Angela Dufresne in ‘Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing’ at FLAG Art Foundation
‘Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing’ at FLAG Art Foundation opens with artworks that avoid actual engagement in the sport – ‘I told you nobody ought never to fight him,’ reads a text painting by Ed Ruscha while Paul Pfeiffer’s video ‘Caryatid (Pacquiao)’ digitally removes one of the fighters in a bout. Soon enough though, the match is on in a blaze of color in Rosalyn Drexler’s pastel of a lime-green colored athlete against a pink background, Katherine Bradford’s fighters locked in an exhausted or amorous embrace, and Angela Dufresne’s small expressionist oil painting of two circling fighters surrounded by a spray of blue and red paint that conveys the violence and energy of the match. Engaging with the sport on many levels, FLAG’s show requires no specialty knowledge to appreciate the enjoyably eclectic inclusions, from an ancient Roman oil lamp featuring a boxer to Eadweard Muybridge’s late 19th century photographic studies and much more. (On view through August 11th).
Angela Dufresne, Fight Scene, oil on canvas, 10 x 14 inches, 2009.
Merrily Kerr is an art critic and writer based in New York. For more than 20 years, Merrily has published in international art magazines including Time Out New York, Art on Paper, Flash Art, Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, and Tema Celeste in addition to writing catalogue essays and guest lecturing. Merrily teaches art appreciation at Marymount Manhattan College and has taught for Cooper Union Continuing Education.
For more than a decade Merrily has crafted personalized tours of cultural discovery in New York's galleries and museums for individuals and groups, including corporate tours, collectors, artists, advertising agencies, and student groups from Texas Woman's University, Parsons School of Design, Chicago's Moody Institute, Cooper Union Continuing Education, Hunter College Continuing Education and other institutions. Merrily's tours have been featured in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Sydney Morning Herald and Philadelphia Magazine.
Merrily is licensed by New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs as a tour guide and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA USA)
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