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Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and BeautyPost an Event »
Read Our Review »Contemporary Jewish Museum
June 18 - September 20, 2015Info
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http://thecjm.org/
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(415) 655-7800
Vanessa Marsh. Mountains 4 from the series Falling, 2014; chromogenic photogram; 30 x 60 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco.
In the eighteenth century, the concept of the sublime became very influential among painters and poets due to an increasing interest in the aesthetics of science. Expanding global exploration made people astutely aware of the enormous scale and splendor of the planet’s wild places, and astronomy was revealing the staggering immensity of the universe. The result was a combination of awe and fear—awe at the majesty and beauty of creation, and fear of human frailty, mortality, and insignificance in the light of the vastness of the cosmos. This response itself became a point of interest: how do we existentially resolve our psychology and spirituality with this new information?
Taking the title from the biblical concept that, “the day goes after the night,” (Gen 1:5) at the time of creation, Night Begins the Day is an exhibition featuring the work of twenty-seven artists, scientists, and creative thinkers that, in this current moment of expansion through scientific development, look at three aspects of contemporary art that can be seen as emerging from the historic precedent of the sublime: technological innovation; new understandings of time; and new expressions of awe and fear that have emerged from contemporary irony and cultural critique.
Featured artists/contributors include Peter Alexander, Lisa K. Blatt, Peter Dreher, Moira Dryer, Institute For Figuring, Masood Kamandy, Robert Kooima, Michael Light, Josiah McElheny, and Fred Tomaselli.
Organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Curated by Chief Curator Renny Pritikin and Associate Curator Lily Siegel. A fully illustrated catalog with essays by the curators, Dodie Bellamy, and Nathaniel Deutch will be available.