Pivotal Moments: Select Works by Diane Gabriel at Burlington City Arts Center

February 12 — May 15, 2021

Untitled (#12 Square Designs)

Graphite and colored pencil on paper
G0012, 28.75X26 in

Created two years after Diane Gabriel’s graduation from Goddard College, Untitled (#12 Square Designs) is the earliest work included in Pivotal Moments. Comprised of forty-eight gridded squares, this work is part of a larger series of geometric drawings of squares and circles the artist created with support from an Artists Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. Gabriel employs a variety of mark-making techniques, including rubbing, smudging, erasing, and puncturing the paper, to form a larger sequence of patterns — with each individual square containing its own variant of an underlying design.

Untitled (#12 Square Designs) marks a moment at the beginning of Gabriel’s lifelong interest in series, cycles, and transformation that she deftly visualized through her use of slightly varied repetition. Evoking the geometric combinations of minimalists such as Sol Lewitt (1928–-2007), Gabriel’s drawing is about possibilities and exploring the boundaries of media. Visually, it is unlike any other series Gabriel created over her career. Prior to 1978, Gabriel had established herself as an emerging craftsperson, making jewelry and weaving baskets. However, #12 Square Designs marks her shift to a more experimental practice and was, as she described it, her first foray into fine art — a decision that launched a vibrant, creative output that defined the next forty years.

Untitled

Monotype
G0105, 25.5X19.5 in

Untitled (Necklace)

Monotype
G0128, 21.5X17 in

Cosmology IV

Monotype
G0257, 35X31 in

Gabriel often spent time outdoors collecting objects from nature for her prints and collages. She would use the leaves, sticks, and animal bones she found to create a language of symbols that would recur as motifs in her work (other motifs include the heart, home, baby slipper, and bonnet). Gabriel had a strong, emotional connection to the heart (pinned inside the closet wall of her studio were various forms of hearts). Whether invoked on a personal or universal level, the heart, or as she often described it “the wisdom of the heart,” embodied spirituality, motherly love, and a passion for nature, and it became a frequent symbol in her work. Gabriel utilized the large, heart-shaped leaves of philodendrons and the smaller cottonwood trees in monotypes such as Cosmology IV because of their shapes, and they appear in several additional works in Pivotal Moments.

Another central form included in Cosmology IV is that of a bird wing, which is repeatedly printed in such a way as to suggest flight. Birds and wings were a recurring motif for Gabriel as she admired the sense of freedom they conveyed. By emphasizing flight, the artist also alludes to freedom and a bird’s ability to explore and wander the world. By titling the work Cosmology IV, the artist proposes a deeper philosophical and spiritual consideration of the nature of life and the universe — its origin, evolution, and eventual fate — and its connection to her personal reflections on life and the passage of time. 

The Hand You Are Dealt #3

Collage on paper with graphite and colored pencil
G0135, 26.5X26.5 in

The Hand You Are Dealt #3 is the latest dated work included in Pivotal Moments and was completed in 2016, a year before the artist’s death. The work was on the artist’s easel in her studio for some time, and compared to earlier drawings and prints, it suggests a state of incompletion. The Hand You Are Dealt #3 is replete with motifs Gabriel used to embody themes of memory, innocence, and childhood.

 In this drawing, Gabriel created a circular composition that suggests the cycles of life and passage of time. Signifying the trappings of childhood and past memories, the artist outlined a child’s boot, and included collaged images of a bonneted girl and anatomical heart. A blue bird perches on a branch that neatly doubles as a pathway to a house modeled after a home where Gabriel once lived. As these recurring motifs float within the composition they imply an elusive narrative that suggests a dream or distant memory. In The Hand You Are Dealt #3, Gabriel reflects on the power of family and the personal choices we make to shape our ultimate fate in life.   

Vessel #4

Monotype
G0037, 42X30 in

The detailed, flowing child’s dress in Vessel #4 represents a formative aspect of Gabriel’s identity as the great-granddaughter of French dressmakers. From an early age, the artist was drawn to the aesthetics of textiles and its expressive aspects, often incorporating fabric elements in her craft and fine art practice. She spent time as a child playing in her maternal aunt’s closet (her aunt was a hat maker), exploring the rich variety of fabrics she found. In the late 1960s, Gabriel studied for two years at the Parsons School of Design, studying fashion and dressmaking, before shifting her focus to drawing and printmaking.

