The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum recently acquired Judy Pfaff’s Wallabout, 1986 and this exhibition celebrates the historical moment in the artist’s career when she made that sculpture—1985 to 1992. This was a period of bold experimentation for Pfaff. Witness in these prints and reliefs an explosive array of forms and colors, shapes and lines, solids and voids. And despite the pervasive vitality of the compositions, she achieves balance and harmony overall.
These cyclonic compositions also challenge the notion of an object at rest. To engage fully, we invite you to imagine these sculptures as frozen moments, singular and organized, in an otherwise chaotic continuum. Explore each work, and reassess all of the visual elements in shifting correlations. To create these captivating artworks Pfaff has wrestled with the nature of physics and aesthetics simultaneously.
John Stomberg Florence Finch Abbott Director, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, and exhibition curator
betwixt: Judy Pfaff 1985/92 is on view at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum from September 3 – December 20, 2015. The exhibition is made possible by the Lucy P. Eisenhart Fund.
