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Elaine Reichek
Paint Me a Cavernous Waste Shore, 2009-2010
Tapestry
300 x 271 cm
Collection of the artist and Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, and Marinaro, New York.
In this contemporary tapestry, Reichek combines a 16th-century Italian painting by Titian and a 20th-century English poem by T.S. Eliot. Both are inspired by the ancient myth of the Greek princess Ariadne, famed for her strategy of unwinding a thread to lead the hero Theseus to safety. Abandoned by him on the island of Naxos, she is discovered by Bacchus, the god of wine, and the two wed. Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne depicts their first encounter. The fragment of text from Eliot's Sweeney Erect alludes to Sweeney's meditation on the painting and his longing for a life lived in vivid, mythic terms.
By combining visual and literary references from different eras, Reichek invites us to consider the intersection of past and present, and the power of stories across time.
Photo at top: Gene Ogami, Courtesy of the artist, Marinaro, New York, and Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles.
Paint Me a Cavernous Waste Shore is one part of the contemporary exhibition, Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time. On view in Hostetter Gallery beginning October 4.
Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time is supported in part by Amy and David Abrams, The Coby Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Barr Foundation ArtsAmplified Initiative, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the State of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Media Sponsor: WBUR
