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Invisibledwpineal
Psychedelic Artist
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Psychedelic vision on display at Memorial Art Gallery
    #13384078 - 10/25/10 07:51 AM (13 years, 6 months ago)

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20101024/LIVING/10240362/1032/Psychedelic-vision-on-display-at-Memorial-Art-Gallery


Psychedelic vision on display at Memorial Art Gallery

The 1960s are invading Rochester: Maureen McGovern's Carry It On is at Geva Theatre Center. Joan Baez was to perform Saturday night at the Auditorium Theatre. Bob Dylan is coming to Rochester Institute of Technology on Nov. 5.

The Memorial Art Gallery often hosts mind-expanding exhibits, but its latest owes a special debt to the 1960s. Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art Since the 1960s is an exhibit with intensely colorful, hallucinogenic works inspired by the '60s counterculture.

Not all of the artists popped LSD or magic mushrooms. Nor did they all paint in the spaced-out style of Grateful Dead album covers.

These free spirits batter open the "doors of perception" with a mind-blowing variety of tools. They use fluorescent paint, split-second video images or actual drugs glued to canvas. Some set their sights on Buddhist enlightenment; others take you on a nightmarish head trip.

"Psychedelic images were everywhere in the '60s — record covers, fashion, movie sets," says Marie Via, the museum's director of exhibitions. "Popular culture reacted to what the artists were doing."

Visitors will notice two distinct styles in this touring show.

Optical art tends to use hypnotic geometric patterns and sharp color contrasts. Visionary art creates powerful images with heightened color, melting outlines and dream-like imagery often associated with LSD.

"Isaac Abrams said that his LSD trips were the most powerful experiences of his life," says education curator Marlene Hamann-Whitmore, citing the Manhattan artist who founded the first psychedelic art gallery. "They show up in his paintings' fluid, organic shapes and bright colors."

But in the 45 years since Abrams pioneered his art, LSD and psilocybin mushrooms consistently failed to win glowing reviews as health food. Can museum goers who just said no to drugs get the full impact of these paintings?

That's a tough question, because hallucinogenic visions' true meaning was fiercely debated even in the 1960s. Many users, while high, felt that their private visions had immense significance. Afterward, they'd find these peak experiences tough to pin down in words.

Some paintings at the MAG exhibit do have clear messages. Others, like a potent puff of Maui Wowie, offer a mellow buzz without overloading the neural circuits.

Among the more lucid works, Alex Grey's Journey of the Wounded Healer (1985) tells an inspirational tale about attaining cosmic unity. A transparent man entwined in DNA bursts apart in outer space — then re-emerges as a triumphant hero.

Grey's approach is bracingly imaginative. The hero's disintegration looks like a violent explosion in a Zweigle's Hots factory. Reborn as a healer, he radiates beams of positive energy. (This last image may draw from an acid trip in which Grey's wife-to-be, Allyson, perceived a cosmic "net of love.")

But for Argentine artist Albert Alvarez, heaven can wait. He plunges us into an inferno of firing squads, three-eyed monsters and burning jetliners in his Karma and Death Pervade My Consciousness (2006). Its intricate fire-and-brimstone imagery recalls the medieval Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch — who tripped on religion, not acid.

Fred Tomaselli deftly blends nature imagery and optical illusion in Ripple Trees (1994). Over shadowy silhouettes of trees, he creates bright webs with actual marijuana leaves and prescription drugs. Glistening strands of Excedrin, Nuprin and Tums pull you into this therapeutic landscape: Let the healing begin!

The exhibit has more traditional examples of Op Art by Frank Stella, Victor Vasarely and Richard Anuszkiewicz. This last painter's Celestial (1966) lives up to its title with intensely orange geometric forms that pulse as you stare into their depths.

Baby boomers may wonder whether MAG's counterculture art is safe for their kids or grandkids. After all, sex allegedly broke out in the 1960s.

For the most part, the show is as aphrodisiac-free as a Girl Scout bake sale. Even Abrams' oil painting Cosmoerotica (1968) contains little that's openly erotic. It resembles a vivid cross-section of human organs, glimpsed through an electron microscope.

But adults and kids alike should think twice about visiting Richie Budd's Bon Voyage Somnambulating De Pileon (2008). This multisensory installation takes up a whole room and features a giant robot that runs its own disco. It plays dance music, flashes strobe lights, cooks hot dogs and (in other venues but not here) serves martinis.

You may feel a lot like Eddie Van Halen at a particularly good party. Or you may suddenly feel nauseous, as this reporter did.

"A lot of sensitive individuals find this installation disorienting," concedes Hamann-Whitmore.

Here's a safer way to find souvenirs from the 1960s. Visit MAG's gift shop, stuffed with lava lamps, peace necklaces and other Summer of Love trinkets. It's an instant nostalgia trip for Boomers.

Still, some former Flower Children may feel overwhelmed by the museum's carnival of psychedelic delights. Can we expect to see them chanting Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in the marble hallways?

"Hmmm," says Hamann-Whitmore, thinking about MAG's regular patrons. "No, I don't think that's going to happen."

SLOW@DemocratandChronicle.com

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