'Msyitc Truhts' celebrates the poetic in art
Visitors to the 21c Museum Hotel can view the first two installments of a proposed four-part series of portraits of iconic poets. Louisville-based artist Russel Hulsey's "Msyitc Truhts" proves as inventive as the spelling of the exhibit's name.
Using pencil, acrylic and charcoal, Hulsey has captured poets, traditional and avant garde, in "Msyitc Truhts." "Verses I" includes Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, each looking pensive. "Verses II" celebrates Gary Snyder, Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Kerouac, in particular, appears to be snapping his head around, as if disturbed during contemplation.
Hulsey made no preparatory studies for any of the "Verses" works, now showing in 21c's Gallery 4; instead, he chose to emphasize spontaneity and to rely on his gut impressions of each poet.
The title of the exhibition is a deliberate misspelling of a line from conceptual artist Bruce Nauman. Nauman's swirling, well-known 1967 neon work contains a single line: "The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths," which serves as that sculpture's title. In his homage, Hulsey rejects obvious interpretations and instead sees art as a mean to reveal the poetic, spontaneous, mystical experience. Perhaps that explains why Snyder, in his portrait, appears to be thumbing his nose. At conventional appraisals of the artistic impulse, perhaps?
Rounding out "Msyitc Truhts" is a 2009 heart-shaped sculpture in electric blue titled "The Laughing Heart (for Charles 'Hank' Bukowski)." Accompanying the minimalist sculpture is Bukowski's poem, "The Laughing Heart," which ends with the lines, "the gods wait to delight/in you." Those catching the Msyitc Truhts exhibition will delight, as well.
Posted by Ivonne Rovira
