Dan Flavin, Chiesa Rossa and Fondazione Prada, Milan

Dan Flavin 
Chiesa Rossa and Fondazione Prada, Milan
29 November 1997 - 31 January 1998

The Fondazione Prada presents two important projects by Dan Flavin (1933-1996) who, with Sol Le Witt, Donald Judd, Robert Morris and Carl Andre, was one of the main protagonists of the American minimalist art movement: Untitled 1996 is a permanent installation at the church Santa Maria in Chiesa Rossa while Works 1964 - 1981 is a selection of historically important works housed at the Fondazione Prada itself.

The work at the Chiesa Rossa was the last project conceived and designed by Dan Flavin before his death, and consists of a permanent site-specific installation donated to the Chiesa Rossa by the Fondazione Prada. This system of fluorescent lights was especially designed by the artist for the main nave and transepts of the Chiesa Rossa, perhaps with the intention of bringing a metaphysical dimension to the immateriality of his minimalist work.

The installation consists of fluorescent tubes of different colours and lengths which are placed horizontally and vertically, symmetrically and asymetrically about the space which, combined with the architecture of renowned architect Giovanni Muzio who designed the Chiesa Rossa in 1932, create a spectacular visual effect. This work continues the tradition of dialogue between visual research and places of worship, a significant theme in modern and contemporary art as well as in architecture from Matisse to Rothko, from Nevelson to Cucchi. The project also owes its existence to the cultural and pastoral initiatives of Don Giulio, parish priest at the Chiesa Rossa.

The second project involves two thematic installations of Dan Flavin's works at the Fondazione Prada of Milan curated by Michael Govan, director of the Dia Center for the Arts in New York.

The first of these consists of works of the series European Couples, 1966-1976, a group of six 8 ft.-wide squares of fluorescent tubing, each in a different colour. The composition is extremely simple: in each set of four tubes, the two vertical ones are pointed towards the wall while the horizontal ones are aimed towards the installation space. Each ensemble is placed diagonally with respect to the corner of the room. The Milan exhibition use a linear architectural layout designed by Dan Flavin himself.

The second part of the show consists of a selection of Monuments for V.Tatlin, 1964-1981. These pseudo-monuments - Dan Flavin used the term 'pseudo' to underline the ephemeral and temporary effect of the fluorescent tubes which produce light for 2100 hours before burning out - call to mind the image of the Monument at the Third International by Tatlin. They become an homage to the fleeting and communicative existence of light. This presentation also makes use of a zigzag architectural project conceived by the artist and so both European Couples and Monuments for V .Tatlin may be considered as fresh, new readings and re-presentations of historical works by this classic minimalist.

Because of the complexity of this ambitious project which documents the meeting between a contemporary artist and architecture, in particular that of the historic Chiesa Rossa designed by Muzio, the Fondazione Prada has decided to produce a book that brings together reflections and theoretical essays on the interweaving of art and the sacred, contemporary research and places of worship, sculpture and the church, a space of ritual socialisation and an imaginary one. The main aim of this volume, edited by Germano Celant, is to decode or interpret the relationships existing between religious and secular projects in order to identify a point of cohesion or osmosis between the two different perspectives. For this reason theoreticians, philosophers, architects and historians such as Carlo Bertelli and Germano Celant, Hubert Damish and Christine Gluckman, Michael Govan and Vittorio Gregotti, Fulvio Irace and Don Pier Luigi Lia, Mario Perniola and Gianni Vattimo have been invited to write on this theme.

FONDAZIONE PRADA, MILAN
www.fondazioneprada.org

Vincent Desiderio, Marlborough Gallery, New York - Recent Paintings Exhibition

Vincent Desiderio: Recent Paintings 

Marlborough Gallery, New York 

December 2, 1997 - January 3, 1998

Marlborough New York presents en exhibition of recent paintings by VINCENT DESIDERIO (b. 1955). The exhibition consists of fifteen oil paintings, including nine in triptych form, painted during the past four years.

