Art of the 1960s at the Blanton Museum of Art
Two new exhibitions opening September 28, 2008 and running through January 18, 2009 at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas explore an overlooked chapter in regional art history. Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York and The New York Graphic Workshop: 1964-1970 are meant as counterparts in the investigation of this period.
According to the press release, Reimagining Space “presents a groundbreaking exhibition of work by artists associated with the Park Place Gallery, a prominent artists’ cooperative space in 1960s New York. With their commitment to space, the group was often at odds with the predominant aesthetics of many artists of the era, and as a result, their work has largely been ignored in chronicles of 1960s art.” The exhibition features approximately 40 works by this group of artists, including Mark di Suvero, Peter Forakis, Robert Grosvenor, Anthony Magar, Forrest Myers, Dean Fleming, Tamara Melcher, David Novros, Edwin Ruda, and Leo Valledor. It is comprised of major works, as well as photographs and documents, not seen since the era in which these artists worked . The group was connected to Texas both through its members as well as its patrons. The exhibition’s guest curator is Linda Dalrymple-Henderson, David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor, Department of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin.
The New York Graphic Workshop: 1964-1970, in the words of the press release, “examines the Conceptualist movement of the 1960s and ’70s through the printmaking practices of the New York Graphic Workshop (NYGW).” The workshop was founded in 1964 by Luis Camnitzer, José Guillermo Castillo, and Liliana Porter, three Latin American artists living in New York. Included in the exhibition will be 70 prints, drawings, and mixed media works by Camnitzer, Castillo, and Porter, as well as Michael Snow, Max Neuhaus, José Luis Cuevas, and Salvador Dalí, because the workshop produced some of their work as well. Curator Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, Director of the Coleccíon Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and former Curator of Latin American Art at the Blanton comments, “the New York Graphic Workshop represents a key moment in the history of both American and Latin American Conceptual art, yet this is the first comprehensive exhibition of the group since it disbanded in the early 1970s. The exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to understand the important contributions of this group of artists, and their pivotal role in the history of art of the 1960s in New York. It will also be the first time many of these artworks have been shown in over three decades.”
If you find yourself in Austin, don’t miss what look to be very exciting and compelling exhibitions at the Blanton. For further information about the exhibitions and for related programming please visit the Museum’s website.
Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer
Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer is the first major survey in an American museum of works by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler (Season 3). The exhibition is on view from September 14, 2008 through January 4, 2009 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
No Room to Answer presents key works made by the duo since 1991. Their most recent video, Grand Paris Texas (2008) debuts with this exhibition and will become part of the Museum’s permanent collection. The video is named after The Grand, located in Paris, Texas. According the press release, the tiny East Texas town became famous by way of the German filmmaker Wim Wenders’ movie, Paris, Texas (1984). However, the “cold architecture and barren desert landscapes” in Wenders’ film’s were filmed in and around Houston, the desert area of West Texas, and Los Angeles, “reinforcing the film’s bleak theme of social isolation in America in a way that the wooded landscape of the real Paris would not.” Grand Paris Texas is a study of the physical and social space in that geographical location, which has been described as “the middle of nowhere.”
“One of the most important things for us,” Hubbard and Birchler explain, “is that we have always left the authority of reading the work up to the viewer and there’s got to be active interpretation that’s not just asked for, but is somewhat demanded.”
A Cult, Some Vegans, A Ballet, Oh My!
What do you get when you mix religious overtones, memories of a few former vegan college roommates, comic book-inspired heroes and elegant ballerinas prancing around the stage in funny costumes? In the case of the collaboration between Houston-based contemporary artist Trenton Doyle Hancock (Season 2) and Ballet Austin, I would say a lot of conflicting clichés: archetypal values with a bit of a focus on flesh, eggs, and orifices.
