A new exhibition in the Hudson Gallery at ICON, Paintings From Two Worlds, pairs work by Robert Horlein with selected Shiva Linga paintings from the ICON collection, illuminating the resonance and dissidence between these vastly different systems of object making. On Thursday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m. ICON Director Bill Teeple will interview Robert in the gallery.
“Because Robert has used this oval shape in his paintings for decades,” Bill sayss, “Hudson Gallery curator David Hanson and I sensed a kinship between the two bodies of work. Robert’s paintings are from a Western art tradition, particularly from 20th-century expressionism and formal abstraction. The Tantric Shiva Linga paintings, made as objects of worship and meditation, were not created as art objects at all—but after being introduced to the Western art world, the work has been extensively featured in storied venues and written about over the last 35 years.”
ICON’s collection of Shiva Linga paintings was originally assembled by French poet Franck André Jamme, who spent decades in India obtaining access to this work, finally getting permission to collect it and share it with the Western art world. It was shown at the Pompidou Center in Paris in 1989, first shown in the United States in 2007 at Feature Inc. in New York City, and later at the Drawing Center in New York. In 2013, these works were shown at the 55th Venice Biennale.
ICON Gallery is located at 56 N. Main Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 12–5 p.m.