Punch, potato scientists, and 'Sodmonsters' at DeCordova

May 18, 2007|Ken Johnson, Globe Staff

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Also more of a designer than an artist is Anne Lilly , who creates neatly machined kinetic sculptures in steel. Gently push one with your finger, and various rods and hoops revolve in impressively intricate movements. They would make excellent desktop toys for a business tycoon. As art, they are vacuous, and they owe far too much to the work of George Rickey and other kinetic sculptors.

There is just too much cleverness in this show. Elke Morris's large color photographs of scruffy apartment houses in Lewiston, Maine, might be affecting if presented straight, but the artist has manipulated them by blurring the focus in certain areas, which makes the buildings look oddly toy-like, as if they belonged to a model railroad setup. It's a gimmicky effect that quickly wears thin.

An award for sheer industry should be given to Sandra Allen for her life-size, photorealistic, graphite drawing of the trunk of a palm tree. Measuring 37 feet high, it fits neatly into the tall narrow wall opposite the DeCordova's main grand staircase. This monumental drawing highlights just how modest is the formal and technical ambition in most of the rest of the show.

That's not to deny that a great deal of technical effort and know-how goes into Sarah Amos's large prints. Printed on multiple sheets of paper that collectively measure 6 1/2 feet high and up to 13 feet wide, Amos's works display layers of abstract patterning derived from a multitude of sources, including Japanese and Chinese prints, Australian aboriginal art, and Dutch lace. Realized mostly in earthy reds, browns, and yellows, Amos's compositions have a soothing, decorative quality, like New Age music. They would look good on the walls of a South Pacific-themed restaurant, but they fail to vigorously grab one's attention in an art gallery.

Amos's art is just too familiarly tasteful, and that's the problem with the DeCordova show in general. There's almost nothing in it that would have challenged the taste of viewers 25 years ago. There are artists in New England doing more to test the envelope of contemporary sensibility. The DeCordova needs to open its eyes wider.

Ken Johnson can be reached at kejohnson@globe.com.