Stellar ‘Universe’ Exhibit Lacks Cohesion

Although the universe probably began with a bang, a whimper is all that’s managed by “The Universe: Creation, Constellations and the Cosmos,” a show that would be pretentious if it weren’t so silly.

To its credit, the Norton Simon Museum’s contribution to Pasadena’s science-and-art celebration includes an impressive array of masterpieces: works of such beauty, meaning and achievement that any of them could anchor a deeply satisfying, sharply focused exhibition.

Take, for example, “Descent of the Buddha,” a fabulous painting made in 19th century Eastern Tibet. Its dynamic composition--formed by a stairway not to but from heaven--transforms an idealized depiction of otherworldly tranquillity into a down-to-earth event that is profoundly contemporary in its accessibility.

Or Juan Rexach’s “The Crucifixion” and “Madonna and Child Enthroned With Angels” (c.1465-70), a pair of paintings whose vertical format compresses time into an instant of glorious joy and unspeakable sorrow. If you have a hard time taking in its dual images, you’re onto its message. At a time when most viewers were illiterate, it physically demonstrated human inadequacy in the face of God’s grandeur.

The list of stellar works goes on, with Constantin Brancusi’s “Bird in Space” from 1931 and Robert Irwin’s untitled disc from 1968 giving Modern art its due. While the sculptor’s sensuous bronze plinth fuses aerodynamic efficiency and graceful athleticism, the Light-and-Space artist’s piece of perceptual theater turns absolute blankness into an endlessly fascinating experience.

Unfortunately, the more deeply you delve into the best of the 73 sculptures, paintings, prints, banners, mandalas and reliquaries on display, the more ridiculous the show as a whole seems.

Part of the problem is the task set for assistant curator Christine Knoke and curatorial assistant Michelle Deziel: bringing coherence to works made over the past 1,400 years from all over the world. The job may be impossible.

In any case, the categories they selected, “Axis Mundi” (the border between earth and the heavens), “Constellations,” “Halos” and “Cosmic Circles,” are trite and imprecise. It’s something like organizing cars seen on the freeway into red ones, Fords, used ones and expensive ones.

Juxtapositions are the life-blood of thematic exhibitions. By following the visual connections, viewers weave together a whole greater than the sum of its parts. This doesn’t happen with “Creation, Constellations and the Cosmos.” Its individual works are infinitely more engaging on their own than they are in the categories they’re asked to illustrate.

The largest section, “Halos,” segregates European Christian imagery and Asian Buddhist imagery. Among 28 works, there is so much variety of materials, origins and centuries that you have to search diligently to find each piece’s carved, cast or painted halo. When you finally spot it, it’s incidental to the work’s overall impact.

The exhibition fails because it asks viewers to read objects--to treat three-dimensional things as if they were abstract, pictographic symbols to be deciphered like maps or words. Artworks are notoriously ineffective at illustrating ideas. They make physical their meanings, giving fleshy substance to multilayered, ever-changing experiences.

Lacking aesthetic or scholarly focus, the exhibition is not an art-driven event. It’s an exercise in repackaging the permanent collection designed to pump up attendance.

But don’t let that stop you--you don’t need a good reason to go. Any excuse will do.

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* “The Universe: Creation, Constellations and the Cosmos,” Norton Simon Museum, 411 West Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 449-6840, through June 4. Closed Tuesdays.