to Oxbow School founder and head of school Stephen Thomas and his stellar faculty, for their steadfast support and for teaching me, nearly a decade ago, on Oxbow’s serene campus in Napa, about the value and import of critical thinking and disciplined work habits for an artist. Likewise, I will always cherish the integrity and encouragement by Tim Trelease, my kind and generous art tutor at Deerfield Academy. Later still, my literary and cultural journeys in several languages would firmly anchor me in our time, and I am forever grateful to my Bowdoin College language and literature professors Arielle Saiber, Katherine DaugeRoth, Crystal Hall, Allison Cooper, Davida Gavioli, Annie deSaussure, and Fernando Nascimento for all their kindness and selflessness, and for expanding my cultural horizons and sharing their knowledge and wisdom. Khoa Khuong, Fred Field, and Dighton Spooner, as well as Professors Carrie Scanga and Janice Jaffe, have also been most patient and supportive of my many creative ideas along the way. I deeply appreciate the encouragement and opportunities I have received from the Copley Society of Art over the past five years. After I became the youngest elected full artist member of the oldest art society in America, I gradually became aware of the dual role of an art cooperative and community arts organization—which, to a certain degree, prompted this project. As any non-profit organization faced with both preserving the past and shaping the future, the Copley Society navigates between the twin challenges of providing an oasis of artistic tradition while building a bridge to the future.
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In 1913, the Copley Society was the final stop, after New York and Chicago, of the Armory Show, the first large-scale exhibition of modernism in America. The show introduced new styles, including Fauvism, Futurism, and Cubism to the public. Often for the first time in America, works by Picasso and Matisse, Braque and Brancusi, Leger and Munch, Redon and Seurat were on view; alongside the more familiar styles of Ingres, Delacroix, and Renoir; Rodin, Degas, and Monet; Cezanne, Gauguin, and van Gogh. The Copley Society exhibit of the Armory Show in Boston drew tens of thousands of visitors in 1913, and was as much an artistic-cultural watershed as it was a gesture of public outreach; it was certainly very successful on both fronts. I am honored and privileged to be an exhibiting Copley Artist today. Thoughtful contributions and insights by the following individuals and institutions merit special mention and have earned my profound gratitude: philanthropist Barbara Alfond, former President, and President Emerita of the Board of Trustees at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Frederick Ilchman, Chair of European Art and Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Anne Havinga, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Chair of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Ellen Tani, Assistant Curator at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art; Alfred Van Ranst and Eva Rosenberg at Boston Foundation and the Harvard Art Initiative and Ed Portal; Barbara Krakow of Krakow Witkin Gallery; Suzan Redgate, director of the Copley Society of Art; Bernard Pucker of Pucker Gallery; Almitra Stanley, director of Boston Sculptors Gallery; Christine O’Donnell, director of Beacon Gallery; and Alexander Ciesielski, director of The Guild of Boston Artists. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Anne and Frank Goodyear for early guiding, Susan Faludi for further encouraging, Barbara Alfond for reassuring, Suzan Redgate for supporting, Karen for welcoming, Frederick for introducing, Bernie for facilitating, Leigh for inspiring, Charlie for navigating, Peter for advocating—and my mom for everything. In the above, as in this book, any errors and omissions are entirely my own.
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About the Author Acadia Mezzofanti is a contemporary artist, who uses photographic imagery as the foundation to create her art. She is the youngest elected full artist member of the Copley Society of Art, the oldest art society in America. Capturing the Moment was Acadia's first solo exhibit, at 16. Other solo shows, including the 66-image Painting with Light exhibit followed, as Acadia has participated in over fifty group exhibits and art shows nationwide, receiving much recognition of her art. At 18, Acadia was awarded a United States national gold medal for her art photography, which she received on the main stage at Carnegie Hall. Acadia is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Italian, and is working on improving her conversant Mandarin Chinese and Portuguese, with a lifelong passion for languages.
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