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Friday, March 29, 2024
The Eagle
WRITING ON THE WALL — In its latest exhibit, the Katzen Arts Center is hosting the works of local D.C. artist Tom Green. In his art, Green brings words to life by writing famous quotes over abstract art. Entitled “Accident and Intent,” the exhibit will be open until March 14.

Katzen goes Green with reused words

In his exhibit “Accident and Intent,” Tom Green gives new meaning to the typically fatalistic adage that “the writing is on the wall.” Instead, Green writes the messages of the human condition and the artistic experience on the walls of the Katzen Museum.

Green composes a synthesis of seemingly accidental themes and structured form through a chronicle of art representing four decades of work coupled with a variety of quotes literally written on the wall.

In one of these, Green explains the purpose of the exhibit’s title: “I’ve worked with these polar opposites, what I think of as accident and incident. I see all these as two primary divisions in behavior, and it resonates all through our existence.”

By pairing these two seemingly contradictory elements, Green creates artistic form applicable to human thought and experience. Selections of doodles from his sketch journals partially inspire the shapes and implications in his art. In fact, several of these journals are displayed in a glass compartment in the exhibit, showing Green’s artistic process. Using mod imagery and installation sculpture, Green presents an original representation of the artistic process and the unplanned.

“Green’s work represents the rejection of tradition that only in the past century have been defied,” said Claire Callahan, an AU freshman studying modern art history. “There is real thought in the work, but it’s presented abstractly. That’s what makes it interesting ... you can see the process from the journals to the canvas. His work is truly original.”

However, Green’s accomplishments surpass the current display at American University. Green received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and chaired the Fine Arts Department of the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. He has been in additional exhibits including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the National Museum of American Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art, both in D.C.

The nearly 40 years of work represented in the exhibit show the success and influence that Green’s work has on modern art. While his style and choice of subject differ from the classics of DaVinci and Rafael, the message in his work reminds the viewer of the universal lessons of where one can find art.

Green’s exhibit will be open until March 14 on the third floor of the Katzen Museum. To ignore this opportunity will surely write destruction on the artistic palette of any Washingtonian.

You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.


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