Approaches to Narrative: Works from the Permanent Collection

Dewey Family Gallery
October 7, 2006 – September 16, 2007

Contact: Corey Cronin , 781/259-3628, ccronin@decordova.org

LINCOLN , MA —Stories are found in just about every aspect of our lives in the form of personal histories, childhood fairytales, or a favorite film or novel. In the visual arts, the narrative impulse is as old as the oldest paintings and, in the past thirty years, has re-emerged in contemporary art as a mode for artists to convey personal, social, and political is sue s. In artwork, storytelling’s engaging structure—following a character through a plot, witnessing an event unfold, or simply prompting us to ask Why? Who? or What?—allows a viewer a greater and more participatory role. After all, what is a story without an audience?

Approaches to Narrative highlights drawings, prints, photographs, and paintings from DeCordova Museum ’s Permanent Collection that use imagery to “tell” stories through visual narratives. The basic components of any narrative—characters, setting, plot, and, of course, a story-teller (the artist)—are all present in these works with varying degrees of emphasis. These approaches are addressed through three basic, but fluid, categories in the exhibition, set off in pairs or oppositions to emphasize the flexible and open-ended nature of visual narratives: Fact or Fiction?, Public and Private, and Time and Place.Loosely based around the dominant narrative forms of myth, biography, and history, these categories ask you, the viewer, to focus on specific aspects of visual storytelling: Where exactly is the line between fact and fiction in a photograph? Who is telling the story and why? While much of the artworkon display focuses on the expressive qualities of the human figure, others explore the narrative potential of places and objects. And since a story, at its most simple, is a sequence of events, time plays a vital role in these works in the form of sequential imagery, history, and memory.

As an entry point for the exhibition and a precursor for the more recent work on display in the Dewey Family Gallery is Walker Evans’s Torn Movie Poster, Martha’s Vineyard, 1930. By simply photographing an old poster, Evans captures multiple stories at once: the non-fiction documentary aspect of the photograph is one narrative; the fiction of film which is the subject of the work, is a second; and the narrative of history of the illustrations themselves, which are now over 75 years old. In a brief gesture punctuated by the torn paper, he is able to compress the richness, variety, and depth of visual narratives.

Even an exhibition is a type of narrative. Every artwork in DeCordova’s collection has its own story of how it was created and how it came to be in the Museum. By choosing these artworks, we created a new story through the exhibition theme. Enjoy looking at this “collection within a collection” and see if there is a story in it for you.

The featured artists are: Ali (Alison Cann-Clift) (Chelsea, MA) printmaking; Laylah Ali (Williamstown, MA) drawing, painting; Ri Anderson (Laredo, TX) photography; Hannah Barrett (Jamaica Plain, MA) painting; Nancy Burson (New York, NY) printmaking; Ambreen Butt (Cambridge, MA) painting; Rebecca Doughty (Waltham, MA) sculpture; Harold Edgerton (Deceased) photography; Walker Evans (Deceased) photography; Vico Fabbris (Boston, MA) drawing, sculpture; Robert Ferrandini (Winthrop, MA) printmaking; Larry Fink (Bangor, PA) photography; Hillary French (Wayland, MA) photography; Dore Gardner (Marblehead, MA) photography; Francis Hamilton (South Boston, MA) painting, collage; David Hilliard (Boston, MA) photography; Roger Kingston (Belmont, MA) photography; Jane Lund (Ashfield, MA) printmaking; Sarah Malakoff (Roslindale, MA) photography; Maria Muller (Medford, MA) photography; Nicholas Nixon (Brookline, MA) photography; Deb ra Olin (Somerville, MA) printmaking; John O’Reilly (Worcester, MA) photography; Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (Great Barrington, MA) photography; Scott Prior (Northampton, MA) painting; Larry Rivers (Southampton, NY) printmaking; Shelley Reed (Brookline, MA) painting; Richard Rosenblum (Deceased) digital photography; Andrew Stevovich (Northboro , MA) printmaking; Cary Wolinsky ( Norwell , MA) photography.

Approaches to Narrative is curated by Dina Deitsch, Curatorial Fellow.

For images, please contact Corey Cronin at ccronin@decordova.org or 781/259-3628.

General Information: DeCordova Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm and on selected Monday holidays. General admission during Museum hours is $9 for adults, $6 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6–12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free. The Sculpture Park is open year round during daylight hours. The Store @ DeCordova and the School Gallery are open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am to 7:30 pm , Friday through Saturday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm , and Sunday 10:30 am to 5:30 pm. The Café @ DeCordova is open Tuesday from noon to 3 pm, and Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm. Free guided public tours of the Museum's main galleries take place every Thursday at 1 and Sunday at 2 pm. Free tours of the Sculpture Park are given on Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm from May to October. Call 781/259-8355 for further information.