BRATTLEBORO-Curator Phong H. Bui and art historian Alexander Nagel will discuss the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) exhibition "Singing in Unison, Part 13: Homage to Meyer Schapiro," at BMAC on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 5:30 p.m.
Invited by BMAC to curate an exhibition at the museum, Bui, the co-founder, publisher, and artistic director of monthly journal The Brooklyn Rail, proposed a show that would serve as a tribute to his late mentor, the art historian, Meyer Schapiro.
"My personal connection with southern Vermont comes from the time I spent with Schapiro and his wife, Lillian, at their longtime summer home in Rawsonville," said Bui in a news release. "When BMAC offered me the opportunity to curate an exhibition, my immediate thought was to pull together a group show featuring some of the many amazing artists who were connected to Schapiro in his lifetime."
The resulting exhibition, "Singing in Unison, Part 13: Homage to Meyer Schapiro," opened at BMAC last November and remains on view through Feb. 15. Featuring works by more than 30 artists, including Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, and Arshile Gorky, the exhibition occupies BMAC's Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Gallery and two adjoining galleries.
One entire wall of the exhibition consists of a recreation of a wall in Bui's Brooklyn home, which he calls his "Shrine to Schapiro." It includes dozens of small artworks by Schapiro himself, which he created "not because he considered himself an artist, but because he believed that as an art critic and historian, it was imperative for him to have hands-on experience in making art, in order to understand the choices and challenges artists face in making their work," said Bui.
The "Singing in Unison" portion of the exhibition title references an ongoing series of curatorial projects launched by Bui and The Brooklyn Rail in 2022 (of which the BMAC exhibition is the 13th) that advocates for "the art of joining" as a "social and cultural process that can mediate the isolation and disequilibrium many people feel in today's political and cultural climate."
"The sense of community that Meyer Schapiro cultivated among artists and intellectuals of the 20th century has been a guiding force for the remarkable work that Phong Bui and The Brooklyn Rail have done over the past 25 years, through their indispensable publication, curatorial projects, online programming, and social gatherings," said BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld. "And it is precisely in keeping with the ethos that motivates our work at BMAC-bringing people together and fostering connection and understanding through art."
Joining Bui for the Feb. 7 conversation about the exhibition and Schapiro's legacy is art historian and author Alexander Nagel, Craig Hugh Smyth Professor of Fine Arts at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts. Nagel's academic interests include "the ways art allows humans to think through time and find orientation in the world, and how material artifacts shape meanings and structure ways of being in an environment."
"Singing in Unison, Part 13: Homage to Meyer Schapiro" is supported in part by Christopher and Vimala Steadman and the Wolf Kahn Foundation.
Admission is free; registration is recommended, but walk-ins are welcome. Register at brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.