Busting out
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
puts a fresh face on ancient Rome
By BILL DAVENPORT
For the Chronicle
Nothing ought to be stuffier than a show tracing the stylistic development of ancient marble busts, but there's nothing stuffy about it when you're making your historical point using work of extraordinary quality. Great art can transcend scholarship, and despite its pedestrian educational theme, Reading the Roman Portrait Bust at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is transcendent.
Eleven busts perch atop three rows of pedestals at natural head height, giving the disconcerting impression that you're standing in a crowd of people. Entering the gallery is like confronting a class of adult-ed students on the first day. You're greeted by a bunch of weird characters with frozen expressions.
The minimal installation and odd pearlescent blue walls give the show a clean modernity that invites comparisons with contemporary art. Reading the Roman Portrait Bust is energized by the viewer's personal relationship with the figures on display — much like ultracurrent works by Vanessa Beecroft, an Italian artist living in New York who makes pieces using living models as gallery props, or Duane Hanson, an American who sculpts ultralifelike mannequins.
more...
Link
