Artist: Alberto Marcos Bursztyn Title: En el taller de mi abuela (In my grandma’s workshop) Audio: Date: 2016 Dimensions: n/a Location in Library: First floor Media: Mixed media Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of Alberto Marcos Bursztyn. Description: As a child, I often sat on the floor of my abuela Sara’s workshop while she was busy in the kitchen making delicious meals. Her dressmaker’s workshop was her livelihood, but also my playground. Gathering strips of cloth, searching for interesting buttons, hiding under the worktable and pretending to disappear, the workshop invited me to imagine. The piece evokes echoes from that period and celebrates her craft. It honors the strength and creativity of immigrant women who mend, stitch, and keep their families together with found remnants and threads of memory. My grandmother’s family migrated to Argentina in the early 1900’s escaping violent outburst of antisemitism in Ukraine. My mother in-law, a gifted dressmaker born in Poland, survived Nazi labor camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau by sewing fashionable evening wear for female Nazi guards. Thread spools from her Brooklyn sewing kit form the necklace of this piece. The mannequin is covered by strips of maps from every corner of the planet, but […]
Mixed Media
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: A New Direction (Marine Forms II) Audio: Date: 1974 Dimensions: 24″ x 30″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil relief, sand on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website– Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Asya Dodina, Slava Polishchuk Title: What Remains Audio: Date: 2012 Dimensions: Triptych, each section, 37 inches x 37 inches Location in Library: First floor Media: Graphite on rice paper and canvas, debris Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of the artists. Description: The artists’ choice of media is essential for this work, as they address the themes of loss, remembrance and survival, inherent in the devastation of New York’s Hurricane Sandy. Delicate images of battered plants are juxtaposed against the debris of painted, defunct magnetic tape, which originated in the 1930s for sound recording. This triptych raises awareness of challenges to libraries: in order to preserve content of a now obsolete technology, audiotape must be migrated to digital format. Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Sarah Sze Title: Night Audio: Date: 2001-03 Dimensions: 37 1/2″ x 71″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Offset lithography and silkscreen, works on paper Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © Sarah Sze Description: In both Day and Night a fantasy of miscellany is set free from function and gravity. In these exuberant prints, screened lines seem to propel and control the planets, buildings, architectural details, helicopters, signs, and satellite objects that swirl across the paper. Using dozens of layers of lithography and silkscreen, Sze creates an explosion of colors, forms, and light. There is an initial impression of chaos but there is also an inherent underlying composition. Although she begins with preliminary sketches, Sze describes her creative process as “improvisational, like jazz.” Related Websites– Sarah Sze’s Website – Sarah Sze at Gagosian Gallery
Artist: John Walker (British, b. 1939) Title: Clammer Audio: Date: 2003 Dimensions: 96″ x 84″ Location in Library: Second floor Media: Oil and mixed media on linen Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © John Walker Description: John Walker captures the ebb, flow, and changing light of a muddy cove near his home in Maine. His expressive brush strokes, dynamic composition, and freedom of execution evoke the feeling of a swirling tidal pool. Walker’s combination of materials, including mud, sand, and oil, creates gritty yet luminous textures. Explaining his use of these organic materials, Walker states: “It seemed obvious to get a bucket of [mud] and mix it in with the paint, to get the feel for how the tide comes in and out and the patterns that are caused by that constant changing tide on that particular cove where I work.” Related Websites – John Walker at TATE – John Walker’s website
