The curators and creators of some of the most influential exhibitions in recent decades talk about their history-making shows In this anthology, seven exhibition makers, including Mary Jane Jacob, Alan W. Moore, Seth Siegelaub, Jennifer Winkworth and others lay out the motivations, conditions, logistics and consequences of shows they organized that now stand as icons of structural innovation in terms of site. These exhibitions treat the museum as a studio (with works realized on-site); appear outside the museum (in the landscape, in domestic spaces, in the street, in the sky); and take the form of publishing or broadcasting (in books, online, on television), dispersing or networking (as mail art, or simultaneous happenings in different cities), or interspersing (interventions in the public sphere). This book gets at the core of their innovations--how the shows came to be, and what they became--and brings out the story and character of exhibitions that have, in many cases, already been written about extensively, while mitigating hagiography and historicization.
Presenting the latest iteration of this crucial exhibition, always a barometer of contemporary American art The 2022 Whitney Biennial is accompanied by this landmark volume. Each of the Biennial's participants is represented by a selected exhibition history, a bibliography, and imagery complemented by a personal statement or interview that foregrounds the artist's own voice. Essays by the curators and other contributors elucidate themes of the exhibition and discuss the participants. The 2022 Biennial's two curators, David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards, are known for their close collaboration with living artists. Coming after several years of seismic upheaval in and beyond the cultural, social, and political landscapes, this catalogue will offer a new take on the storied institution of the Biennial while continuing to serve--as previous editions have--as an invaluable resource on present-day trends in contemporary art in the United States.
This book addresses one of the most troubling questions of contemporary art theory and practice: Who is contemporary art for? Although the divide between contemporary art and the public has long been acknowledged, this is the first time that artists, critics, and the public have come together to debate the problem and to make artmaking, criticism, and public reaction part of the same process. Like the exhibitions, discussions, and seminars held at "The Castle" during the summer 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, this book is based on the premise that contemporary artists and the general public have something to say to each other. By positing the space of "conversation" as one in which artworks can be experienced as creative sites open to multilayered interpretations by changing audiences, the book provides an antidote to the modernist connoisseurial silence that has long been used to define quality. The book is divided into three sections. The first contains essays by project curator Mary Jane Jacob, critic and coeditor Michael Brenson, and cultural critic Homi K. Bhabha. Their essays describe fresh approaches to contemporary art and its audiences at a time of increased access through technology and decreased government funding. The second section contains essays by the six artists/collaborative teams involved in the project. Their works, aimed at public participation, included installation-performances, collaborations with Atlanta communities, cross-country tours, and the creation and presentation of food as a means to stimulate conversation and construct community. The artists are: artway of thinking (Italy), Ery Camara (Senegal/Mexico), Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg (Brazil/Switzerland), Regina Frank (Germany), IRWIN (Slovenia), and Maurice O'Connell (Ireland).The final section contains seven essays by the critics, curators, educators, administrators, and artists who led the "Conversations on Culture" at The Castle. The essays are by Jacquelynn Baas, Michael Brenson, Lisa Graziose Corrin, Amina Dickerson and Tricia Ward, Steven Durland, Susan Krane, and Susan Vogel.
"Eminently readable and extremely meaningful. The contributors tackle essential questions about the relationship of art and life. The book is also very timely, offering a way to approach Buddhism through unexpected channels."--Lynn Gumpert, Director, Grey Art Gallery, New York University
Printing and collecting the revolution : the rise and impact of Chicano graphics, 1965 to now / E. Carmen Ramos -- Aesthetics of the message : Chicana/o posters, 1965-1987 / Terezita Romo -- War at home : conceptual iconoclasm in American printmaking / Tatiana Reinoza -- Chicanx graphics in the digital age / Claudia E. Zapata.
This landmark anthology collects for the first time the key historical documents that helped give definition and purpose to the conceptual art movement. Compared to other avant-garde movements that emerged in the 1960s, conceptual art has received relatively little serious attention by art historians and critics of the past twenty-five years—in part because of the difficult, intellectual nature of the art. This lack of attention is particularly striking given the tremendous influence of conceptual art on the art of the last fifteen years, on critical discussion surrounding postmodernism, and on the use of theory by artists, curators, critics, and historians. This landmark anthology collects for the first time the key historical documents that helped give definition and purpose to the movement. It also contains more recent memoirs by participants, as well as critical histories of the period by some of today's leading artists and art historians. Many of the essays and artists' statements have been translated into English specifically for this volume. A good portion of the exchange between artists, critics, and theorists took place in difficult-to-find limited-edition catalogs, small journals, and private correspondence. These influential documents are gathered here for the first time, along with a number of previously unpublished essays and interviews. Contributors Alexander Alberro, Art & Language, Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, Robert Barry, Gregory Battcock, Mel Bochner, Sigmund Bode, Georges Boudaille, Marcel Broodthaers, Benjamin Buchloh, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Ian Burn, Jack Burnham, Luis Camnitzer, John Chandler, Sarah Charlesworth, Michel Claura, Jean Clay, Michael Corris, Eduardo Costa, Thomas Crow, Hanne Darboven, Raúl Escari, Piero Gilardi, Dan Graham, Maria Teresa Gramuglio, Hans Haacke, Charles Harrison, Roberto Jacoby, Mary Kelly, Joseph Kosuth, Max Kozloff, Christine Kozlov, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Lee Lozano, Kynaston McShine, Cildo Meireles, Catherine Millet, Olivier Mosset, John Murphy, Hélio Oiticica, Michel Parmentier, Adrian Piper, Yvonne Rainer, Mari Carmen Ramirez, Nicolas Rosa, Harold Rosenberg, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, Jeanne Siegel, Seth Siegelaub, Terry Smith, Robert Smithson, Athena Tacha Spear, Blake Stimson, Niele Toroni, Mierle Ukeles, Jeff Wall, Rolf Wedewer, Ian Wilson
Providing a crucial record of the painter Noah Davis’s extraordinary oeuvre, this monograph tells the story of a brilliant artist and cultural force through the eyes of his friends and collaborators. Despite his exceedingly premature death at the age of 32, Davis’s paintings have deeply influenced the rise of figurative and representational painting in the twenty-first century. Davis’s emotionally charged work places him firmly in the canon of great American painting. Stirring, elusive, and attuned to the history of painting, his compositions infuse scenes from everyday life with a magical realist atmosphere and contain traces of his abiding interest in artists such as Marlene Dumas, Kerry James Marshall, Fairfield Porter, and Luc Tuymans. This catalogue is born of the unique relationship between Davis and Helen Molesworth, whom Davis entrusted to be the curator of his work. It is published on the occasion of the 2020 exhibition at David Zwirner, New York, which travels to The Underground Museum in Los Angeles, a space that Davis founded with his wife, artist Karon Davis. In her introduction, catalogue essay, and interviews with important figures in Davis’s life, Molesworth shows how the artist’s generosity and sense of responsibility galvanized a uniquely supportive artistic community, culture, and vision. Together with color illustrations and archival photographs, the book features heartfelt testimonials that unfold in the intimate yet expansive spirit of studio visits with people close to him.
A show challenging conventional understandings of public art, Culture in Action in Chicago had a new social agenda, and rethought what an exhibition of contemporary art might be. Through eight projects by artists initiated in the early 1990s and developed in collaboration with local people, the intention was to engage diverse groups over time, in addition to the visiting public in 1993. In the fifth book in Afterall's Exhibition Histories series, the course of these projects is documented, with critical reappraisal of this important exhibition in newly commissioned essays and interviews, together with reviews from the time.