For Vincent Desiderio, the importance of painting to the life of the imagination is absolute. The act of painting makes available to the artist realms of understanding which are unforseeable outside of its processes. It is through the narrative, the fictional reconstruction of events, both personal and public, that Desiderio attempts to chart the vague and often elusive character of man at the end of the 20th century.

The works are composed in rich tonalities with optical layerings of cool and warm color. Viewing them, the visitor is conscious of a strong connection with pre-modernist painting. Yet, it is with an informed and discerning eye that Vincent Desiderio aligns himself with his historical antecedents. The process of creating the works takes a central place serving as a metaphor for being. What is most intriguing to him is the strong connection between his process and how one thinks through an image to its final resolution. Vincent Desiderio's technique, in fact, allegorizes the artist's quest for a replenished imaginative space.

Though Vincent Desiderio is undisputedly a painter of reality, that description alone only begins to describe what he accomplishes in his work. His intense blend of autobiography and dislocation, reveal him as influenced by existential thought and experience as well. The results are the portrayal of seemingly real situations through a dreamlike veil of trance and trauma.

In the painting entitled The Interpretation Of Color, the levels of meaning begin to reveal themselves from the choice of its title onward. Vincent Desiderio pays homage to his modernist past choosing a title which refers to Joseph Albers' life-long work (The Interaction Of Color). The painting's subject is a figure who, overfed on culture, has collapsed on the floor in a post-prandial stupor. Around him, one sees the emblems of his history. Art texts strewn about evoke a spiral of centrifugal movement. The nuanced paint handling contributes to the effect of slow movement as one descends into the vortex of this vertiginous space. He is a man of the land of Cockaigne, the mythical realm of human excess, conjuring in his slumber a narrative regarding the whole future of painting.

In the triptych entitled Mimetic Composition, three images present contrasting visions recording grief. In the center, a haunting image of a man's face appears as if staring into a mirror. Thus, the image of the sick man symbolizes passage through life. To the right, a wedding banquet or birthday celebration is set up for video-taping. But at the same time, it is abandoned and frozen in time, becoming a metaphor for the desire to record the celebration of events as if to eulogize them. Finally to the left, the most receding of the panels presents a life cast of a woman's face grimacing. It represents the inability of the signifier and the signified to meet, or the failure of words or images to touch the object itself. Vincent Desiderio's work continues to explore life's deeply rooted mysteries, hopes, and fears in a taught balance of change and stasis.

Born in Philadelphia in 1955, VINCENT DESIDERIO joined Marlborough Gallery in 1991, and had his first one man show in 1993. He has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums worldwide and his works are included in numerous private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Denver Art Museum; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Galerie Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany; the Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; and the Indiana University Museum of Art, Indiana, PA; among others.

In 1996, Vincent Desiderio became the first American artist to receive the prestigious International Prize of Contemporary Art presented by the Monaco-based Prince Pierre Foundation.

Beginning January 7th., three exhibitions, Motherwell: Works On Paper, Juan Genovès: Works On Paper and Still Lifes: Prints & Photographs will be on view continuing through the month of January, 1998.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

www.marlboroughgallery.com

Rosalie Gascoigne, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Rosalie Gascoigne: Material as Landscape
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
14 November 1997 - 11 January 1998

In 1974 Rosalie Gascoigne had her first art exhibition. In 1994, just 20 years later, she was awarded an AM for service to the arts, particularly as a sculptor. Now, at 80 years of age, her work is represented in all Australian state and national galleries and in many overseas collections including the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Material as Landscape is not a retrospective of Rosalie Gascoigne's career but an exhibition which focuses specifically on Gascoigne's relationship with the natural environment and the ways in which Rosalie Gascoigne expresses rather than describes, nature and the landscape in her work. The exhibition will include approximately thirty works ranging from the late 1970s to the present day, including a number of her major works.

A fully-colour illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by James Mollison and Deborah Edwards, Curator of the exhibition.

Rosalie Gascoigne settled in Australia in 1943 when she joined her astronomer husband at the Mt. Stromlo Observatory in the A.C.T.. It was the artist's response to the landscape of Australia there over 20 years that led her to attend the Japanese Sogetsu School of Ikebana in 1962. Ikebana can well be translated as 'awareness of nature' and Rosalie Gascoigne rapidly mastered this discipline which enriched her appreciation of form and line. Not to be limited by this tradition, she began collecting a variety of abandoned and naturally weathered items, during her regular excursions into the landscape around Canberra.

In her work Rosalie Gascoigne uses commonplace objects, often scavenged from the tips and pastures around Canberra, arrranging them with the most minimal of means to create evocative works of great clarity and power. Rosalie Gascoigne's work incorporates both a refined formal sensibility and a poetic inspiration that she finds in the landscape. Everyday objects cease to have a conventional function as they are arranged in such a way that the focus is on them as art objects, with their own inherent qualities and meaning. " I try to provide a starting point from which people can let their imagination's wander - what they discover may be the product of their own experience as much as mine," said Rosalie Gascoigne.

THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Andy Warhol: After the Party - Works 1956-1986 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Andy Warhol

After the Party - Works 1956-1986
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
20 November 1997 - 22 March 1998

The first major exhibition in Ireland of the work of Andy Warhol, one of the defining figures of 20th-century art, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on 20 November. Andy Warhol: After the Party - Works 1956-1986 is sponsored by ACCBank and comprises some 100 works drawn mainly from the collections of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the most comprehensive single-artist museum in the world. It includes early drawings from the 1950s as well as better-known iconic works from the 1960s and ‘70s, such as the Marilyn, Jackie, Mao and Campbell’s Soup Can paintings. Examples ofAndy Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper, Cloud Pillows, disaster paintings and a range of source material are also included; plus a series of angel and cat drawings by Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola. The exhibition will be officially opened by Ms Sile de Valera, TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands at 6.00pm on Wednesday 19 November. 

The exhibition explores Andy Warhol’s work at a number of levels, providing an opportunity to see both his apparently uncritical celebration of the mass culture image as a commodity and his simultaneous subversion of that celebration. A constant, though often unacknowledged, refrain of death, culminating in the memento mori images towards the end of his life, is the core theme of the exhibition. The Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Declan McGonagle, says ‘It is interesting how new readings of Warhol’s work and influence are beginning to develop. Warhol was not just a chronicler of consumer culture. It is increasingly clear that, as a late 20th-century artist using contemporary language, media and forms, he was exploring ideas of life and death which have always formed the basis of great art. This exhibition both asks people and gives them the opportunity to look at Warhol differently by representing his total practice as an artist’. 

In the context of this full retrospective, the Museum will also present a series of Gun paintings, which were made in 1982-83. The series was shown at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London earlier this year, their first showing as a group in over a decade. In these images, ‘so beautiful, so desirable’; Andy Warhol evokes the appeal of the gun as a commodity and a cinematic prop and draws on American mass culture to create a powerful symbol of life and death. This repetitive, intense exploration of a single image represents a powerful coda to the main exhibition. The Irish Museum of Modern Art is grateful to the d’Offay Gallery for lending the works for this element of the overall project. 

Born in Pittsburg in 1928 to East European parents, Andy Warhol moved to New York in 1949, where he became one of American’s leading commercial artists. By the early 1960s he had turned his attention to the field of fine art and was exhibiting his Pop paintings and sculpture - including Heinz Boxes, Marilyns and Campbell’s Soup Cans - in New York and Los Angeles. At this time he was already making images about death and disaster, which remain among his most critically-acclaimed series. Despite a near fatal shooting in 1968, Warhol continued to be enormously prolific. During the 1970s and ‘80s though widely known for his celebrity portraits, he also made some of his most ambitious and greatest paintings during this period, including Skull 1976, After the Party 1979, and Last Supper, made in the year of his death 1986. 