It’s clear that absurdity plays a role in the mechanics of what makes this wondrously colorful ballet tick. Alas, culture and context are what enable us to investigate eye candy on a level we can mull in our minds and chew on with our souls. How fun and exciting—it sounds like a performance to really get the heart racing! (Beckett, are you there?)
For a description of the ballet performed this past spring, see this month’s issue of Art in America and specifically “Food for Thought,” Eleanor Heartney’s review of Cult of Color: Call to Color, a collaboration between Trenton Doyle Hancock, composer Graham Reynolds, and the Austin Ballet director Stephen Mills.
Heartney’s article examines many themes that course through the ballet. She states, “Thematically, the ballet lends itself to various interpretations. On one hand, it can be read as a repudiation of asceticism in favor of optical beauty, and as an affirmation of art as a realm of freedom. On the other, the battle of the ‘good’ with Vegans, who convert, and the ‘bad’ black ones, who resist, has peculiar racial overtones that Hancock, who is African-American, must have been aware of.” Heartney goes on to say, “…however, the full spectrum of color as mediator and redemptive force might be read as a vindication of the ‘post-racial’ notion of hybridity so much in vogue in the moment.”
I can only speculate how might Trenton Doyle Hancock respond to that. Perhaps with the following quote from Susan Mansfield’s article “Son of a Preacher Man” (2007):
- “I think at first I fooled myself into thinking it was about race,” he says. “There was a bit of exoticism happening, because I was black in a predominantly white art world. People saw that first and that was always the first thing mentioned in the press. I would take racial stereotypes and treat them like a cartoonist, make fun of them, make them my own. But the conversation about race is so confined, I decided to leave these things by the wayside and focus on storytelling. The icons I use now are more universal. The Mounds represent to me a kind of stabability, being at peace, growing, and acceptance. The Vegans are the complete opposite. They are about pushing out everything that’s good from themselves because they don’t trust it. In essence they get smaller and smaller as human beings, become this pale imitation of humanity, like skeletons…”
In her review, Eleanor Heartney does not fail to mention, “Color aside, the ballet offers a political parable about deceit, power oppression, and liberation…the forces of repression and tyranny can never completely overcome.” Well, I am happy to say that this superhero hasn’t given up. This November 20th, I look forward to James Cohan Gallery’s presentation of Hancock’s fourth solo exhibition, which will include four major new paintings, a new set of prints, and elements from the Cult of Color ballet. So if you missed his lecture and installation this past spring at the ICA in Philadelphia, come check out Hancock newest work in New York this fall.
Socially Acceptable
My biggest pet peeve in New York City is watching men (and women) of all walks of life, hack and cough, then swiftly discharge a slimy wad of saliva on the sidewalk as passersby narrowly attempt to avoid its path. Despite my repulsion for this most sordid act, saliva is the product of Ana Prvacki’s innovative performance at the Sydney Biennale this year in which she produced gallons of saliva through a solemn flute solo. The bodily fluid—known for its medicinal properties—is then used as a healing salve. Though her actual saliva cannot legally be used, Prvacki has worked with a chemist to create wet wipes infused with her music-derived painkiller that were distributed at her performance at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in June. The event was reviewed in the The Sydney Morning Herald and images of her performance can be seen on the 2008 Sydney Biennale website.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Prvacki’s performance in view of the upcoming exhibition, theanyspacewhatever, at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, organized by Chief Curator Nancy Spector, which will open this fall. The show addresses artists whose conceptual and social practices in the 1990s are frequently defined by the term “relational aesthetics,” a phrase coined by Nicolas Bourriaud in his collection of essays by the same name (originally published in France in 1998). Art: 21 artist Pierre Huyghe (Season 4) as well as Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Forester, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija are included in the forthcoming exhibition. Though I am eager to see how this ambitious project is executed, I can’t help but question the institutionalization of such practices. Aren’t they inherently in opposition to such institutions? And where do artists like Lygia Clark, Jeremy Deller, William Pope L., and Ana Prvacki fit into this dialogue?
