University at Buffalo (UB)
Gracia to host exhibit tour, discussion, and book signing, Feb. 22
Laura Delgado, La otra – éramos demasiado parecidos y demasiado distintos (The Female Other—We Were too Similar and too Different), 2009. Mixed media on canvas. 39.5" x 27.5". Exhibited at UB Anderson Gallery
Published February 13, 2014 This content is archived.
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at Latino Art”
Exhibition Tour at 1:00; Book Discussion at 2:00 with book signing to follow
On Saturday, February 22, join Jorge J.E. Gracia, Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy and SUNY Distinguished Professor and curator of the exhibition Painting Borges: Art Interpreting Literature, for a 1pm guided tour with an informal question and answer session.
Jorge Luis Borges is one of the most prominent literary figures whose work is also profoundly philosophical. His stories are filled with conceptual puzzles that prompt the reader to face the most fundamental questions concerning human existence.
Intersection of art and ideas
Following the tour at 2pm, Gracia and co-author Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, will discuss their new book, Thirteen Ways of Looking at Latino Art, published by Duke University Press (dukeupress.edu).
The discussion between Gracia, an analytic philosopher, and Stavans, an essayist and cultural commentator, is sure to be a lively exchange as vibrant as the book itself.
Interested in the intersection of art and ideas, both authors will examine thirteen works of Latino Art reproduced in lush, full color that serve as primary foci for their conversations imbued with personal insights relative to visual culture, literature, history, ethics, politics, and religion.
After the discussion, books will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. This event will culminate in a closing exhibition reception with light refreshments, to celebrate the extremely accessible, visually stunning, and well-received exhibition, Painting Borges: Art Interpreting Literature.
Exhibition to close February 23, 2014
Painting Borges is a collection of paintings, drawings, etchings and mixed media works created by 16 artists in response to stories by this Argentinean writer. Twelve stories by Borges are organized according to three topics: identity and memory, freedom and destiny, and faith and divinity.
Many of the works in the exhibition were produced specifically for this project. Participating artists: Luis Cruz Azaceta, Alejandro Boim, Miguel Cámpora, Ricardo Celma, Claudio D’Leo, Laura Delgado, Héctor Destéfanis, Carlos Estévez, Etienne Gontard, José Franco, Mirta Kupferminc, Nicolás Menza, Mauricio Nizzero, Estela Pereda, Paul Sierra, and Alberto Rey.
The visual interpretation of literature is nothing new. A great part of the history of western art has been concerned with rendering stories, myths, and adventures first recorded in literary genres into visual media.