Artistic observation of skies focus of exhibition

For thousands of years, humans have gazed upward, inspired by the mystery of the universe. “Touch the Sky: Art and Astronomy” at Vassar College’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, showcases the artist’s response exploring science through the arts.

Mary-Kay Lombino, the Emily Hargroves Fisher ’57 and Richard B. Fisher curator and assistant director for Strategic Planning said, “This exhibition will not only appeal to art enthusiasts but to anyone who has an interest in the sky, stars, the sun and moon, and the vastness of the universe. Several artists in the exhibition use NASA images as source material for their artwork, giving the works a broad appeal.”

“Touch the Sky” is part of a campus-wide celebration of the sciences, marking the opening of a new building on campus, the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences.

Lombino selected 19 artists to exhibit work that explores astronomy through a variety of media, including artist books, prints, drawings, paintings, photography and film. The exhibit focuses on contemporary artworks, but of special note is Lewis M. Rutherfurd’s “Moon in First Quarter,” an 1865 carbon print with exquisite details by the inventor of the first telescope designed for astrophotography. In contrast with the Rutherfurd image, see another approach by contemporary photographer Thomas Ruff’s chromogenic prints reconfigured from original NASA images that resemble abstract minimalist artworks.

Penelope Umbrico utilizes photos of the full moon sourced from the popular Internet photo site Flickr and presents them as a composition ordered around the grid.

“In this work,” Lombino said, “the individual subjective experience of witnessing and photographing the sun or moon is revealed as a collective practice, seen recontextualized in its entirety, with new impact and effect.”

Umbrico’s work is visually pleasing and viewers might wonder if they are looking at one of their own photos of the full moon.

Paintings include a site-specific work by Laura Battle, “How long is your past, how far is your future.” This 16-foot painting is exhibited in the Atrium Gallery with a design organized around the theme of a spiral galaxy. The painting is alive with the motion of the universe, showing color and design inspired by an element of space studied by 1948 Vassar College alumna and American astronomer, Vera Rubin.

Artists have also used unusual materials to create artworks, such as Matthew Brandt’s “NGC 6357,” using cocaine on photographer’s velvet, and Teresita Fernández’s “Night Writing, with colored and shaped paper pulp.

Internationally known Vassar alumna and artist Nancy Graves exhibits 10 lithographs of the moon’s surface and a black-and-white film titled “Reflections on the Moon.” Graves built a lifetime of work around her keen interest in maps. With the 1969 moon walk in the collective memory, she created a series of prints that represent the topography of the moon through abstraction and vivid colors. In Graves’ 1972 lithograph, “Riphaeus Mountains Region of the Moon,” viewers can enjoy the artist’s vision as a pointillist composition in greens, oranges and rhodamine reds that make the surface of the moon appear colorful and exciting.

Linda Marston-Reid is the president of Arts Mid-Hudson. The column appears every other week in Enjoy! Contact her at 845-454-3222 or lmr@artsmidhudson.org

If you go

“Touch the Sky: Art and Astronomy” is on view through Aug. 21 at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College campus, 124 Raymond Ave., Poughkeepsie.

Upcoming events accompanying the exhibit include:

• 8 p.m., May 12: “A Trip to the Moon,” a 1902 French silent film by George Méliès, follows a group of astronomers on a cannon-propelled capsule exploration of the moon. Bring blankets and lawn chairs; outside the art center, adjacent to the chapel lawn.

• Noon, May 13: Gallery talk at the Art Center Temporary Exhibition Galleries with Mary-Kay Lombino, curator of the exhibition.

• 1:30 p.m., May 13: Preschool Storytime: at the Art Center Galleries, for children ages 3-5, including a story about the moon, viewing of a few of the artworks in the “Touch the Sky: Art and Astronomy” exhibition and making a simple craft related to the astronomy theme.

• June 2 and June 23: Late Night at the Lehman Loeb: Observatory Nights, galleries open until 9 p.m. Visitors are invited to explore the “Touch the Sky” exhibition and then, weather permitting, go to Vassar College’s observatory to view the night sky, when Mars, Jupiter and Saturn should be visible. Call 845-437-5237 if the weather is in doubt.

For more information, visit http://fllac.vassar.edu/exhibitions/2016/touch-the-sky.html