In Vessel #4, Gabriel conceived of an imaginative way to visualize her family history and the deep connection she felt with past generations. Rather than utilizing a single dress for her print, the artist collected fabric and dress scraps with pieces of lace and ribbon to construct the ornate dress. Gabriel described her creative print process as equally fulfilling as that of traditional dressmaking — without the tedious tasks of sewing and fitting. By using found objects and materials to create her otherworldly clothing, Gabriel visually “stitches” past and present family together, across generations. For Gabriel, a dress embodied numerous states of meaning, from a portrait of an unseen spirit to a vessel for spirits to occupy.

Gwen’s Wise Hands

Digital print
G0401, 13X17 in

Bag of Tears

Tea-dyed muslin, transferred photographs, silicone, purse clasp
NA, 7X9X4.5 in

Descended from European Jews and born shortly after the Holocaust, Gabriel grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx. While she had a complex relationship with her faith and cultural identity, in later years she was involved with her local Burlington synagogue, Ohavi Zedek. In 2007, Gabriel attended a lecture at the University of Vermont by esteemed political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (1928–2016). Wiesel spoke of his experiences traveling to speak with other genocide survivors, and Gabriel later recounted what he shared with the audience:

“He saw his work was to talk to survivors. He said no survivor ever got through their story without crying, so sometimes he felt as if he was ‘traveling around the world collecting tears.’”

Moved by this experience, Gabriel conceived of Bag of Tears, a sculpture she described as one of her most important works. She began by gathering images of the Holocaust and other twentieth-century genocides and then collaged them together. Gabriel used a photo-transfer process to print them on muslin, which she stained with tea bags to create the faded, aged patina. Overflowing from the bag’s interior are the tears described by Wiesel — survivors’ memories of inhuman behavior that must be carried by us all, lest we forget. 

Hairshirt

Tea-dyed paper and hair
G0337, 14X13X9 in

Baby Slippers on Thorns

Tea-dyed paper with thorns, hair, and encaustic
NA, 5X5X2 in ea. (NFS)

Shoah I

Monoprint
G0019, 33.5X31.5 in

Shoah I (also entitled Undertow/Holocaust Suite I/Shoah I on the verso) was created using the monoprint process — one likely appreciated by Gabriel for its capacity for experimentation and variation. This printmaking method enabled the artist to incorporate found objects, which were composed and placed between the inked plate and paper, with permanent elements she created as part of the plate (or matrix). Distinguished from a monotype only by the permanent marking on the matrix, the monoprint (and monotype) process allowed Gabriel to create multiple layers and types of impressions within a print, producing the rich tones and complex imagery evident in Shoah I.

For this monoprint, Gabriel includes her most iconic symbols, such as the baby bonnet and slipper, child’s dress, bird wing, and plants gathered from nature. In the lower right corner is a more enigmatic image suggesting a coiled rope or perhaps a snake. Combined together, the various ephemera create a time capsule of lost innocence. Shoah I is a somber elegy to those lost to the Holocaust, as well as an attempt to reclaim its memory amidst the passage of time. 

New Haven River, Addison County, Vermont

Gelatin silver print
G0179, 18.5X17 in

This particular image, taken along the New Haven River, was captured with a Holga camera. Designed in Hong Kong in 1982, the Holga was an inexpensive camera that was built to cater to growing amateur interest in medium-format photography. Produced quickly and at a low cost, the Holga often included slight defects that became intrinsic to its aesthetics, including light leaks, blurs, and vignetting. Gabriel used these distortions to her gain; the photograph’s dark vignettes and blur around the corners create an effect the artist lauded as ‘truly marvelous.’

Gabriel identified her art-making abilities as a gift given to her by a loving God. She described her pursuit of photography as an attempt to create an image that would show her deep gratitude for this gift. For the artist, a photograph should be “completely honest, truthful, and solid in its look and feel.”

Untitled (3 Leaf Prints)

Monotype
G0261, 20.5X40 in (NFS)

Two Collars Separated by One Hundred Years I

Monotype
G0248, 23X26 in

Gabriel arrived in Vermont during the Back to the Land movement of the 1970s and remained devoted to the ideals espoused by its adopters. She preferred to keep a large garden and a stocked cellar, and would often forage for art supplies, rather than buy anything from a store. Her interest in found, natural materials and craft is interwoven throughout her years of practice as an artist.

In Two Collars Separated by One Hundred Years I, Gabriel calls upon her skills as a jeweler and craftsperson, fashioning two handsome necklaces from recycled materials, including natural twine and scrap fabrics. Though the collars hearken to different eras of fashion, Gabriel posed them as contemporaries, creating a new work from two separate prints. The lustrous finish applied to each print is derived from a ceramic glaze, a nod to Gabriel’s experimentation and exploration of materials.

Boned Neck Piece IV

Monotype
G0249, 17X22 in