“Contemporary Silhouettes” features intricate and inspired artwork produced in the form of cut paper. The artist’s inspiration comes from many global folk traditions, including Scherenschnitte, jianzhi, and American portrait silhouettes.
Contemporary Silhouettes presents intricate work produced in the art form of cut paper. Cutting portraits, generally in profile from black card, became popular in America during the mid-18th century as a cheap but effective alternative to the portrait miniature.
Paper, an affordable medium world-wide, has long had an important role in folk art. Contemporary paper artists draw upon many global folk traditions for inspiration, including Scherenschnitte, chuāng huā, and American portrait silhouettes and they reimagine innovative new handcrafted pieces.
Artists in this exhibit -historic and contemporary- including Elizabeth Alexander, Pamela Dalton, Ernesto Caivano, Fred Liang, Lucy Gibbons Morse, Randal Thurston, Tomas Vu-Daniel, and Yuan Zuo, explore themes of the silhouette: two-dimensional and three-dimensional representation using outlines, configurational drawings, cutouts, dark images contrasted against lighter backgrounds, and editing of background details to produce an outline effect, all to achieve highly intricate and inspiring effects.
Admission: $10 general, $8 senior & student, free for members and children under 12
Phone: 508-428-7581
Email: cmaa@cahoonmuseum.org
2017/10/11 - 2017/12/23
Additional time info:
Hours: Tues - Sat 10am- 4pm & Sun 1-4pm
Closed Mondays and major holidays
Cahoon Museum of American Art
4676 Falmouth Road, Cotuit, MA 02635