Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The = (GA)

July 7, 2005
Section: access= Atlanta
Edition: Home; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Page: <= span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Geneva'>P26

VIZARTS: Hodgepodge headquarters
The 'Corporate Collections' exhibit is a show of visual musings found at = 14 Georgia companies
= JERRY CULLUM

THIS MAY BE THE FI= RST TIME downtown Atlanta has seen a Rodin sculpture and a digitized screen of zoo animals within a dozen feet of each other, with the subtle joke of a precious-metals dress shirt on the opposite wall.

= The great French artist's 19-inch bronze study for a figure from his Burghers= of Calais, J. Daniel Walsh's video, and Richard Mafong'= s silver "Executive Shirt" occupy just one corner of "Focus: Corporate Collections" at the downtown branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Here are some other highlights: <= /span>

= HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON'S classic photo "Rue Houffletar= d, Paris" is a moment of French street life, a boy carrying corked bott= les, as European as the swaggering "Two Boys Smoking in Central Park, NYC" photographed by Diane Arbus are Ame= rican.

= WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY'S newer color photos of weathered Alabama storefronts have taken on cl= assic status themselves. The antique lettering reading "5¢" or t= he mysterious hand advertising a palm reader speaks of a South as bygone as = the Mississippi fa= rm wagon Eudora Welty photographed in 1936 or the equally weathered Southern faces Walker Evans immortalized that same year.

= ELLIOTT ERWITT'S photograph of a small dog and the feet of a Great Dane flanking = the elegantly decked out feet of a fashionable dog walker in New York is another example of irresistible humor.

= FELIX GONZALES-TORRES' lyrical photo of a house, printed on a jigsaw puzzle, combines humor and conceptual depth . . . every bit as much as John Baldessari's thought-provoking triptych of moments = from silent movies, a piece that's amusing first and mysterious later.

= And that's just high points of the photography. As for painting, drawing, and sculpture, Thornton Dial's expressively rendered Super Bowl stadium, Geor= ge Beattie's atmospheric painting of the church of Santa Maria Formosa, and Kara Walker's provocatively witty print from the "Emancipation Approximation" series illustrate the range of images and ideas.

= In other words, this show is a treasure trove of art from 14 Georgia corporations and professional firms, but the corporate-collection aspect = may be the last thing you'll notice.

= • THE 411: Through July 23. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays. Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia at SunTrust Plaza, 303 Peachtree St., lower lobby, downtown Atlant= a. 404-881-1109, www.mocaga.org.

=

= Lamar Dodd's "The Embrace" is among the paintings, photos and sculptu= res in the exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia.

Copyright 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution