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Indepth Arts News:
"RUTH WEISBERG: CANTO V: A WHIRLWIND OF LOVERS"
1999-11-17 until 2000-01-30
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, & Botanical Gardens
San Marino, CA,
USA United States of America
A mural-size composition by artist Ruth Weisberg, inspired by Dante's Inferno, will be on view in The Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Gallery. Created specially for The
Huntington by Weisberg, dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, the mural measures 12 ft. by 24 ft. and is executed on gessoed paper with pencil
and watercolor. Canto V: A Whirlwind of Lovers grew out of a visit made by Weisberg to The Huntington almost three years ago to view works by William Blake from the
museum's collection. The artist's imagination was sparked by Blake's illustration to Canto V of Dante's Inferno as well as by the poet's own description of the second circle of Hell,
where the lustful are swept along by strong winds like starlings in a winter sky. The adulterous lovers of Dante's poem seem doomed to spiral through eternity in a passionless
embrace.
In Weisberg's monumental painting---a pensive exploration of the nature of passion and love---couples come together but remain emotionally separate, suggesting that
despite the intensity of the moment in which the lovers should be transported, there is no true merging of spirits. The exhibition is supported in part by contributions from Gary,
Brenda, and Harrison Ruttenberg, Maurice and Margery Katz, The Naomi and Theodore Harrison Fund, The Hillcrest Foundation , and an anonymous donor. Weisberg will discuss
her work during a gallery talk about the exhibit on Sunday, November 21, at 2:30. The talk will be repeated on Sunday, January 9, at 2:30. Scott Gallery
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