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Friday, September 24,1999__Page 7
Weekend
h Preview
The following is a brief list of
weekend events. Please call the
venue for more information.
CONCERTS:
Duffy’s, 1412 0 St.
Sunday: Molotov Cocktail
Kimball Recital Hall, 301 N.
12th St.
Saturday: Wolfgang Watzinger
and Krassimira Jordan
Sunday: Valerie Watts
Knickerbockers, 901 O St.
Friday: Speed Shift, Crush the
Clown
Saturday: Trizomy, One Hip
Jim
Lied Center, 301N. 12th St.
Friday: JubiLIED 10th
Anniversary Festival with
BeauSoleil
The Royal Grove, 340 W.
Comhusker Highway
Friday: Nine Live Cats
Saturday: Ratt
7th Street Loft, 504 S. Seventh
St.
Friday and Saturday: Movie
Madness
Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St.
Friday and Saturday: Radio
King
THEATER:
Lincoln Community
Playhouse, 2500 S. 56th St.
All weekend: “Hello, Dolly!”
Mary Riepma Ross Film
Theater, 12™ and R streets
All weekend: “Buena Vista
Social Club”
Star City Dinner Theatre Suite
100, 803 Q St.
Friday and Saturday: Andrew
Becker in the Comedy Cabaret
GALLERIES:
The Burkholder Project, 719 P
St.
All weekend: works by Anne
Burkholder, Nancy Childs, Bill
Ganzel and Ellen Smith
Gallery 9,124 S. Ninth St.
All weekend: works by David
Alles
Haydon Gallery, 335 N. Eighth
St.
All weekend: works by Donna
Barger
Lentz Center, Morrill Hall, 14th
and U streets
All weekend: paintings by Shi
Hu
Noyes Gallery’, 119 S. Ninth St.
All weekend: works by
Gretchen Meyers, Susan
Barnes, Evelyn Issacs, Lois
Meysenburg and Tom
Palmerton
The Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery, 12th and R streets
All weekend: Black Image and
Identity, Modern Masters,
Charles Rain’s “Magic
Realism,” “Robert Colescott:
Recent Paintings”
I
Courtesy Photo
Through works
such as “The
Hunchback of
Notre Dame,”
Robert Colescott
has challenged
stereotypes of
race, religion and
culture.
-
Images are no laughing matter
By Danell McCoy
Staff writer
His cartoon-like figures surrounded by bright col
ors draw people in, but it’s the powerful messages in
Robert Colescotfs paintings that keep their attention.
Beginning today and continuing until Jan. 2, the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 12th and R streets, will
be showing an exhibition titled “Robert Colescott:
Recent Paintings.” The exhibit runs alongside another
ongoing exhibition, “Black Image and Identity:
African American Art from the Permanent
Collection.”
Colescott is credited as being one of America’s
most influential contemporary artists. In 1997 he rep
resented the United States at the 47th Venice Biennale,
one of the most important international art exhibitions
in the world, with a solo exhibition of 19 of his works.
“Colescott is one of the greatest American artists
of this day,” said Eddie Dominguez, a professor of art
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “People are
starting to recognize minority artists, but it takes
someone like Colescott to be invited to Venice.”
Colescott’s work is a mixture of images and vocab
ulary that can shock and enlighten viewers.
His work illustrates the issues of racism, sexism
and history, all the while telling
the story of experience.
“His work is very serious,”
Dominguez said. “It’s very root
ed. It presents slavery and
repression, the oppressed and
the oppressor. It’s not light sub
ject matter.”
Colesfcott has stated he uses
humor to grab the viewer’s
attention, but once they begin to
understand the piece’s meaning,
they don’t find it quite as funny.
Dominguez agreed, saymg
although Colescott is a very light-hearted man filled
with humor, his work is no laughing matter.
“His work is under the pretense of a joke,” he said.
“He seduces you with playful figures and garish col
ors, but once you understand the piece, you’re not
going to laugh.”
Colescott studied in Paris after graduating from
Beikeley in 1949. He returned to the United States in
the 1950s and began working. He also taught and
helped in the development of American art, especially
abstract expressionism.
In the 1960s, he had the opportunity to teach and
study in Cairo, Egypt. There, he studied the black fig
Gallery Preview
The Facts
What: “Robert Colescott: Recent Paintings”
Where: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery,
12th & R streets.
When: Sept. 24,1999 - Jan. 2, 2000
The Skinny: Works by the man whose
influence is apparent in most contemporary
art.
ure in Egyptian and African art,
which had a great impact on his
work.
After his return to the United
States in 1970, Colescott devel
oped the figurative/narrative
style that has become his legacy.
“Anyone who sees his work is
impacted,” Dominguez said.
