Philip Pearlstein Punch on a Ladder, 1996 Graphite on paper, 11" x 14"; 18.3" x 21.3"

Artist:
Edward Albee, Terry Allen, Gregory Amenoff, Stephen Antonakos, Louis Ballard, Lynda Benglis, Henry Brant, Wendell Castle, Joseph Chaikin, Fred Chappell, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, James Dickey, Mark Dion, Donald Erb, Heide Fasnacht, Molissa Fenley, Janet Fish, Robert Frank, Allen Ginsberg, Doris Grumbach,Anthony Hecht, William Kentridge, Joan LaBarbara, Michael Lucero, Malcolm Morley, Yuri Nagawara, David Nash, Philip Pearlstein, Francine du Plessix Gray, Terry Riley, Carolee Schneemann, Donald Sultan,Yuji Takahashi, Augusta Read Thomas, John Torreano, Chinary Ung, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, Kay WalkingStick, William Wegman, Mac Wellman, John Edgar Wideman, Fumio Yoshimura.

Curator：
Judith Page.

Exhibition Dates：
Friday, September 12 to Saturday, October 25, 2003.

Opening：
Friday, September 12, 2003. 6:30-8:30 P.M.

Arttists' Panel：
with curator Judith Page, Saturday, October 4, 2003, 3:00 P.M.

Venue：
Ise Cultural Foundation Gallery, 555 Broadway, Basement Floor,
New York, NY 10012. [Between Prince/Spring St.]

Gallery Hours：
Tuesday through Saturday, 12 noon-6pm.
Closed on Sunday, Monday.

Admission Policy：
Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

What is on display is a look into the secret garden of the creative artist's mind-the notes, the sketches, the preliminary ideas, first thoughts, last reconsiderations. It is rather as if you were looking over the creator's shoulder as the ideas moved from the mind to the page.

Edward Albee, "The Art of the Invisible," foreword to Breaking Boundaries, 1999

The creative process is mysterious. The magical leap from idea to form often appears effortless to the uninvolved observer. Yet countless decisions and revisions-both conscious and unconscious-are made before a work of art is realized. Breaking Boundaries: Exploration and Collaboration at Atlantic Center for the Arts includes forty-four works of art from Atlantic Center's extensive permanent collection that offer the viewer a glimpse "into the secret garden of the creative artist's mind."

The artworks on display are, in many instances, artifacts; they hold clues to the unique working methods of the internationally acclaimed poets, composers, choreographers, novelists, playwrights, and visual artists who were in residence at Atlantic Center of the Arts, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, over the past twenty-one years. The evolution of each work of art may appear linear and logical or chaotic and random. But, ultimately, the creative processes and working methods of each artist are as diverse and as personal as the final products they create.

Chinary Ung's visually dynamic page, Grand Alap, is equally a painting and compositional notation. The viewer can see in the vividness of Ung's editing marks the struggle to bring form to an inchoate inner glow. This is a very different method of working than that of the composer Henry Brandt, whose composition Jericho is as structured as his spatial music performances- inspired collaborations between composer, musician and architect that rely on the placement of the performers in the concert hall.

With the writers and poets, word choice can alter or skew the text in remarkable ways.
Doris Grumbach's two versions of the first page of Life in a Day demonstrate the brutal decision making-in which words and paragraphs with beauty and substance must be discarded-that is part of the struggle in forming an organically coherent work of art.

The painter Philip Pearlstein's Punch on a Ladder is typical of the numerous compositional studies that he completes before beginning a painting, and it is as meditative and carefully constructed as the resultant painting. The sculptor Lynda Benglis' process is much looser. Her untitled study is like a sudden breeze swirling pigment across the page-a burst of air filled with the possibilities of the moment.

Reflective of Atlantic Center's multidisciplinary program, the drawing of poet Allen Ginsberg reminds the viewer that performance was integral to Ginsberg's work. What we see is not just a two-dimensional surface, but also a poem created and performed with Ginsberg's spontaneity and humor. His sly reference to the "ah ha" phenomenon is a perceptive comment on the creative process-one in which life can emerge from death and a silly snake can be transformed into a voluptuous flower with a few strokes of the artist's hand.

As voyeurs, viewing something as secret and sensual as a working document or study, one can glean more than a cheap thrill. A perceptive viewer will receive an education in creative thinking.

Judith Page, Curator


Breaking Boundaries traveled in 2000 to Cornell Fine Arts Museum; Pensacola Museum of Art; Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science, Tallahassee; in 2001 to Scarfone-Hartley Galleries, University of Tampa; Kendall Campus Art Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College; and the von Liebig Art Center, Naples; and in 2002 to the Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem. In 2003 it will be exhibited at ISE Cultural Foundation in New York City and in 2004 at the F. Donald Kenney Museum at St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New York. In keeping with the spirit of the exhibition, Breaking Boundaries is a work in progress. It is re-curated for each venue as new works are added to the collection.

As part of this exhibition, we will host an artists' panel discussion with curator Judith Page, Mac Wellman, Gregory Amenoff, John Torreano and others, starting at 3:00 P.M. on Saturday, October 4th, 2003.

Videos Available for Viewing During the Exhibition: