Celebrate new 'Light of Reason'

A ceremony for new installation 'Light of Reason' will be followed with a concert by the Antlers to kick off the Rose Art Museum's fall opening

Electricity will be in the air at the Rose Art Museum this fall.

The Rose will formally unveil “Light of Reason,” a sculpture by iconic artist Chris Burden, on Wednesday, Sept. 10. Brandeis President Fred Lawrence will initiate the official lighting of the art installation in a public ceremony. The event will also mark the opening of the museum’s fall exhibits.

A reception featuring food from an assortment of food trucks and a concert by indie rock band The Antlers will follow the lighting ceremony.

The Rose’s galleries will open at 5 p.m., and the formal dedication of "Light of Reason" - with music by the Lydian String Quartet - is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Installed in front of the Rose over the summer, Burden's installation includes 24 Victorian lampposts that fan out in three branches in front of the museum with benches beneath, welcoming visitors. The sculpture’s title is a nod to the university’s namesake, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who said, “If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.”

Inside the Rose, the fall opening comes with the arrival of exhibitions featuring Mark Bradford Magnus Plessen and Alex Hubbard. An exhibition of the work of John Altoon opens Oct. 8.

Bradford's "Sea Monsters" features new paintings and sculptures by the former MacArthur Foundation fellow, whose work was previously featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. The new exhibition is inspired by sea maps of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Altoon exhibition is the first major retrospective on the Southern California artist, who died in 1969. Organized in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it features about 70 paintings and drawings.

The exhibitions will be on display until Dec. 21. A full list of the new exhibits for the fall can be found on the Rose Art Museum's website.

Categories: Alumni, Arts, Student Life

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