Wednesday, May 9, 2012

SUGGESTIVISM NYC


image3

Bold Hype gallery presents the summer group exhibition, Suggestivism NYC. This exhibit, curated by Nathan Spoor, features 40 of the new contemporary art scene's most talented and intriguing artists. The concept of Suggestivism, says Spoor, does not center around claiming a title for giving any movement a name, but for introducing a common creative thread amongst several disparate and unique voices within the modern art world.

Spoor first engaged the concept and usage of the term, "Suggestivism", during his graduate school days to conceptualize his vibrant and engaging style of work. Once the internet gained popularity and more thorough searches could be made of scanned books, Spoor made the discovery that art historian Sadakichi Hartmann has actually used the term 'suggestivism' in his critical texts to certify the modern ideal of "an art that is possibly more than it seems, or possibly an art that is not what it seems (as stated in by Jane Calhoun Weaver in the introduction to Hartmann's influential Critical Modernist: Collected Art Writings) . In these writings Hartmann stated that he saw the works of some influential artists and writers from the late 1800's and early 1900's such as Edgar Allen Poe or Georges Seurat as being suggestivist. As California State University Fullerton's acting director Mike McGee says in the forward to the book, Suggestivism: "Indeed, there are a number of similarities between Hartmann's suggestivists and the artists Spoor claims under his contemporary suggestivist umbrella. one of the most notable parallels is the relationship of these two groups of artists to the prevailing aesthetic tides of their respective times."

No comments: