The Colby Echo

Issue date: 3/9/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Courtesy of the Colby Museum of Art

Some art is of paint, and some is of wood, and some is apparently comprised of both. This became evident at the grand opening of an exhibit Bernard Langlais opened on Sunday afternoon in the midst of moderate, museum-worthy revelry. The exhibit features a number of the late artist's works. The late Mr. Langlais is referred to primarily as a painter, but in fact his methods defy generalization and he himself allegedly scorned such confining epithets. His mediums were paint and wood, and all the stuff that allowed the bits to stick together.

While mostly abstract, the works on display possess a somewhat practical air; they are, after all, construction materials. Some of the pieces, referred to as "reliefs," are completely formless. That is to say, they are for the most part rectangular, like walls in a house constructed for a little person; within their angular exterior is where the lack of form often applies. There are obvious exceptions to this trend of the quadrangle: Large Oval is, as its title implies, rather ovate, and a number of feet in breadth. Apparently, Langlais experimented in variously sized reliefs-some, constructed in his ranch in Cushing Maine, span the length of walls. Those featured in the exhibit are of more moderate size, though still surprising and unconventional in their content.

Some of the works have distinct motifs or general patterns, and one is shaped like a duck, or some manner of ornithological-hybrid. Some of the reliefs hint at an organic form. Nice Figure teases the traditional figure study, featuring a suggestive curve of lighter brown. But for the most part, the pieces' titles simply offer only a playful suggestion at subject matter. Bread and Butter is a set of angular wooden, beige-painted steaks, set on often parallel plains. Around Four is perhaps the only piece that distinctly features a realistic character, the Arabic numeral 4, which is set in a shocking maroon in the middle of a mosaic of blueness. Consequently, in browsing this exhibit, one often considers the directions and natures of wood grains; the spaces between bits of wood; the natural and/or affected blotches of stain. Many of the reliefs are like very interesting walls-for that lucky little person-or wonderfully intricate construction sites. Some could pass for trash; then again, some trash could pass for art. In effect, the pieces have an esthetic value all their own. Many are quite beautiful, and even delicate. But they remain nevertheless shocking for the fact that the average Johnson would not look at the content of a messy shed, to think, "This has the makings of fine art!"

A quick search reveals that Mr. Langlais was not primarily an abstractionist; his subjects were mostly of the hairy, four-legged variety. In this way, the exhibit is not exactly typical of the artist. However, these pieces do project a certain playfulness that may necessarily lack in a work with definitive, familiar subjects. They also present a viewer with more of a challenge. Otherwise, the bystander might be taken entirely by the image and not delve into the strange grace of the materials. He might miss the trees for the forest.

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