One of the nation's largest contemporary basket collections debuts at the Racine Art Museum in the exhibit "Basketworks: The Cotsen Contemporary American Basket Collection" through Jan. 4, 2009. These 70 exquisitely constructed pieces comprise only a portion of the 151 baskets that Lloyd Cotsen, avid art collector and former CEO of Neutrogena Corp., gifted to the RAM.
The exhibit provides stunning examples from various international artists, as well as many innovative Americans who Cotsen observed exploring this fiber art medium. Through the artists' avant-garde approach to this three-dimensional art form, the basket transcends its commonplace function for storage and emerges as a sensuous sculptural form.
Each basket demands contemplation, whether a tiny 6-by-6-inch piece or a large 5-foot-high artwork. The complexity of materials used in this exhibit includes hog gut, brass wire and salmon skin, along with more-traditional materials like pine bark, raffia and willow. But even something as simple as embedding a zipper into a cylindrical basket, as Lillian Elliott does in Zipper 1992, a vase-like basket made of birch bark, cotton and waxed thread, convinces the viewer of the uniqueness of this collection.
The exhibit delineates four categories of baskets that focus on specific techniques or aesthetic choices made by the artists. "Interior Space: The Inner Void" speaks to what's held inside the forms. Red Treasure Basket by Chunghi Choo belongs to this category and presents a wire-mesh, fortune-cookie-shaped basket filled with a gold package, wrapped with black cording and enhanced with an origami tag-an enchanting example of innovation.
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"The Architectural Structure" exemplifies the construction of the basket and is demonstrated by Rob Robsen's baskets, which are made by weaving plastic lumber strapping with electrical wire. They offer an industrial interpretation of the basket in vivid, complementary blue and orange colors.
Fran Reed's basket illustrates "Skin: The Exterior Envelope" in her Red Salmon Lichen Vessel,which incorporates hog gut, lichen, Copper River salmon skin and willow branch to showcase the brilliant metallic bronzes and golden oranges of the fish. Salmon fins add texture to the vase surface, creating a basket that is fascinating in structure and materials.
Finally, in "Responding to Nature," JoAnne Russo's Porcupine offers a delightful tribute to the natural world. Her petite circular basket is made by interweaving black ash and pine needles with porcupine quills.
Throughout RAM's exceptional "Basketworks" exhibit, everyday functional objects become outstanding works of fine art that employ sophisticated sculptural and ornamental techniques. Shaped by unassuming materials, often remnants of nature or industry, these one-of-a-kind masterpieces remind us that art and beauty can inhabit the conventional and ordinary.
