For artist Richard Artschwager, choosing between science and art as professions came down to a remark made by his wife.
When she told Artschwager that he did not have the temperament of a scientist and that he should be an artist, he said, "OK."
The decision has led Artschwager to success in the arts world, with his avant-garde work displayed in the Institute of Contemporary Art in the 1970s.
And last night, the ICA hosted a conversation between past ICA director Suzanne Delehanty and Artschwager as part of its 40th Anniversary Lecture Series.
Even though the majority of attendants were not associated with the University, the house was jam-packed. Ranging from ICA board members to gallery owners to those who simply love art, people came to hear Artschwager explain his curiously abstract sculptures and paintings.
Delehanty started out with a brief overview of the art scene in the 1970s -- when she was director and when Artschwager's exhibition "Richard Artschwager's Theme(s)" was on display-- and then proceeded to interview Artschwager, who in the '70s was known for defying artistic norms.
She first asked him about his use of perspective in a time when most artists preferred to flatten their subjects. In a circuitous answer, he responded by saying that he wanted to be different and that it was his mission to "do perspective with a vengeance."
On the topic of his motif of frames, he explained that the '70s were a time to work with huge canvasses and explore peripheral vision, but instead, he decided to do the opposite by painting frames onto the canvas.
The highlight of the interview was when Artschwager used humor to explain his pieces. When discussing why he chose to make such a "clunky piano" sculpture, as Delehanty put it, he claimed that he designed it from the perspective of an extraterrestrial.
"This came about because a Martian came to Earth and took notes, but they were sort of brief. So, this is a generic piano," he said.
Artschwager's trademark is the "blp" -- an oval that represents the punctuation mark of a period taken out of one's thoughts and materialized. The period is elongated to signify the time it takes to express a thought.
The general opinion of the presentation varied. Some audience members said they enjoyed Artschwager's unorthodox presentation.
"I appreciated his humor and how he wasn't just running through work by work," ICA employee and College junior Rebekah Flake said. She added, though, that other people felt there wasn't enough substance to the speech.
"I heard someone say that it wasn't very informative."
However, the informal nature of the presentation appealed to many attendees.
"I thought it was a great speech," local resident David Guinn said. "He wasn't a slick speaker, but I liked how he went with the flow, how he settled on topics he found interesting."
Still others felt that Delehanty was the star of the interview.
Local resident Ellen Napier said that Delehanty "was very good at prompting him and teasing out interesting comments of [Artschwager's] work."
The monthly series features informal conversations with past ICA directors and prominent artists in the museum's history. The ICA is planning to produce a publication that documents these conversations next year when the series concludes.
