BREAD AND SALT
New location opening
Astronauts arriving at the Mir space station and later at the International Space Station have been offered small packets of bread and salt, a traditional Russian welcoming ceremony. The tradition is also common in European and Middle Eastern cultures.
David Ligare has painted the Greek tradition of xenia, gifts of hospitality, in his still lifes. Still Life with Fruit and Pot was an offering to the public by Hirschl & Adler Modern as it welcomed people to its new location in the Fuller Building in Manhattan, New York. Its opening exhibition was appropriately titled Bread & Salt. Ted Holland, artist manager and exhibition coordinator at the gallery, says, “We wanted to open our new space with a show that highlights and welcomes new beginnings. Titling the show after housewarming traditions felt right—this is our home, our artists’ home, and you are always welcome here. Integrating new work by our long-standing artists with work by artists new to our program, including two estates, allows us to show where we have been and hint at where we are going.”
In addition to Ligare’s classically inspired paintings, among the contemporary artists is Elizabeth Turk, whose carved marble Script: Horizontal seemingly turns solid stone back into a fluid. She has described that paradoxical phenomenon: “It is my nature that when I think of an idea I also think of an opposite statement. It’s a simultaneous truth. As you move closer to the border of a thought, suddenly another reality is staring at you. It’s about human nature. In one space we dominate, and in another we’re dominated.”
Included in the exhibition are works from estates the gallery now represents including that of Louisa Chase (19512016). Chase’s approach to painting varied throughout her career. The gallery notes, however, “What never wavered was the artist’s intention to make visual on canvas her inner emotional state. Chase was recognized early in her career, and her work was included in a host of important group exhibitions, including Barbara Rose’s 1979 manifesto at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, American Painting: The Eighties…” Her Untitled, 1987, recalls Cy Twombly and Ellsworth Kelly with its geometric forms in primary colors and its free, energetic calligraphy.