Press release submitted by Hopkinton Center for the Arts
The Lotvin Family Gallery at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts (HCA) proudly presents "Generations: The Art of Linda Hoffman and Ariel Matisse," the first joint exhibition of Hoffman and Matisse, who are mother and daughter, and the largest presentation to date of Matisse’s work. The exhibit will run through March 15. There will be an artists reception Friday, March 1, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
“It developed organically,” says HCA co-director Kris Waldman, who organized the show. “I was intrigued by Linda’s work, and I visited her studio. Then I saw one of Ariel’s pieces, and the idea grew.”
Hoffman, who trained in studio art at Bryn Mawr and in Noh theater in Kyoto, Japan, now operates, with her husband Blase Provitola, Old Frog Pond Farm in Harvard, Massachusetts, an organic farm, arts incubator, and events center. Her sculpture has been regularly exhibited throughout New England since the 1980s and collected by universities and public spaces nationally.
At HCA she shows both found object assemblages and works built around small cast bronze human figures. The former display Hoffman’s love for artifacts, especially those that have survived time and the elements. “My mother taught me to trust that the fragments of material culture contained memories,” she has written.
"Filling the Vessel" by Linda Hoffman. (Courtesy photos)
"Filling the Vessel," an homage to her mother’s anthropological work in New Guinea, which wittily juxtaposes tools, woods, books, and shapely detritus in stately panels, also memorializes such New England farm forms as a saw, an auger, and a lantern.
"Catching the Ox" by Linda Hoffman.
Two pieces from her Ox Herding Series, depict in bronze two of the stages in the classic Buddhist tale of taming an animal with a will to wildness, a beautiful unruly beast much like our minds.
Hoffman, now 62, was married years ago to the sculptor Paul Matisse (son of the art dealer Pierre and grandson of the artist Henri). The youngest of Linda and Paul’s three children is Ariel Matisse, 29.
Self-taught, Ariel Matisse was, as she says, “always surrounded by art growing up.” She pursued other directions until just over two years ago when, helping her mother prepare a piece by joining together apple branches with copper wire, her attention went to the wire, which is now the central element of her work.
"In the Garden" by Ariel Matisse.
"The Conversation" by Ariel Matisse.
The cascading branches of a willow ("Willow"), the tightly wound leaves on a coppery miniature tree ("In the Garden"), and three heads in profile having a chat ("The Conversation") are all wound by hand out of wire. “The tree forms are intuitive,” she says, “but I do know trees. The portraits I do in figure drawing classes and from people who walk by.” The figurative pieces show the influence of Calder, with whom her father worked.
Matisse also shows one of her Tempo series ("Pas De Deux"). These spindly-limbed abstract depictions of energy and balance derive from her years as a dressage trainer, showing horse and rider how to, as she says, “recycle energy to create new movement.”
To see more work in this show, visit www.hopartscenter.org/in-the-gallery/current-exhibition.
The Hopkinton Center for the Arts' classes, productions, and exhibitions serve an inclusive community of students, performers, exhibiting artists, and audiences. In 2015, the HCA opened its new arts center, consisting of newly renovated classrooms, and a brand new gallery and 200-seat performance space. The Center houses classes in dance, music, fine arts, theater, ceramics, photography, and is home to theatrical, dance, and music performances year-round. For more information about this exhibition, the Lotvin Family Gallery, or the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, contact Kris Waldman at kris@hopartscenter.org or 508.589.4409.