Sunday, September 13, 2009

Body of Work?

What's the line between cohesiveness that connects a body of work and repetition or sameness in the pieces that comprise the body of work?

The same or very similar drawing or painting or sculpture redone again and again enough -- think Monet's Haystacks. None of the individual haystack paintings is lost in the shuffle, each being enough to hold the wall, the space, and the viewer, while groups of them have their own intriguing dynamic adding a dimension when seen in series.

On the other hand, it can just seem merely repetitive and formulaic, as with a series of paintings I saw this week-end. Each individual painting alone had a lyrical quality internal that was just felt redundant and flat seeing many of them hung together.

Other times, concept ties the work into a body, perhaps involving different media, and cohesion that at first glance feels lacking becomes apparent with continued viewing and consideration.

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