To speak without words requires a certain talent—and in some cases, it requires paint.
The Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College has continued its showing of “Expressive Voice: Landscape of Emotion.”
The gallery opened on June 7, but the exhibit has re-opened for students and community members alike.
A reception was held in the Thorne on Thursday evening, September 19.
Sophomore Jess Mahoney explained what the exhibit meant to her and said, “it brings in all different kinds of people, [and] personalities.”
Bri Corron, a senior, said the exhibit “brings in different perspectives from the community, different cultures so it’s good to open your mind [while viewing the exhibit].”
Leah Mulroney / Equinox Staff: Observers spend time viewing the various pieces in several exhibits at the Thorne-Sagendorph, KSC’s very own art gallery. The gallery offers multiple traveling, as well as student-produced, exhibitions each year.
Maureen Ahern, the director of the Thorne, said the gallery was mostly viewed by the local community over the summer.
“We think this is an important show and it’s good for our Keene State College students and faculty to bring their classes in,” she said, now that the Thorne is open once more for the academic year.
Sophomore Emily Bouffard said she is thrilled to have the exhibit at KSC because the pieces being shown are created by “incredibly famous artists.”
Ahern said the exhibit is made up of “some wonderful, different, expressive images by influential teachers and artists from Boston, and it shows how they influenced several generations.”
“Expressive Voice” was presented by the museum Danforth Art in Framingham, Massachusetts. The exhibit is a display of what is called Boston Expressionism.
The term was coined in the 1930s where artists created pieces that revolved around emotion and the meshing of memories.
The generations Ahern spoke of began with the first generation of artists in the 1930s, and continues today with artists who began creating these expressionism pieces in the 70s and 80s.
Some of these creators are still producing work today.
Boston Expressionism emerged during World War II, according to the press release handed out at the Thorne.
Much of the movement can be tracked back to European Symbolism and German Expressionism, according to the Danforth Art website.
Also according to the Danforth Art website, a few of the more current Boston Expressionists include Aaron Fink, Gerry Bergstein, Sidney Hurwitz, Jon Imber, Michael Mazur, Katherine Porter and Jane Smaldone.
Ahern particularly liked Mazur’s piece of figures in an insane asylum.
“I love the texture, the space and the depth applications and the use of the painted panel to look like you’re looking through something, the frame,” Ahern said.
“There’s always little stops and things that keep the mind from actually expressing itself the way we think,” Ahern said.
Corron said she could “see emotion on all the paintings,” and later added that this emotion was not necessarily seen in faces.
Mahoney said Mazur’s piece was also her favorite. To her, his paintings and drawings resembled being stuck, or “hunched over.”
“You almost kind of see pain,” Mahoney said, when speaking of a piece that appeared to have two different heads.
She wondered aloud what the artist’s intention was when making this piece and tried to figure out what he was interpreting.
Mahoney said she realized each piece had faces in small details and each piece somehow tied together.
Corron said after viewing the pieces, she took away an “appreciation for the artist’s mind and how they see things. It’s different from how I [Corron] would see things.”
Of course, each painting had a description, but for many, like Ahern, the artwork could not simply be described verbally.
“Every viewer is going to have a different take, there’s no one-way to look at anything,” Ahern said.
She hoped those who trickled in and out of the Thorne to view the gallery would enjoy the “incredible, expressive means of communication, [and] very different styles.
It’s all about emotion and it’s all about feeling, it’s not a solely intellectual exhibit and I think people will enjoy seeing that because you don’t see a lot of that,” she said.
A recent addition to KSC’s Thorne Art Gallery is titled “Pressing Print: Universal Limited Art Editions 2000-2010.
This art gallery’s website said the exhibit displays artwork by the Universal Limited Art Editions printmaking workshop.
This exhibit will also portray diversity in art with “innovative approaches and techniques in contemporary art making,” according to the Thorne’s website.
Not only that, but the gallery also has their permanent collection to offer.
The permanent exhibit showcased flourishing Monadnock artists at the turn of the millennium including but not limited to George Rickey, Robert Mapplethorpe and Jules Olitski.
Brittany Ballantyne can be contacted at bballantyne@keene-equinox.com