Sanford Biggers and the American Academy in Rome: Destruction and Creation

Sanford Biggers' art is astounding in its variety and materiality. We were fortunate to see several of his quilt works, and to talk with him, at the American Academy in Rome's Open Studios  in 2018.

Biggers and his art were profiled recently in a full-page New York Times Sunday feature.  He has shows coming up in the Bronx, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Biggers' art has ranged from his use of vintage quilts to create new art to his BAM series that deals with the killing of blacks by police (which he says he can't work on or watch at this time - "There's a point where there's no longer any detachment from these things happening").

The quilts were his primary focus when he was a Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Arts at the Academy. We took photos of five that were on the walls of his studio there.

Fascinated as we were with his work, I was also troubled by his cutting apart, or covering over parts of, vintage quilts. It reminded me of Ai Weiwei breaking a Han Dynasty vase. Of course, in that case the vase was worth $1 million, and breaking it was Ai's point. (Here's the video if you want to re-live it.)

In response to my questions, Biggers seemed untroubled by what some may think of as destruction of these objects, objects that he and others value. As he said to the NYT reporter, commenting on the seminal "Quilts of Gee's Bend" show he saw at the Whitney Museum in 2002,  "There was color, modulation, rhythm, and all these compositional things. But seeing them in these beautiful textile works made by a woman's hands, it was touching on sculpture, touching on the body, touching on politics."  (I was surprised the NYT didn't ask this question.)

A portion of Maude Bennett's quilt made for
Dianne from material used to make Dianne dresses.

I may be somewhat protective of "the quilt," because my grandmother was a quilter. She made me quilts, many from scraps of fabric she had after making me dresses.  So, as a girl, I had the echoes of my dresses in the quilt on my bed. (See photo left.)  And, of course, she's no longer here (she died in 1984 at age 98), but her quilts are still with our family.

Biggers said he saw himself, in contrast to destroying, as perpetuating the life of some of these quilts, making them more long-lasting and visible than not. One of his quilt projects projects "codes" from the Underground Railroad onto the quilts. And he also sees his quilts projects as more an art of process than of object. He said he sits with the quilts for months or years, and then when he starts working on one, "it's led by what the material is going to give back."

A Rome influence in Biggers art appears in busts he is making in bronze and marble, with artisans in Italy, combining African sculptural traits with Greco-Roman ones.

Biggers and a guest in his studio at the Academy.

As the Open Studio times were drawing to a close, Biggers and his wife and then infant daughter were enjoying the outdoor music and sculpture "unveiling" in the Academy's front courtyard. 

In a corner of the studio - an artwork or
the tools of his trade? Hard to tell with
Biggers (but I still didn't touch it).

The Open Studios - which our friend Dana Prescott (now Executive Director of Civitella Ranieri international cultural center in Umbria) began when she was Associate Director at the Academy - have been an annual ritual and we hope one that will start again post-Covid. They are a benefit the Academy - which itself benefits from Rome  (one might even say the experience is "priceless") - can give back to Romans.

Dianne

Poems for Everyone - A New Book Inspired by Piero della Francesca

The Rome connection here exists, but first we want to celebrate our long-time Italian friend, Dana Prescott’s new book, Feathers from the Angel’s Wing: Poems Inspired by the Paintings of Piero della Francesca. 

This gorgeous book was a labor of love for Dana, who lives at what must be the epicenter of the largest number of paintings in the world by this ever more-prized 15th-century, early Renaissance artist.  That location gave her the obsession (and yes, it is that) that led to the book.  As the New York Times complained a few years ago Piero ”took more commissions in Sansepolcro than anywhere else, and his greatest works remain in its vicinity — a source of great frustration for Piero obsessives outside of Europe, who must visit a series of small villages to see his frescoes and altarpieces.”  Though the Frick Museum in New York City now has acquired 4 Pieros and mounted a show in 2013 that the Times called “ravishing.”  The word applies equally to the emotion emanating from the poets Prescott has culled in this meaty book.

Madonna del Parto - is she opening her dress? pointing
to her rounded belly?  Are the angels opening or closing
the draperies?  Note the pomegranate design on the
curtain - a symbol of fertility.

