On Thursday, Jan. 22, from 4 to 7 p.m., an art exhibition that explores what it really means to be grotesque opened in Zug Memorial Hall. Dr. Kristi Arnold, assistant professor of art, combines both the older and modern denotation and connotations of the word “grotesque” through her paintings and printmaking. “A reappearing theme that I explore is the contrast between abstraction representation, so, that tension between dissimilar kind of aesthetics,” Arnold said.
Arnold is a new faculty member at Elizabethtown College. Arnold works largely through painting, printmaking and drawing a little bit of everything. She has been working through these forms for the past 15 years. She does not have a preferred form to work through because “it depends on my idea,” she said. “I usually work in series, so it depends on what concept I’m exploring.”
In this series, Arnold painted and made prints of modern-day grotesque images through the format of the lovely, symmetrical grotesque style that emerged in the Renaissance. “It’s kind of about attraction-repulsion,” she said, “the idea of something that is distorted can also be attractive in the same way. A juxtaposition of opposites.”
The images in her paintings and pressings depicted aspects from popular culture associated with modern ideals of horror, such as Halloween masks, bears and wolf-men. These images are expressed through the bright and detailed filter of the grotesque style. The repeated symmetrical designs eventually begin mixing into one another and form new, distorted yet attractive images.
The word “grotesque” came to English in the mid-16th century, as a noun from an Italian root word meaning “grotto” or “cave.” The first style of “grotesque” artwork appeared in more ostentatious, subterranean Roman ruins. Symmetrical designs played an important role in grotesque works. Since then, it has been adapted to mean anything bizarrely extravagant or with accentuated or garish features, and the definition has evolved to go so far as meaning ugly or horrific.
Sophomore Eric Sevareid appreciated the art on display. Explaining what he took away from the exhibit, “a lot, actually. At first I was thinking it just more abstract than it ended up being. I thought it was more ‘make-what-you-will-of-it,’ but after reading the artist’s statement and focusing a little harder on the pieces, I realized there was truly both a theme and a point to all of them, which I didn’t consider at first.”
Thinking about the artistic, linguistic, philosophical, societal and historical connections all wrapped together in the paintings and prints, Sevareid also said he was impressed with “the whole idea of the grotesquerie being also artistic and beautiful, despite being based in ugly or based in strange.” He said that his favorite part of the exhibit was Masks II. “It was one of the smaller prints, and it was my favorite because at first it looks very abstract, and not very specific, but when you took a closer look at it there was an obvious point and theme to it,” Sevareid said.
The exhibition had several visitors before the Hess Gallery officially opened to the event and attendance continued strongly throughout. Sevareid said, “I remember talking to friends about what they got out of the pieces and what their thoughts were, and how very vibrant and distinct all the images were.”
Arnold said she would like for people to think about “the concept of beauty and how it changes culture.” Viewing Arnold’s work is a learning experience that reflects well on society and aesthetics back during the Renaissance, and in today’s world.
