Who’s Afraid of Red, White and Blue? Works by Donald Lipski

The Beaver College Art Gallery, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and The University of the Arts, will present “Who’s Afraid of Red, White, and Blue?,” simultaneous exhibitions by noted New York sculptor Donald Lipski, on display from November 9 through December 21, 1990. A public reception and opening for all three exhibitions will be held on November 9 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at The University of the Arts. Lipski will discuss the exhibition and his other works in a public lecture at Beaver College on November 11 at 4:30 PM in the Stiteler Auditorium. Both events are open to the public and free of charge.

Since the mid-seventies, Lipski has utilized his remarkable formal intelligence to transform the mundane identities of a variety of found and purchased materials ranging from the smallest domestic articles to industrial supplies and hardware. These objects undergo various manipulations — weaving, stacking, wrapping, joining — and are structured within simple configurations that combine the iconic simplicity of a minimalist presence with the unexpected, often revelatory wit of a surrealist sensibility.

In his most recent series, “Who’s Afraid of Red, White, and Blue?,” Lipski applies his familiar creative strategies to a new subject — the American flag. Works from this series will be simultaneously on view at Beaver College Art Gallery, The Fabric Workshop, and The University of the Arts and include several imaginative variations on this new theme. At Beaver College, Lipski will exhibit a large-scale, eight-foot in diameter wrapped flag ball on the campus with a complementary indoor exhibition of smaller-scaled flag balls. Other aspects of this project to be seen at the collaborating institutions include two-dimensional constructed, monochromatic and plaited flags of many different scales and materials. Lipski has been in residence at The Fabric Workshop, and many of these new works were constructed during his residence there. Other aspects of “Who’s Afraid of Red, White, and Blue?” will be seen at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

According to Paula Marincola, director of Beaver College Art Gallery, “The Flag as both pop and political symbol has proved a fascinating subject for contemporary artists. Jasper John’s flag paintings of the late fifties and sixties come immediately to mind, but Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and more recently, Vito Acconci and Robert Longo, among many other artists, have utilized this subject matter in various ways. The impetus for Lipski’s imaginative reconstructions of the flag was partly motivated by his response to recent attempts to legislate its usage.” “Lipski is a strong advocate of artistic freedom of expression and asserts that ‘you can make art out of anything in the work,'” said Marincola.

“But his flag series is also a natural outgrowth of his longtime interest in subjecting found objects to a playful series of structural permutations that expand their metaphorical resonance and interpretive possibilities. He is emphatic that this latest work be viewed primarily in an aesthetic context, and it is from the application of a cool, essentially formalist methodology to the presentation of a highly charged image that this work derives its power.”