Art in Antarctica?

Is it a minimalist sculpture…or does it suggest a Georgia O’Keefe painting?  Can this graceful piece formed by water, temperature and movement be called art?  Perhaps the photograph which records the transitory work becomes the art as the original, this iceberg, has vanished somewhere south of 66 degrees latitude in Antarctica.  Its beauty leaves an impression, a memory hard to shake.

Art can be found everywhere. Mostly humans create it, wanting to express from deep inside, something important. Words, music, movement and all sort of visual experiences contribute to the world of art. This blog will focus on the visual experiences–meeting the artists, learning about the art, and seeking out the very best — all over the world, even the South Pole.

We begin our journey, metaphorical and literal, to find art which leaves an impression that remains decades after the encounter.  This litmus test presents a high hurdle to make the cut.  The pigment hole Anish Kapoor put into the floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego makes the list.  What appeared to be a deep blue dot painted on the floor surprised when the security guard, whose normal role is holding up air, engaged with the art, placing his arm, carefully into a deep hole.  The pigment covering the bottom and all sides provided an optical illusion of no depth. Maybe the image also lingers because like the iceberg above it is gone. Only the memory remains. Kapoor has gone on to impress us again with that wonderful reflective bean in Milennium Park in Chicago. 

Sometimes a whole community comes together in an effort to recreate art that only remains in memory. The carved Amber Chamber from Catherine’s Palace near St. Petersburg was stolen by the Nazis in WWII. Inspite of numerous searches, the work has vanished, only its fascinating history remains. The memory of this extraordinary room compelled the St. Petersburg arts community along with an important hometown friend, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to replace the Amber Chamber at great expense with years of painstaking labor by artisans who had to relearn the techniques.

Will you join me in this quest?  Come with me on the journey to seek out the art which endures.

Send me photos/descriptions of works you cannot shake from your memory

—the ones by those artists communicating something important to the rest of us.

Leave a Comment