The writers Prescott includes range from the established and revered (long after his death) Pier Paolo Pasolini to the American rock star/writer/poet Patti Smith.  But those two aren’t the alpha and the omega here.  Among the poems that touched me most are two that were read at a book launch in Rome in June.  Both of these poems were inspired by my favorite Piero, the Madonna del Parto (The Pregnant Madonna), which remains in Sansepolcro, where it is treasured as a good omen for pregnant women.  Moira Egan’s “Gravid,” composed of 2 9 line stanzas, each line of 9 syllables, includes the sentence:  “I said no to nature, then nature turned and said no to me.”  Contrasted with Egan’s “grief and guilt come in colors, dull red, queasy green,” is Mongolian poet G. Mend-Ooyo’s, “The Pregnant Madonna.” That poem takes us lyrically “Between the trees, grains thread their way across the fields….Each of the seeds is its own world.”  Mend-Ooyo, who grew up in a nomadic family, still has the nomad’s sense of the power of the earth. 

In her work as executive director of Civitella Ranieri, the international cultural center near Sansepolcro, Dana nurtures many translators.  Perhaps because of this background, she gives tribute to the many translators at work in her book as well, their bios given equal status with the poets.

I would be remiss in not pointing out the quality of this hardbound book – the paper, the colors, the reproductions.  It’s a beautiful gift to someone in your life. [At amazon.com, Powell’s and amazon.it.]

St. Luke, in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome

And, finally, the Rome connection to Piero is fragmentary and lost, both literally.  There are a few heavily damaged fragments of an unfinished ceiling work in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore.  Piero also painted frescoes on the walls of Pope Pius II’s rooms in the Vatican.  By order of Pope Julius II, they were painted over – by Raphael.

Dianne

American Academy Open Studios - Art and Architecture in a Sublime Setting

The dwindling crowd at dusk at the McKim Mead and White building,
The American Academy in Rome

The American Academy in Rome's Open Studios are, for us anyway, a not-to-be-missed event. This year, the "Centennial Festival" on June 5 was no exception.  One cannot see these studios and have unlimited access to the Academy's Fellows except one evening per year, and that evening has just passed, but we think some flavor of the experience and the work is worth writing about, even after the event and perhaps in anticipation of next year.

LaBombard explaining her work on the greening of Rome's land.

The Fellows are strongly concentrated in architecture, including landscape architecture. So that influences what one sees in the studios.  We started at the top of this 3-story building to avoid the crowds - and the event does draw crowds, which seemed to be more Italian this year than in the past.   We were intrigued from the outset by Elizabeth Fain LaBombard's graphs and aerial photos showing the urbanization of Rome, and her efforts to bring more green space to the city and its suburban areas. Since we've walked and hiked in many of these areas, we were drawn to her photos and her work.

Newell's dark space photos

Down the hall, Catie Newell, also an Architecture Fellow, was focused on dark space.  Her photos were fascinating ["Those are the ones you want me to throw away, said Bill."  "Not quite," I replied.], as were her dark, tar-coated - perhaps - objects.

Noordkamp's film on Gibellina, a Sicilian city reconstructed in the 1980s
and perhaps killed by the good intentions of architects and planners of that era.

And on the same floor, Petra Noordkamp [Dutch Affiliated Fellow] drew us in with her film about Gibellina, a city in Sicily destroyed by the 1968 earthquake, reconstructed with buildings by well-know archiects - away from the original city - in the 1980s, and now mostly abandoned.  Our discussion with Petra led to her telling us of another short film she did that explores a church in Gibellina, by the famous architect Ludovico Quaroni.  Petra described his son as "my ex-lover who killed his mother."  We bought the dvd on the spot.

Wine, kids and views - along with the art.

The 3 Preservation and Conservation Fellows are fascinated by some of the same 20th century work as are we. Tom Leslie celebrated with us his love of Pier Luigi Nervi's Palazzetto dello Sport, which we've lauded on the blog.

One of Dobbins' puppet shows.

Reynolds' film of his artist-and-model

Among the visual artists, we particularly enjoyed the puppetry of Hamlett Dobbins that uses Futurist authors' [Marinetti, Depero, etc.] plays, and Reynold Reynolds' short film that riffs off the Durer etching of a man sketching a nude through a grid [ "painting made easy"?].

These are just 6 of the 16 studios we visited.  We also found time for the villa's spectacular views, and the free flowing wine and almonds.

Serving up the wine.

If you are in Rome at the end of May/beginning of June, don't miss next year's AARome's Open Studios.  A footnote - the concept of the Open Studios was begun by our friend Dana Prescott, then the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome, now Executive Director of Civitella Ranieri Foundation, which hosts fellows in a spectacular castle in Umbria.







To next year...  Dianne

We're always pleased to see Rome the Second Time

on an Academy bookshelf.