The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New exhibitions opening Feb. 14, 18
WATERBURY>> TheMattatuck Museum, 144 West Main St., Waterbury, is opening two new exhibitions this month. For more information on all of the museum’s programs, events, and exhibits visitmattatuckmuseum.org or call 203-753-0381.
The Mattatuck Museum celebrates the opening of What! NotWhite? The Victorian Bride, on view from Valentine’s Day to May 29. The exhibit opens with a reception on Sunday, Feb. 14, from 2-4 p.m.
The tradition of wearing a white wedding dress did not begin until Queen Victoria’s wedding in 1840. Before that, blue, brown, black or gray outfits were far more common. This reception will be a beautiful way to reflect on the past while you dream about your future. Toast to your own happily ever after with a little bubbly, strawberries and chocolate.
The reception is free, and the exhibition is drawn from theMattatuckMuseum’s costume collection with loans from the Gunn Memorial Library& Museumand the Torrington Historical Society.
A new exhibit, Victor Vasarely: The Absolute Eye @ The Matt, opens with a reception on Thursday, Feb. 18, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Victor Vasarely: The Absolute Eye, has more than 60 serigraphs Bridal fashions of yesteryear are featured in a new exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury. and objects on loan from the Herakleidon Museum of Art in Athens, Greece.
Thiswill be the first time a selection from the museum’s extensive Vasarely collection — the largest in the world— will be on view in the United States. Victor Vasarely is the world-renowned Father of the Op Art movement, and this exhibition examines the optical and geometric grounding of his illusionistic art ofmultidimensional, polychrome spaces. It will be on view at theMattatuckMuseum from February 18 through April 10, 2016. This exhibition is sponsored in part by the Savings Bank of Danbury.
Vasarely’s unprecedented use of perceptual abstraction and his early anticipation of the shift in human opticsmake himone of themost important artists of the 20th century. In his works, a flat static image acquires illusion ofmovement and volume; figurative image turns into abstract pattern, and vice versa. He played with background and color, combined geometric elements in a special way andexperimentedwithmaterials. His innovations in using optical illusions became extremely popular in the 1960s and 70s. His use of optical art in design, advertisement and architecture led to the popularization of the style and opt art became a part of everyday life. His work went on to influence a generationof young artists and had a lasting impact of print, poster, and fabric design.