Angela Lorenz: Wordscapes / Parolaesaggi

Questa mostra di Angela Lorenz (USA) è un’installazione di 10 libri d’artista, basati sui paesaggi ad acquerello dell’artista e poeta Edward Lear, che sono conservati alla Houghton Library all’Università di Harvard.  Sta al fruitore di immaginare i paesaggi, seguendo solo le parole che Lear ha disposto in ogni immagine, come una sua guida ed un suo divertimento. Le indicazioni che gli artisti danno a se stessi sono conosciute come ‘aide-mémoires’ (memorie d’aiuto) e pure queste annotazioni si avvicinano alla poesia, sparse sulla superficie dell’immagine, riflettendo suoni, sentimenti e climi, con scherzose variazioni ortografiche. Lorenz ha dipinto queste parole con colore ad olio nero su tela bianca ed ha rilegato le tele con una tecnica usata per chiudere le borse da motocicletta.

Edward Lear ha vissuto gran parte della sua vita in Italia, ma ha viaggiato a piedi, con la tenda, attraverso l’Europa, l’Africa, il Medio Oriente e il Sudest dell’Asia, cercando paesaggi da dipingere.

Agela Lorenz

Ha creato libri d’artista-scultura ed edizioni limitate in mixed-media a Bologna, dal 1989. È stata tirocinante presso un legatore italiano durante un anno accademico all’Università di Bologna, e si è laureata in Belle Arti e Semiotica alla Brown University, con corsi di grafica alla Rhode Island School Of Design.

Opere di Lorenz si trovano oltre 100 collezioni pubbliche in Nord America ed in Europa, come la Graphische Sammlung Albertina a Vienna, la Victoria&Albert’s National Art Library, la British Library e la Tate Library. Negli Stati Uniti, le collezioni includono il Metropolitan Museum of Art, il Fogg Art Museum, il Clark Art Museum, la National Gallery, il Walker Art Center, ed il Getty Research Center, oltre a numerose collezioni unuversitarie.  

Ha tenuto lezioni ed ha esposto di frequente negli Stati Uniti e all’estero, presso Accademie di BB.AA., Università, Musei, Biblioteche. Ha tenuto conferenze al MASS MoCA, Yale, Dartmouth, al Museum of Fine Arts Boston, NYU ed al Brooklyn Museum of Art, ed ha insegnato alla Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture nel 2007.
Mostre personali sono state allestite all’ Addison Gallery of American Art, al Farnsworth Art Museum, alla Houghton Library, alla Fleet Library ed al Davis&Langdale.
Collettive alla Yale University Art Gallery, al Met, New York Public Library, al  Walker Art Center, al Museum of Contemporary Craft a Portland, Oregon, ed al Portland Art Museum in Maine.

Wordscapes/Parolaesaggi:
Text from theLandscapes of Edward Lear(1812-1888)

• 27 April – 20 May 2012
• Private View: Friday  27 April 2012 at 18.00

This exhibition is an installation of10 artist’s books by Angela Lorenz(USA) based on watercolor landscape paintings by the artist and poet Edward Lear housed in Houghton Library, Harvard University. But it is up to the viewer to imagine the landscapes, using only the words Lear placed in each image, as a guide for himself, and for his amusement. Artist’s directions to themselves are known as aide-mémoires, yet these annotations verge on poetry, scattered throughout the picture ground, referencing sounds, feelings and weather, with silly variations on spelling. Lorenz painted these words in in black oil paint on a white canvas ground, and bound the canvases together with a technique used to close nomad saddle bags. Edward Lear lived much of his life in Italy, but traveled on foot with a camp bed throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia looking for landscapes to paint.

Angela Lorenz

has been creating highly sculptural, mixed-media limited-edition artists’ books in Bologna, Italy since 1989. She apprenticed to an Italian bookbinder on a year abroad at the University of Bologna, and received a B.A. in fine arts and semiotics from Brown University, with courses in graphics at Rhode Island School of Design.  Lorenz’s work may be found in over 100 public collections in North America and Europe, such as the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna, the Victoria&Albert’s National Art Library, the British Library and Tate Library. In the US, collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fogg Art Museum, the Clark Art Museum, the National Gallery, the Walker Art Center, and the Getty Research Center, as well as numerous university collections.  
She has lectured and exhibited frequently in the US and abroad, at beaux arts academies, universities, museums, libraries and academic conferences, at MASS MoCA, Yale, Dartmouth, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, NYU and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and was resident faculty at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007. Solo exhibitions have taken place at the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum, Houghton Library, the Fleet Library and Davis&Langdale, with group exhibitions at Yale University Art Gallery, the Met, New York Public Library, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon, and the Portland Art Museum in Maine.

For more, and an online archive: angelalorenzartistsbooks.com