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UB Art Gallery to present 10-year survey of Cronin's work
By KRISTIN E.M. RIEMER
Reporter Contributor
"Patricia Cronin: The Domain of Perfect Affection, 1993-2003," a 10-year survey of the work of contemporary artist Patricia Cronin, will open tomorrow in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts, North Campus, with a free lecture by Guggenheim Museum curator Robert Rosenblum, followed by a reception for Cronin and Rosenblum.
The exhibition will include a 2/3-scale, plaster maquette of "Memorial to a Marriage," Cronin's three-ton, Carrarra marble mortuary marker.
Rosenblum will speak at 6 p.m. in the Screening Room of the CFA, with the reception beginning at 7 p.m. in the gallery. Organized by Sandra Firmin, art gallery associate curator, the exhibition will be on view through May 22. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
A witty manipulator of Victorian tradition, Cronin uses equestrian and mortuary sculpture, as well as animalier and erotic painting, to investigate sexuality, gender, age and class with regard to issues of status and desire. The exhibition focuses on a group of works from the past decade of the artist's career.
Cronin's erotic watercolors from the early 1990s invite the viewer to witness intimate moments between herself and her partner. Her larger-than-life-size, three-ton, Carrara marble mortuary marker, "Memorial to a Marriage" (2002), uses classical sculpture styles to depict a lesbian embrace, thus subverting common perceptions of wealth, marriage and status. Since "Memorial to a Marriage" is permanently installed in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, the exhibition will include a two-thirds scale, plaster maquette, two miniature bronzes and digital prints, as well as a mural photograph of the sculpture in situ.
Cronin's motivation, "to use equine imagery as a metaphoric means to address concerns of female autonomy, desire, power and class," is evident in such works such as "Pony Tales" (1996), "Tack Room" (1997-98) and "The Domain of Perfect Affection" (1999-2003), which also are featured in the exhibition.
Cronin received her B.F.A. from Rhode Island College in 1986 and her M.F.A. in 1988 from Brooklyn College, where she currently is deputy chair of the Graduate Art Program. Recent solo exhibitions were mounted at Grand Arts, Kansas City (2002); The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1999); White Columns, New York (1998), and Brent Sikkema, New York (1997). A distinguished artist, she has received several awards, including two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants and the prestigious invitational Grand Arts Award.
A 44-page monograph with 19 full-color reproductions and essays by Firmin and Rosenblum will accompany the UB exhibition. Rosenblum, a professor of fine arts at New York University and part-time curator at the Guggenheim, has written 16 books on 18th, 19th and 20th century art. He is known for his training in 19th century art history and his ability to make connections between previous and current art practices. His essay in this catalog, "On Patricia Cronin: From Here to Eternity," easily relates Cronin's work to that of her predecessors, while at the same time acknowledging its unique presence in contemporary circles.
Rosenblum's lecture is sponsored in part by the Department of Art History. The catalog was made possible through the generous support of A.G. Rosen and Debi Sonzogni, Sara Vance and Michelle Waddell, the Department of Women's Studies, the Institute for Research & Education on Women and Gender, and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Alliance.
The exhibition also is sponsored in part by Leader All Surface Printing.