The Wonder of it All: Susan Cofer

Exhibition Website

Apr 28 2018 - Jun 30 2018

Do you ever wonder what urge, what force, what desire compelled a member of our species thousands of years ago to enter a damp, dark cave with the idea to make an image? Have you ever wondered, as I have, why humans year after year wake on a morning itching to shape something to be seen or heard? Some might say it was for God, or an antidote to chaos, or simply for money, and yet I wonder if it is in our cells, even before a reason, to move inexorably toward communication.

Here is another question. Have you ever wondered what people see or hear in art that makes them want to embrace it, collect it and protect it? The Greek statues, the Chinese soldiers, the African masks, the pottery, the tunes, the harmonies -all things we treasure long after they were made. Why save art? Or another question: why destroy it? How potent can art be that it incites destruction?

What of the effort – it is not a new thing- to translate the visual into the verbal? Or write about what is heard? What rests in the head of the critic that says, “Put words to this sight”? “Describe what you have heard.”

Surely you have joined me in wondering about the dedication of teachers, and not only the ones in schools, anyone who wants to explain, to pass along acquired knowledge. What compels a person to give and give and give hoping to share the spark of inspiration?

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • American
  • Susan Cofer

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