“The content is very political. It is
not beautiful, but incredible and
unforgettable.
“He is a role model to people
oi color. He is a great American
artist who does great work.”
Dominguez owns one of Colescott’s pieces, titled
“Lock and Key,” which he said is his favorite because
he “has lived with it and learned from it.”
But, Dominguez said, viewers can learn from all of
Colescott’s works.
“I know that I will have to go and see (the pieces)
several times. You have to get over the powerfulness of
them and get to the message.
“It’s like a good book you want to read several
times, because you are afraid that you might have
missed something. His work is going down in art his
tory.”
Cajun band spices up Lied Center s 10th anniversary
By Josh Nichols
Staff writer
The Lied Plaza will feature some
hot Cajun spice straight from Louisiana
this evening.
As part of their 10th anniversary
celebration, JubiLied, the Lied Center
has invited folk extraordinaires
BeauSoleil.
Described in Rolling Stone as “the
best damn dance band you’ll ever hear,”
the Grammy award-winning group
returns to Lincoln for the first time since
1996, when they sold out two shows at
the Lied.
The free outdoor celebration will
kick off at 5 p.m. with BeauSoleil going
on stage at 8:30 p.m.
“We plan to bring Louisiana to
Nebraska for a night,” said lead singer
and fiddler, Michael Doucet.
BeauSoleil, whose compact disc
“L’ Amour Ou La Folie” won a Grammy
for Best Traditional Folk Album two
years ago, has been playing its style of
Louisiana folk for more than 20 years.
Doucet, founder of the group, said
their goal in the beginning was to pre
serve the Cajun music tradition that has
been passed down through generations.
Cajuns are descendants of 17th cen
tury French settlers of Nova Scotia,
Canada. The settlers were driven from
their land in 1755 because of their
refusal to declare an allegiance to either
France or England.
Many of the refugees ended up in
Louisiana. When they spoke of their old
home in Nova Scotia, they nicknamed it
“Beau Soleil” for “good sun.”
An important part of the Cajun cul
ture was the French music they passed
down through generations.
In the twentieth century, Cajun
music began to absorb characteristics
from outside influences, such as coun
try music and blues.
In the late ’60s, Doucet played rock
music, but he was influenced by the old
French music he heard when he went to
France in 1973.
“In France, the old songs were still
very much alive, even though they’d
originated centuries ago,” he said in a
pressrelease.
BeauSoleil helps maintain the
Cajun tradition by singing about the cul
ture’s history in many of its songs.
Along with historical lyrics, Doucet
said, the band’s songs are about every
thing from card games to love.
Doucet sings tposf of BeauSoleil’s
songs in French.
Although many audience members
don’t understand the French lyrics,
Doucet said, an understanding still
comes through in BeauSoleil’s music.
“Our music contains a universality
of feelings that everyone has endured at
one time,” Doucet said.
Suzi Shugert, one of the JubiLied
coordinators, said, “ It wouldn’t make
any difference wfiStt words they sang,
their music is so great” _
Much of tyhat BeauSoleil will play
tonight will be. music from its latest CD,
“Cajunization.”
Like die performance on the Lied
Plaza this evening, many of the band’s
shows are outdoors, where people can
sit inthegjrass and relax or dance to the
upbeat fiddles, drums and accordion.
“At our concerts, you can get up and
dance or sit and listen to your heart pace
with the music,” Doucet said. *
BeauSoleil’s rich blend of sounds
are compliments of a six-person group.
Doucet is lead vocalist and fiddler.
He is accompanied by his brother,
David Doucet, on guitar, Jimmy Breaux
on accordion, A1 Tharp on banjo and
electric guitar, Tommy Alesi on drums
and Billy Ware on a variety of different
percussion instruments.
Doucet described the six men in the
group as “the luckiest people in the
world” doing what they love to do. ^
Lied Center
Dm facts
What: 10th Anniversary Lied Celebration
Where: Lied Plaza
When: Tonight, 5 to 10 p.m.
Cost: free
the Skinny: Grammy winners BeauSoleil
will perform.
Also performing will be the
Lightning Bugs, Kusi Taki and Li’l Slim
and the Back-Alley Blues Band.
The event will also feature an inter
active street painting with glow in the
dark chalk combining the work of pro
fessional artists and children.
- Throughout the festival site, magi
cians, jugglers, balloon artists, face
painters and clowns will entertain.
On the west side of the Sheldon Art
Gallery, the Lincoln Irish Dancers and
Sabor Mexicana will perform.
Food and beverages will be saved
throughout the evening. Tickets for food
and beverages can be bought at the fes
tival. The price is $5 for 8 tickets.
Shugert encouraged people to come
early and enjoy the evening’s festivities.
“It will be an incredible show,” said
Doucet