A Closer Look at Brides

North Carolina Museum of Art is located in Raleigh, NC and is home to many different cultural pieces of art. Including African, Jewish, Egyptian, and Italian art. It is also the first museum in the nation to purchase art with public funds (“Permanent Collection”). The museum holds many beautiful paintings and sculptures, however there was one piece that stood out to me. It was one created by Beth Lipman, who is a sculptor who works with glass. Her sculptures exhibit the still life culture, which is the arrangement of inanimate objects to represent a person or idea. All of Lipman’s sculptures are made entirely of glass, with an exception of a wooden shelf or table. She has exhibited her work in the Ringling Museum of Art in Florida, ICA/MECA in Maine, RISD Museum in Rhode Island, the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wyoming, the Gustavsbergs Konsthall in Sweden, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Lipman’s art has been purchased by many museums including the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, the Kemper Museum for Contemporary Art in Missouri, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Norton Museum of Art in Florida, and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York (“About”). The piece of hers that resides in the North Carolina Museum of Art is titled “Bride.” This paper will attempt to analyze the complex structure of “Bride” and try to make a connection and purpose of the piece.  The connection is between the sculpture and an American bride and the pressure to have a perfect wedding in order to have a perfect marriage.

https://www.tumblr.com/search/Beth-Lipman

The picture above is of Lipman’s sculpture, “Bride.” The structure is made of glass, paint, wood, and glue. The first thing I noticed was obviously all of the glass and that the shelf they were displayed on was tiered. I also noticed that the lower you go down the tiers, the more cluttered and messy the organization of the glass is. Also in that same pattern, the pieces of glass get bigger. There are also pieces of glass on the bottom tiers that are not only glasses, bowls, or plates, but tiny wild animals. I also noticed that the stand is black. I think this is primarily to provide contrast so that the glass can be seen easily.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_2761508_a-white-wedding-cake-with-three-levels-and-redroses.html

This is a picture of a traditional wedding cake. As you can see the cake is tiered just like the sculpture, which shows connection to its name, “Bride.” It is said that the wedding cake is often the centerpiece of the venue of the wedding. Many brides are judged for every aspect of their wedding, the main ones being the dress and the cake. I believe that Lipman made her structure so large because the wedding cake for a bride is one of the most crucial part of her big day. In fact there are many traditions associated with a wedding cake. For instance, they are traditionally white, symbolizing purity, which matches with the “Bride” structure. The glass is clear and colorless symbolizing perfection or purity.


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/90072061273106415/

This is a picture of a traditional, American bride. A white dress, a big bouquet of flowers, and a white veil. So much emphasis has been put on these traditions that very few stray from them. This only adds pressure on the bride as she plans her wedding. She believes that everything must be perfect or her marriage will be a disaster. This contributes to “Bride” because if you notice, the top tier is neat and simple, while the bottom is messy and crowded. I believe that Lipman is trying to show us that the surface of things may look nice but the foundation may be in shambles. So the top tier of the sculpture represents a perfect wedding, while the bottom tier represents a messy and unloving relationship between the bride and groom. It is American culture that has put this curse on brides. The quality of a bride a groom’s relationship should no longer be judged on their wedding, but their love for eachother.




https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/a/czanne-the-basket-of-apples

This is a still life oil painting by Paul Cezanne. He was a famous still life artists and tended to include food on a table in his paintings. The question that surrounds this painting is, “Will the apples roll of the table?” This is an example of how these inanimate objects can produce feelings of thoughts, ideas, and people in still life art. Like Cezanne’s painting, “The Basket of Apples”, Lipman’s “Bride” is a still life work that causes people to think about questions or ideas about it and wonder who or what is represents.


http://indulgy.com/kenn-.)/paper--sculpture

This is a piece done by Tahiti Pehrson. Like Lipman’s sculpture, this too is constructed in tiers. I also find Pehrson and Lipman very much alike because Lipman works with glass while Pehrson works with paper. I find it very interesting that they both chose to do a tiered structure. This sculpture also is more chaotic at the bottom and more neat at the top just like “Bride.” This is somewhat a still life sculpture but not entirely, since is it made out of paper and inanimate objects are cut out of them.


Works Cited:

"Permanent Collection." Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://ncartmuseum.org/art/overview/>.

"About." Beth Lipman. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.bethlipman.com/about/>.

McDonnell, Brandy. "Wednesday Video Spotlight: Beth Lipman's "Bride," Part of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's "Fusion" Glass Exhibit." NewsOK.com. N.p., 25 July 2012. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. <http://newsok.com/article/3831376>.

Schapiro, Meyer. "Czanne, Paul." WebMuseum: : Still Life with Basket of Apples. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. <https://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/sl/basket-apples/>.