“Hieroglyphs,” Linda Pace Foundation

 

Dear San Antonio: Thank you for giving us Linda Pace.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the Linda Pace Foundation for the second time. It’s a gem that more people should seek access to, and (cross your fingers) will soon have its own public building. For now, the foundation houses the collection of its founder Linda Pace in her former home and personal gallery.

Currently on view is the group exhibition Hieroglyphs, curated by Fairfax Dorn, which takes works from the Linda Pace Foundation collection and explores the seemingly disparate worlds of text and abstraction. At first I thought it was a bit of a stretch, but walking through the exhibition, the work just made sense together. By looking at the formal qualities of the selected work, abstraction began to play a huge role in the exhibition, and indeed, a “tension between the verbal and the visual”¹ became apparent.

 

What we see is the beautifully articulated relationship between text and abstraction and how it is converted into a language system. It’s the system of communication, or lack thereof, that exists within the artistic voice and artistic emotion.

While the exhibition will be on view for just a few more days (until January 25), it’s worth keeping the Linda Pace Foundation on the radar. The Foundation holds some of the most innovative work in the world, and without a doubt reflects the groundbreaking conviction of its founder and her relationship with contemporary art. Anyone passing through San Antonio should schedule a visit here.

 

1. Taken from the curatorial statement that accompanies the exhibition.