2/23 Athenaeum at 1pm - The Decorative Unconscious: Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and Judy Ledgerwood

Join us on Wednesday, February 23, at 1pm for “The Decorative Unconscious: Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and Judy Ledgerwood” presented by Vittorio Colaizzi.

In modern art and criticism, “decorative” has been considered the ultimate insult, implying frivolity and capitulation to the needs of the privileged. And yet many artists have used decoration to expand concepts of the pictorial (Matisse) and to critique often male-dominated aesthetic orthodoxies (Miriam Schapiro). Upon closer examination, it is apparent that decoration is not an identifiable quality, but a field of overlapping ones. The three abstract painters mentioned here have explicitly denied the decorative in their work. Nevertheless, the way they produce meaning depends on their creative exploitation of aspects of decoration.

The Athenaeum is located on the second floor of the WSU Library, bluff side. The event is free and open to the public.

For the complete Spring 2011 Athenaeum schedule and for additional information about the Athenaeum, please visit the following: http://www.winona.edu/library/athenaeum/