Motherlode: Kiki Smith at Pace

Overview here
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View from the entry, a pregnant woman is depicted seated on a chair, left, and giving birth, center

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I have to admit that I’m not a fan of Kiki Smith’s work. While I like her ideas, I’ve always found her abilities wanting. Her craft is sloppy, and her drawing makes me cringe. I can’t believe she hasn’t gotten better at it after all this time; alternatively, I’m surprised she has intentionally stuck with such a crummy style. But famous artists, especially famous children of famous artists, are different from you and me.

While that feeling hasn’t changed on my part, I’m happy to report that her show of numerous large stained-glass panels, installed in Pace's 22nd Street space, is a poignant journey through life. Lodestar is the title of the show; Pilgrim, the name of the series of works, “nearly 30,” according to the Pace press release. (I should have counted them myself.) We enter to the image of a gravid woman seated in a chair whose curve-armed form becomes a leitmotif; in the next panel we see the woman giving birth. Through a series of panels of figures on almost opalescent glass, we see the girl child grow into adolescence and adulthood, becoming middle-aged, then elderly. Finally we see her at rest in her coffin, a fine-lined wraith.

This is Medieval territory, the allegory of life. But the images are of contemporary people—reportedly the sitters were friends of the artist—and the issue, as old as time, remains as fresh as new life tomorrow..

We pause at childhood and adolescence, above, making our way to youth giving way to middle age, below
I'm not sure a younger artist (Smith was born in 1954) could have handled these passages with such tenderness
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A metaphorical journey from cradle to grave ends . . .
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The skylights in the gallery’s 22nd Street enhance the into-the-light feeling, as you perambulate the panels on your tour of the exhibition. One lovely aspect of Smith’s work is that in the course of taking in the installation, you not only confront death, you get to turn around and walk out—instant reincarnation. Another chance. Who wouldn’t want that?
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. . . and then gives us the chance to return to the beginning (entryway at the far end of the image)

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Smith has been working in stained glass for two decades. Each panel, set into a steel frame designed by the architect Bill Katz, began life as a drawing or collage, some of which are on view at Smith’s concurrent solo show at The Brooklyn Museum through September 12. I find the frames too heavy for the visual lightness of the glass panels, but you wouldn’t want them toppling over and creating more than an allegory of death.

According to the Pace press release, “It is Smith’s vision that this work will be presented as a permanent piece in a pavilion designed specifically for the work.” Like I say, famous artists are different from you and me. But go see the show and come to your own conclusions. It’s up through June 19.

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Smith at work on Pilgrim in the glass atelier of Mayer'sche Hofkunstanstalt Gmb-Mayer, Munich. These two photographs by Barbel Miebach, courtesy of Pace Gallery
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Other photographs, as always, taken by me. (Pace seems to have relaxed its no-photos policy).