Crystal Bridges explores namesake in new exhibit in Bentonville

BENTONVILLE -- It may have taken eight years for Crystal Bridges to present an exhibit on crystals, but the museum's debut of "Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today" is the first of its kind.

The temporary exhibition displays objects and art spanning the globe and some 5,000 years, expanding beyond American contributions to present a more complete narrative of the roles crystals have played throughout history.

"Crystals in Art" is divided into five sections inviting the viewer to explore the use of crystals and their connection to spirituality, extravagance, science and mysticism, form and their relation to light and space. The 75 pieces include sculpture, photography, etching, mixed media and video, as well as crystals as tools, jewelry and ritual objects.

Guests enter the exhibit in a space seeming to mimic a cave. The dim lighting and black walls offer a stark contrast to the shimmering crystals and ornate pieces lining the gallery. It could be easy to look straight through the space as the video of performance artist Marina Abramovic's Dozing Consciousness is visible from the entrance and demands attention.

The video shows a woman's face submerged in crystals as she breathes audibly through the pieces. The audio can be heard throughout the first half of the exhibit, providing a soundtrack that could be equal parts calming and unsettling.

Presenting the works in the five categorized sections, not chronologically, provides context for the viewer to consider how the pieces are in conversation with one another and with the themes, said Lauren Haynes, curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges and curator of visual arts at the Momentary.

"We're also pulling out connections to Arkansas in many of the interpretive moments because Arkansas is called the Natural State and because it is the quartz crystal capital of the world," Haynes said during Thursday's media preview of the exhibition.

Works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Albrecht Drüer and Alexis Arnold are in the exhibit. Several pieces usually on display elsewhere in the museum have been moved to the temporary gallery, like visitor favorite The Holy Grail -- the monumental Arkansas-mined quartz crystal usually in the corridor to the South Lobby.

Two massive contemporary pieces provide an awe-inspiring finale as part of the Crystal Universe section.

Anthony James' Portal Icosahedron uses steel, glass and LED lights to present the illusion of infinite space within two 20-sided, three-dimensional structures gleaming in the center of the room.

And Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei's massive chandelier ties back to the second section, Crystal Extravagance, bathing the final room in a warm glow as light refracts through the hundreds of sparkling crystals on the 13-foot structure.

"It asks us to explore extravagance and think about where is that line of taking something so precious and rare and making it into something extravagant," Haynes said. "It makes us question our role in the use of these materials."

Unlike many of the museum's other internally produced exhibits, "Crystals in Art" will not travel after it closes Jan. 6, so this will be the only opportunity to experience it.

The exhibit was co-curated by Haynes and Joachim Pissarro, director of the Hunter College Galleries and Bershad Professor of Art History at Hunter College in New York City. It was made possible through a partnership with the University of Arkansas, as well as loans from museum collections nationwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif., and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

NW News on 10/11/2019