Last Chance: The Old, Weird America
Closing at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on July 20, The Old, Weird America is the first museum exhibition to explore the widespread resurgence of folk imagery and history in American contemporary art. The exhibition borrows its inspiration and title from music and cultural critic Greil Marcus’ 1997 book examining the influence of folk music on Bob Dylan and The Band’s album, The Basement Tapes.
This exhibition of works from nearly 20 artists and collaborative groups, includes Kara Walker (Season 2), Eric Beltz, Jeremy Blake, Sam Durant, Barnaby Furnas, Brad Kahlhamer, David McDermott and Peter McGough, Aaron Morse, Cynthia Norton (a.k.a. Ninny), Greta Pratt, Dario Robleto, Allison Smith, and Charlie White.
The exhibition is curated by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston senior curator Toby Kamps. Click here for museum hours.
Mark Bradford at Artpace
Artpace annually invites nine artists to conceive and create new art projects as part of their International Artist-in-Residence program in San Antonio, TX. Each residency is for a period of two months and composed of one artist from Texas, one from elsewhere in the United States, and one from abroad.
An exhibition of works by the program’s most recent residents–Mark Bradford (Season 4), William Cordova and Marcos Ramirez ERRE–opens July 10. Curated by Lauri Firstenberg, the exhibition is titled New Works: 08.2. A dialogue with Bradford, Cordova and ERRE will take place during the opening reception.
Previous participants of the Artpace residency include Art21 artists Shahzia Sikander (Season 1), Do-Ho Suh, Paul Pfeiffer, Kara Walker (all Season 2) and Arturo Herrera (Season 3).
Sound & Language
The human voice is the most specific expression of an individual. With its infinite potential for sound effects and imitation along with its prime role in communication, it is clearly the most versatile and valuable instrument.
In 1939, Marian Anderson captivated an audience of 75,000 and millions of radio listeners during her Lincoln Memorial recital. Her response to weeks of debate fueled by the refusal of the Daughters of American Revolution to grant her a permit to perform at Constitution Hall was, “Music to me means so much, such beautiful things, and it seemed impossible that you could find people who would curb you, stop you, from doing a thing which is beautiful. I wasn’t trying to sway anybody into any movements… I just wanted to sing and share.”
Four years earlier in 1935, Melvin Tolson an English professor and poet inspired his students to organize Wiley College’s first debate team that moved on to face off Harvard University’s national champions. The Great Debaters is a dramatic depiction of the true story of Tolson, his life at Wiley, the people of Marshall and the four brilliant aspiring team members. The debate scenes are a testament to their consuming passion for language, education, and freedom.
The acclaimed writer, painter, and educator N. Scott Momaday said, “If I do not speak with care, my words are wasted. If I do not listen with care, words are lost.” Care for language, its look, meaning and sound is what we experience in the work of Jenny Holzer (Season 4). Also Laurie Anderson (Season 1) gives a multimedia spin to the use of language in her spectacular storytelling performances. In Writing on the Wall: Word and Image in Modern Art, Simon Morley has compiled the first comprehensive survey of the use of word in art from the past 140 years.
A completely different approach to sound is encountered in the sculptures of Martin Puryear (Season 2). We imagine and hear silent sound, especially in his Ladder for Booker T. Washington as it reaches the sky. On the other hand as Barack Obama is reaching closer to becoming the next president, we look forward to hearing his upcoming debates.
Chess Pieces. Photo by Alan Light
Picks from the Blanton Museum
Check out The Blanton Museum of Art’s two exciting exhibitions featuring works by Art21 artists Richard Tuttle (Season 3), Michael Ray Charles (Season 1) and Hubbard + Birchler (Season 3).
