NY Arts -
The Many Shades of Black: Three Decades of Carrie Mae Weems
By Edward Rubin
The Frist Center For The Visual Arts, also known as “The Little Museum That Could” has been mounting important, ground-breaking exhibitions ever since it opened its doors 12 years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. Housed in a beautiful Art Deco post office from the early 30s—the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Frist is Nashville’s answer, on a smaller scale of course, to the “big boy” museums like the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It may be small but it mounts big.
Most recently on view was Carrie Mae Weems’ retrospective, “Three Decades of Photographs and Video.” Beautifully curated by Kathryn Delmez who did her thesis on the African American artist, is a provocative, thought-provoking, and timely exhibition—think Spielberg’s “Lincoln”, Tarantino’s Django “Unchained”, both currently up for Oscars—and Obama in the White House will be on the road throughout 2013 and well into 2014. Leaving the Frist, its originating venue, it travels to the Oregon Art Museum, Cleveland’s Museum of Art, Cantor Arts Center in California, ending its run at the Guggenheim in New York.
Carrie Mae Weems. Mirror, Mirror from Ain’t Jokin’, 1987–88. Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 in. International Center of Photography, New York, Gift of Julie Ault, 62.2001.
Report
Massimo Nardi