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The Viselaya Foundation

© Kirk Johnson

A few months ago I received an invitation to visit the homepage of the Viselaya foundation. I had never heard of this foundation before. According to the website: "The Viselaya Foundation is an independent nonprofit corporation for the support of the arts. Our main project is a competition and juried exhibition of figurative sculpture. The sculpture exhibit is held outdoors in an extensive private garden near Boston. The goal of the competition is to promote public appreciation of the timeless artform of figurative sculpture, and to advance the careers of the best best living artists working in the figurative tradition today."

This foundation plans on holding biennial exhibitions. The first was held in 2003. Their next exhibition will be held from September 10th 2005 through October 7th 2005.

The website showcases sculptures from the 2003 exhibition. To be honest I wasn't very impressed with most of them, but the photographs of the garden that the exhibition is held in show an exceptionally beautiful landscape garden which is a high quality work of art in itself.

Even if this year's exhibition isn't better than 2003's, the garden certainly looks like it would be worth a visit. What really astounds me is that the website says that the garden was designed and built by owner Greg Bruell, who has been developing the site since 1992. The garden looks like it was begun at least 20 years ago. The design is eclectic, combining an approach towards plants that reflects the gardenesque movement of the nineteenth century with strong influences from traditional Japanese gardens. Judging by the photographs, this garden avoids the flaws of many nineteenth century gardens, in which the display of interesting specimen plants often became more important than the unity of the garden. In this garden, interesting specimen plants are given the space to develop their unique forms, but they have been grouped to form a unified design. This may reflect the designer/owner's strong love for sculptural forms.

The sculptures from the 2003 exhibition made my heart sink. My background is in art and I love the classical figurative traditions that are rooted in ancient Greece, but my attempts to be creative within the classical tradition were as sterile as the sculptures in that exhibition.

I am not sure what conditions are necessary to foster a genuine renaissance (rebirth) of the classical figurative traditions, but having sculpture exhibitions in a beautiful garden seems like a step in the right direction. This is an international exhibition which welcomes sculptors from all over the world, so the art should reflect a number of cultural attitudes towards figurative art and towards the human body. Now that we all live in a global village it will be interesting to see what happens as these cultures continue to merge and influence each other.

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