2017: Art Became More Political and Reflective: A Nod to Donald Locke in Atlanta
By Deanna Sirlin | ARTS ATL
The late Robert Rauschenberg, who said his aim was “to act in the gap between art and life,” seemed to be the spirit behind many of the visual art exhibitions in Atlanta in 2017. Like Rauschenberg, many of the artists shown in Atlanta incorporate nontraditional materials into their work in ways that bring aspects of life directly into it. Also like Rauschenberg, many believe that art has the potential to change the world, a particularly poignant position in this time of political upheaval and change.
Another artist shown at the High Museum this year who had not previously been given his due in his lifetime was Donald Locke (1930–2010) in A Conspiracy of Icons: The Art of Donald Locke (November 19, 2016–July 2, 2017). Locke was born in Stewartville, Guyana, and moved to Atlanta in 1990, where he lived, worked and wrote, becoming an important influence on younger artists and a friend to many here. For those in the art community who knew him and followed his work, the exhibition was redemptive. Locke’s large paintings have a close relationship to Rauschenberg through the collaged images Locke collected and inserted into fields of saturated black paint alongside three-dimensional objects embedded into the canvas itself. (Locke’s use of these techniques speaks to a different cultural context than Rauschenberg’s; however, their shared interests and their differences lead one to speculate what they might have said to one another had they met.)
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