Richard Tuttle’s Light Pink Octagon from 1967 is displayed in America/Americas, an ongoing exhibition with rotating works from both the American and Latin American collections at the Blanton. The exhibition shows works from North, Central and South America in a refreshingly new and unprecedented way. Works range from 1909 through 1985, exploring the differences and similarities in creative production throughout the continent and the continuous flow of ideas between borders. Tuttle’s Light Pink Octagon, from his Octagon series, has also served as an inspiration piece for Texan poets participating in the Blanton’s Poetry Project. Tuttle’s own interest in space and objects that cross the boundaries between painting, sculpture or drawing, has turned into poetic visions of shape and color that shed light on our own interpretations of this particular piece.
Michael Ray Charles and the artist team of Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler make an appearance in Atelier 2008: Selections from the Department of Art & Art History Faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, just about to open in three days and on view through June 8, 2008. Atelier 2008 is the first faculty exhibition being organized by a guest curator (this year, James Elaine, from the Hammer Museum of Art in LA), and it opens a new format of triennial exhibitions that will display faculty work at the Blanton from now on. For more information on Michael Ray Charles’s painting (Forever Free) Jersey #9 (Cultural Value/Black Hand), 2003, and Teresa Hubbard+Alexander Birchler’s video Single Wide, 2002, visit the Blanton Museum’s website.
Caption: Richard Tuttle, Light Pink Octagon, 1967
Martin Puryear retrospective at Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth
Through May 18, 2008, the traveling retrospective of work by Art21 artist Martin Puryear (Season 2), is on view at the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth and features nearly 45 large-scale sculptures made over the past 30 years of the artist’s career. Organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where the exhibition debuted last year, it will also travel to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
One of the most striking objects in the exhibition, Ladder for Booker T. Washington (pictured above) is part of Fort Worth’s permanent collection. Inspired by homemade ladders that Puryear saw in the French countryside while he was working at Alexander Calder‚Äôs studio, in 2003, Puryear commented to Forth Worth‚Äôs chief curator, Michael Auping:
“It just occurred to me that this would be an interesting project to try to do, to make a very tall or long ladder. For a long time I had been interested in working with a kind of artificial perspective through sculpture, which if you think about it is not so easy to do. With a ladder, a very long ladder, I could make a form that would appear to recede into space faster visually than it in fact does physically, by manipulating the perspective and exaggerating it by narrowing the parallel side pieces toward the top of the form.”
Ladder for Booker T. Washington has been one of Forth Worth’s most popular objects since it was installed for their grand opening in 2002. It was also recently included in Picturing America, a new arts education program launched by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Watch an Art:21 video about the work here.
On Tuesday, April 8, Auping will conduct a public conversation with Puryear. This event is free to the public.
This weekend: Trenton Doyle Hancock at Arthouse
From March 22 ‚Äì April 27, 2008, Arthouse in Austin, Texas will present the exhibition Cult of Color: Call to Color in conjunction with a new ballet by the same name. The ballet and exhibition are the results of a 2 1/2 year collaborative project between Art21 artist Trenton Doyle Hancock (Season 2), choreographer Stephen Mills, and composer Graham Reynolds, all Texas-based artists. Through installations, music, paintings, drawings, sketches, video collage, and more, the exhibition will “explore the complexity of translating an artist‚Äôs visual world into a compelling, innovative performance including original music and dance.”
Commissioned by Ballet Austin, Cult of Color: Call to Color tells of a battle fought between Hancock’s characters, the gentle Mounds and the mutant Vegans. Key characters include the Vegan minister, Sesom (Moses spelled backwards), a loving character, Painter, and an antagonist, Betto. A violent struggle for power between these forces are at the core of this episode in Hancock‚Äôs ongoing visual narrative.
On Saturday, March 22, from 3-5pm, Arthouse will host a panel discussion with Hancock, Mills, and Reynolds that will be conducted by Robert Faires, Arts Editor at The Austin Chronicle. This program is free and open to the public.
Arthouse is located at 700 Congress Ave., Austin, TX. 78701. Call (512) 453.5312 for more information. Visit the Arthouse website for the list of ballet performances.
