Robert Einbeck: Bang!

Robert Einbeck, from "BANG!", on view until August 30, 2013. Courtesy Frost Museum of Art.

Frost Museum of Art – Miami

By Denise Colson

Through this exhibition of 12 paintings, this artist calls attention to the rise in violence and the use of arms by civilians. Robert Einbeck has created a group of 82” x 82” pieces in which a handgun cylinder in different contrasting colors is the main protagonist. This is only one part of the work that Einbeck will be producing in the next six years. The artist plans to create 360 pieces that will be distributed throughout the world in different museums and collections. “Bang!” arrives at a time when the tragic events at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., has drawn attention to gun control. In the same way that Picasso immortalized the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, and Goya left a testament to the firing squad executions of May 3, 1808, Einbeck attempts to leave a testament to the recent tragedy by creating 26 paintings, dedicated to each of the victims.

Einbeck has concentrated on depicting the cylinder of a handgun in which each empty chamber alludes to a possible discharged bullet, a possible death, a disconcerting image due to its obviousness and crudeness.

Through August 30, 2013.