©2012 Tang Teaching Museum.
This constellation of artworks from the Tang Collection presents a view of the natural world as both idiosyncratic and full of mystery. It includes three sculptures by Lenore Tawney (American, 1907–2007), whose large-scale weavings from the 1960s bridged art and craft during a period that considered the two mutually exclusive. For her cascading Murmuring River, in black linen and jute (1968), Tawney developed a new process that freed her from the rectangular form of a traditional loom. Tawney’s work also includes cryptic assemblages and collages, like Shrine I and Shrine II (both 1995), that combine natural objects such as stones, bones, eggs, and feathers with the artist’s own musings on nature.
Mythology permeates the fantasy world of Andrew Mania (British, b. 1974). His Yetiscape (2004) assembles found and altered canvases into a view of the land inhabited by the legendary Himalayan creature. Mania’s personal folklore also fuels the work—he relates that his mother sighted a yeti while fleeing Russia during World War II.
The exhibition’s title, Say—Sea—Take Me! comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), written about 1860. Shadows of Dickinson resurface in the 1940 photograph of dancer and choreographer Martha Graham by Barbara Morgan (American, 1900–1992). Taken in Morgan’s New York studio, this image captures Graham performing in Letter to the World, based on Dickinson’s life and writing. Letter to the World used a cast of fourteen dancers, each representing a facet of the poet, and combined choreography, an original orchestral score, and spoken lines from Dickinson’s poetry.
Current Exhibitions
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Upcoming Exhibitions
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