The Biggs Museum of American Art’s newest exhibition explores the meaning of truth and how individual interpretations and perceptions shape our understanding of reality.
"Circle of Truth: 49 Paintings Ending with Ed Ruscha" took nine years to complete and features 49 contemporary artists who worked in isolation and secrecy.
Together, Biggs curator Laura Fravel says, they developed the exhibit the way the childhood game known to most as Telephone is played.
“The first artist in this series mailed their work to the next one with a blank canvas in the same crate, same size,” Fravel said. “That artist, then, in this little crate designed for two pieces, would mail their piece and a blank canvas to the next artist. So, nobody knew who came before them in the series.”
Fravel adds that the exhibit's methodology is as unique as it is daring.
“Exhibitions are organized by intuitions… that they’re often already existing work, curators are selecting from things they know about,” Fravel said. "But to start a show not knowing where to go or what people will respond to along the way, and just let the work morph organically, that is a very brave thing to do.”
"Circle of Truth" is on view at the Biggs until September. 22.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
