From Canvas to iPhone

The unconventional, the whimsical, and the abstract all come together in “Amy Sillman: one lump or two,” the Institute of Contemporary Art’s exhibition of the New York-based artist’s unique sketches, video documentaries, and even iPhone-based drawings.  The exhibition, which opened Thursday and will be on view through Jan. 5, explores Sillman’s distinctive style and artistic evolution over the past 25 years, from her early playful beach landscapes to her later abstract and erotic depictions of shame-ridden lovers.

“[She] has avoided a signature style, preferring instead to let a cluster of interrelated questions lead the way for her aesthetic explorations,” said chief curator Helen Molesworth, as quoted on a wall at the gallery. Sillman’s aesthetic explorations are evident throughout the exhibit: while an initial splash of pastel colors and bright pinks and blues from her early works dominates the first two rooms, her recent work ventures into more abstract themes, with bolder brushstrokes and darker colors.

Sillman’s departure from conventionalism is clear from the exhibit’s very beginning, which features a series of unusual sketched portraits. The portraits are not simple images, but feature Sillman’s written commentary covering the faces of the subjects. Bold, black text reading “This painting was a total failure,” for example, is slapped on top of a image of a young man.

Much of Sillman’s newer work, too, has been completed using innovative methods: she has frequently drawn not from life but from memory. For example, the exhibit features a series of her works from 2007 in which she observed lovers interacting with one another and then drew entirely from memory. She has also utilized technology in her artistic innovation, and included in the exhibit are a series of drawings Sillman created with an iPhone application.

Many of her more recent works depart from the playful and lighthearted tendencies clear in her early pieces. As one progresses through the exhibit, her paintings begin to explore psychological issues and human interaction. In her 2006 painting “Them,” for instance, Sillman addresses the question of human relationships. The abstract painting depicts faint human figures sitting with one another, indistinguishable expressions on their faces. A blurb accompanying the work claims that the painting attempts to enlighten viewers of the complexity of human interaction.

In another piece, entitled “Me & Ugly Mountain,” Sillman depicts the emotional and physical baggage that people hold onto throughout their lives. With her definite horizon lines, thick brushstrokes, and an off-hue yet still colorful palette, Sillman boldly draws to tell her viewers to lift themselves of any baggage in their lives, whether that be the people that bring them down or their everyday emotional stresses.

One of Sillman’s most recent pieces, a group of drawings titled “A Shape That Stands Up and Listens,” shows just how she embraces the unconventional in her abstract work. The piece is a group of sketches in which Sillman attempts to recall all the rooms in which she has felt shame and represents such rooms with muted textures, confusing lines, and dark overtones. From the vagaries of distant memories, Sillman’s faint outlines of furniture and people in these rooms are both haunting and relatable, like most of her recent work.

In representing the path of Sillman’s artistic evolution and demonstrating her ability to use novel and timely techniques, “one lump or two” makes clear both the diversity of Sillman’s work and her influence. “Sillman is central to the resurgence of artistic, public, and critical interest in painting and abstraction today,” said Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss director of the ICA, in a statement. “This exhibition is a long-awaited opportunity for a close encounter with the emotion, awkwardness, energy, and sheer beauty of [her] art.”