Sarah Westlake: Drawings ↔ Sculpture
June 14–August 29, 2004
Breeze, 2002. Mixed media on paper, 17.25 x 28.75 inches. Collection of Tom and Jill Delbanco.
For a biography of Sara Westlake, click here.
Sarah Westlake was one of a handful of female artists of her generation from the Boston area who had an accomplished professional career. Coming of age as an artist during the 1940s and 1950s, she entered the cerebral, male-dominated world of abstract art. Abstraction became the ultimate expression of her knowledge and experience. Westlake synthesized the structural elements found in the minimal work of Agnes Martin, the decorative aspects of Henri Matisse, the flat space of Japanese prints and painted screens, and the aesthetics of gardens. Like haiku, her work evokes a dynamic tension between unruly, natural forms and planar structures.
To view selected works from the exhibition, click here.
This exhibition of twenty-six drawings, sculptures, and folding screens examines Westlake’s mature oeuvre. Between 1984 and 2002, Westlake alternated producing works in two and three dimensions which, when viewed together, approximate a graphic depiction of her creative process. An illustrated catalogue, with essays by co-curators Alston Conley and Mary Armstrong, accompanies this exhibition. Organized by the McMullen Museum, this exhibition has been underwritten by Boston College with major support from the Patrons of the McMullen Museum of Art.