Saturday, June 28, 2014

the role of Larry Kagan in our lives

Larry Kagan Sculpture with Cast Shadow

(please note, if you are new to this blog, Robert F. Winne is my father and I am his daughter writing this post).

Today I went to a Larry Kagan exhibit at a prestigious museum in my area. If any of you saw the first post on this blog, Larry Kagan was my father's colleague at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). Larry was also my first drawing teacher. My father sat in on some workshops Larry taught as well.

As I looked through Larry's pieces in the show, I wished my father was with me to see the direction Larry went with his art (and sometimes I could just about hear my father say, "Oh, my goodness! So interesting ... and so well done!"). Indeed, it is a unique direction! 

Larry makes art that makes shadows. They are abstract sculptures that are screwed to the wall to make another image (in shadow) that is realistic, recognizable and common. There is usually one light coming in a certain direction to make the image.

Here is a video I saw on You Tube that describes his process:


As for art lessons with Larry? My father loved lessons about "free-ing up the hand" to make spontaneous liberating drawings, usually of figures (as an architect he was expected to make very tight precise drawings all day, so you can imagine this was a breath of fresh air). 

As for me? I remember drawing in the boiler room with a lot of pipes in tangles. That would have appealed to my sense of intricacy.  



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