Breaking free



Studio photograph of Houdini, c. 1905.
Harvard Theatre Collection,
Houghton Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Houdini: Art and Magic traveling show opened Friday in  Madison at the MMOCA. In so many ways Houdini represented and still represents the possibility of escaping limitations  even the ones we might create for ourselves. Empowering, inspiring and liberating.

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Jane Hammond (American, born 1950)
Untitled (221,181,275,156,227), 1991–92
Oil on canvas
76 x 70 in. (193 x 177.8 cm)
Private collection

My favorite : Jane Hammond's piece. Also empowering, inspiring and liberating



Tierra y Libertad! Revolution and the Modernist Mexican Print, also shown at the MMOCA, showing through a collection of prints the idea of breaking free from a different perspective.

Rufino Tamayo, Zapatista, 1925.
Linoleum cut. 10 x 7 ½ inches.
Collection of the MMOCA

José Guadalupe Posada, Los Siete Vicios, date unknown.
Zinc etching, 8¾ x 9-3/8 inches.
Collection of the MMOCA

Diego Rivera, Escuela al aire libre, 1932.
Lithograph, 15-11/16 x 21½ inches.
Collection of the MMOCA

Topping off the weekend with The Artist, the movie directed by Michel Hazanavicius.
An inspiring story about a man that was able to move on from the past and with help, find his voice and break free from his own limitations.

Still of Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin in The Artist