Marilyn Pappas
Bio
Marilyn Pappas has worked as a fiber and mixed-media artist for half a century. She received her B.S. Ed. degree from Massachusetts College of Art and her M. Ed. degree from Pennsylvania State University. From 1952 until 1994 she taught art, first in elementary schools, and then at Pennsylvania State University, Miami-Dade College, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she was a Professor for 20 years and Chair of the Three-Dimensional Fine Arts Department for 9 of those years. Since 1995 she has been a Professor Emeritus of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Pappas' awards and honors include: the Massachusetts Cultural Council artist grant, 2007; Artist's Resource Trust Fund grant, 2003; New England Foundation for the Arts fellowship, 1997; the Outstanding Alumna Award from the Massachusetts College of Art, 1985; Bunting Institute Faculty fellowship at Radcliffe College of Harvard University, 1978-1980; National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1971; and a Young Americans Award from the Museum of Arts and Design (formerly the American Craft Museum) in 1962.
Pappas' work is represented in many private and public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois; Pennsylvania State University; Miami-Dade College, the Wornick Collection, promised to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Saxe Collection, promised to the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco.
Pappas was one of 6 Americans invited to show work in the 12th International Triennial Exhibition of Tapestry at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, Poland, in 2007. Her recent solo exhibitions include History Lessons at Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York City in 2005; and Muses at Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia in 2001. Her work has been in numerous group shows, including The Wornick Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2007; The Saxe Collection at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, 2007 and 2008; In the Narrative at the Center for Creative Arts, St. Louis, 2005; Fiber-A New World View at the National Gallery of the Irish Craft Council, Ireland, 2005; Uncommon Threads at the Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire, 2002; and Fashions and Fabric in the Classical Mode at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1999.
Artist Statement
My current artwork derives from travel, art history, ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of women and universal issues that remain current today. Larger than life, scarred and broken by the ravages of time, there is a peculiar beauty, vulnerability and dignity in these fragmented and "mended" personifications of idealism. In the series History Lessons, a central focus is a concern for how time has altered classical sculptures, their destruction and preservation, and the ways we view, interpret, and learn from the mysteries of antiquity. Utilizing the remarkable and heroic figures from these ancient cultures as symbols, I try to create a bridge between two worlds: classical and modern. With their battered breasts and severed limbs, these forms express a poetry of imperfection that is still poignantly human and relevant today. I am interested in the beauty of imperfection and the imperfection of beauty.
In Nike and the Goddess of Victory, a ribbon floats above the broken and "re-mended" elements, asking a question as pertinent today as in the ancient world: "At What Cost Victory?" Veiled Woman, although inspired by a small bronze Greek sculpture of a dancer, assumes new meanings, given contemporary views of the veiling of women. A Fragile Peace employs the symbol of a dove in the hand of a torn and reworked classical torso. I have included the flowers as a suggestion of hope in this chaotic and destructive world. The broken figures in Aphrodite and Eros represent the imperfect, yet enduring love of a mother for her child. On the urn in Marriage, the groom offers the bride a traditional wedding belt to seal a perfect union. On close inspection, one can see that I have reassembled the fragmented pieces of the urn incorrectly, again questioning the possibility of perfection, while trying to express enduring hope and beauty.
By placing the draped images of the goddesses back into the softness of linen, the fabric depicted in the ancient marble sculptures, I try to emphasize their femininity while retaining the character of the individual. I choose to express my ideas in a direct but labor-intensive way, slowly drawing with needle and thread. Working from photographs in books and sketches done in museums, I make very simple final sketches, first on paper and then on the fabric to help guide my stitches. Most of the drawing is developed with the thread as the piece develops slowly over time. I do not choose to use any technical means of projecting an image since I feel that the "free hand" mark making is more personal and gives the work more life. In this high-speed world, I rejoice in the meditative process of the work and in the conviction that I could not achieve the particular uniqueness of these heroic images on the cloth by more rapid means.
