KARI:.N WILKIN
135
tuously swelling sculpture stained a ch,dky red or a severely geometric one
rubbed with silvery graphite. What ullifles them is the memory of the
hand. The sculptures remind us of wh,lt it feels like to pick up a hand-held
object: projections suggest levers ready to be pushed. l3ut while our tactile
experience of the world inforIm these al Iusive pieces, they remain abstract,
telling us about touch through the eye, so convincingly that the best of
l3oepple's resonant new sculptures
em
change the way we look at ordinary
things around us.
Postscript: One of the most popular shows to open this fall was
MOllet
alf(l rlic ,\lcdirerreIIlCelll
,It
the l3rooklyn Museum, the first serious study of
the Impressionist master's response to three working trips to the South of
France and luly. It was also one of
till'
most diflicult exhibitions of the sea–
son, because it's hard to get past the .lppeal of the picturesque subject
matter of the exhibi ted works ;lnd concentrate on them as
]!aillfill,Qs.
(That
Monet himself quickly began to seek more unexpected motifs in the South
tells you that he had sinlilar problems with the seductiveness of his setting.)
The curators have helpfully grouped related pictures to emphasize Monet's
process of fine - tuning im'lges seized from the motif, transforming them in
the studio into something other than responses to perceptions by setting up
a dialogue among them. Not e\'erything in the show is on the same level,
but there are many first-rate paintings, nlostly ti'ol11 Antibes and Venice. A
couple of Vcnetian f)(;ade pictures, pulsing fields of purple and dull red, are
as good as Monet gets.