Over the course of a 30-year-long career, Andy Warhol transformed contemporary art. The power of his work comes from its concentration on fundamental human themes - the beauty and glamour of youth and fame, material culture and the passing of time, and the presence of death. Employing mass-production techniques, Warhol challenged preconceived notions about the nature of art and erased traditional distinctions between fine art and popular culture. 

Irish Museum of Modern Art
Royal Hospital, Military Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8
www.modernart.ie

Rita McBride, Alexander and Bonin, NYC - New Sculpture

Rita McBride:  New Sculpture

Alexander and Bonin, New York

November 14 - December 20, 1997

Alexander and Bonin presents an exhibition of recent sculpture by Rita McBride. This is McBride's first exhibition with the gallery.

Rita McBride's work has often focused on architecture -- both the promises of Modernism and the blemishes of its manifestation. She has worked in a variety of materials including rattan, photography, plaster and cardboard. At Alexander and Bonin she exhibits both bronzes and works executed in glass. The bronzes are based on parking garage architecture -- both as buildings and as ramp systems. The glass works also relate to architectural details, i.e. a balcony, spaceframe or awning. The glass sculptures were produced in Murano, Italy.

Concurrent with the show in New York is a large exhibition at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam where Rita McBride exhibits two installations, each of which occupy an entire floor of the museum. One of these, Arena, a coliseum like structure executed in contemporary materials will remain installed at Witte de With after Rita McBride's exhibition, as a forum for programming through Summer 1998.

Rita McBride received an MFA from CalArts in 1987 and has exhibited internationally since 1990. She has had three one-person exhibitions at Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles and two with Michael Klein Gallery in New York. In the past two years she has made collaborative installations with Hsin-Ming Fung, Catherine Opie and Lawrence Weiner.

ALEXANDER AND BONIN

132 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

www.alexanderandbonin.com

David Moore, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

David Moore: the unseen images
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
7 November 1997 - 18 January 1998

David Moore is Australia's most significant living photographer. This exhibition celebrates his 70th year. David Moore's career was forged at the high point of international photojournalism. He was assigned by Life, Time, Fortune and The New York Times in the U.S. and The Observer in the U.K.. He photographed the building of the Sydney Opera House in the 1960s and the Glebe Island Bridge in the 1990s. He has worked in many parts of the world and published eight books of photographs.

David Moore's accumulated archives now amount to more than 200,000 images. The breadth and depth of his working life, over 50 years, has produced an extraordinary collection of material which documents facets of life in Australia and the United States as well as events in Britain.

This exhibition consists of a selection of 87 photographs that have not been seen before by the public. They represent a wide variety of David Moore's working life. Included are pictures of politicians and artists, people in remote regions, urban design, landscape, the rich fabric of daily life and personal observations which illustrate a continued search for expression and communication. A fully illustrated catalogue published by Chapter & Verse accompanies the exhibition. David Moore and Judy Annear, Curator of the exhibition, will discuss the unseen images on Friday 14 November within the show.

There is a thread which joins these photographs regardless of whether they are black & white or colour, or whether they were taken in the 1950s or forty years later - it is the photographer's ongoing fascination with the structure of the image within the frame: its geometry, and, within that geometry, the relationship between all the elements depicted, no matter how small they may be.

David David Moore's modernist stance in photography is the overriding aspect of this exhibition. From a very early stage in his career the impulse to formalism and abstraction in his work is quite clear. While there are images of spontaneity and intimacy in some of the early photographs, it is in the patterns of light and shade over form, particularly architectural and natural from, which becomes paramount in his work.

David Moore has been instrumental in advancing Australian photography throughout his career and in the early 1970s was instrumental in setting up the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney. In 1994 he was awarded an Australian Artists' Creative Fellowship. He has exhibited in London, Paris, China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand, as well as throughout Australia. His work is included in major collections throughout the world, for example, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, le Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C..

THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Larry Rivers, Marlborough Gallery, New York - Fashion and The Birds

Larry Rivers: Fashion and The Birds

Marlborough Gallery, New York

October 29 - November 29, 1997

Marlborough Gallery presents an exciting exhibition of new work by the inimitable American painter, Larry Rivers. This is Larry Rivers' twelfth one-man show at Marlborough since his joining the gallery in 1964. Larry Rivers was born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg, in the Bronx, New York in 1923 to Russian Jewish immigrants. He began his career in music as a jazz saxophonist. In 1947, at the suggestion of a friend, he began to paint at Hans Hoffman's school in Provincetown, Mass. His success was such that two years later he was given his first New York show. In 1950, Clement Greenberg and Meyer Schapiro selected him to be part of a New Talent show, and since that time he has become one of America's most important and innovative painters.

Larry Rivers' exhibition is comprised of approximately twenty-five paintings and ten drawings. Larry Rivers likes to work in a series using a central subject such as in his previous show called Art and the Artist. In this show, many of the works are based on a series derived from his recent interest in James Audubon and The Birds of America. (His first painting based on this subject was painted in 1985/86, entitled Twenty-five Birds of the Northeast, taken from a place mat at his table at his favorite diner). Among the new works are two brilliant portraits of Audubon as well as several works devoted to single bird studies such as a striking Great Blue Heron (50 x 48 inches), Black Neck Stilt (30 x 34 inches) and Comorant (48 x 40 inches). In other works, Larry Rivers has taken female models from the world of fashion and mixed them with bird images creating an intriguing visual Gestalt from separate elements of experience and emotion. This eclectic mixture is at once provocative, surprising, and enjoyably fresh. The medium for these works is based in some cases on the relief technique which Larry Rivers has developed into his own personal style. In some of these, he has deepened their relief increasing thereby the work's tactile exuberance. In other works, Larry Rivers has continued to use the flat canvas to magnificent expressive effect.

What stands out in all Larry Rivers' work is the superiority of his draughtsmanship, the lightness of his touch, the presence of his hand, and a unique color palette. It has been said that "Rivers' stubborn individualism has become his signature." He has been called a "maverick and innovative artist," "enterprising and mercurial," "a reactionary." Art International called him "contrariness incarnate." Rivers himself has said, "I have my own agenda," reflecting Arthur Jones' statement that "Rivers has constantly challenged the status quo." Rivers was painting figurative works when the tide was high on Abstract Expressionism. He was the first American artist to use commercial images in fine art which led the London Sunday Telegraph later to call him "the grand old man of Pop Art." In the same article, the Telegraph said Larry Rivers "has always stayed true to his talent as a figurative draughtsman and interested in relating the contemporary image to the tradition of western painting." In his brilliant new work, Rivers once again adds to the lexicon of stimulating contemporary images that one hasn't seen before. Rivers' style has always been hard to pin down. John Ashberry, who described Rivers' work as "handsome and dazzling original," summarized that "Rivers has always been out of sync" and Roberta Smith of the New York Times called him "a consummate synthesizer who seems to have considered any artist or art work fair game." But perhaps the wellspring for the strength, sensitivity and enormous individuality by which his work can be measured has been best sounded by John Gruen who wrote the following:

"Early on, Rivers had developed a painting style he could call his own. It might be categorized as being semi-abstract, semi-realistic, pop-artist, post-romantic, or neo-classic. But whatever the label, it reflected (and still does) an untrammeled imagination, an extraordinary draughtsmanship, a color sense that has no truck with garishness or vulgarity, and an innate vitality that springs from Rivers' own restlessness and reflects itself with charged-up spontaneity, into whatever he paints."

Larry Rivers is represented in numerous public collections in the United States. Among them are the following: The Baltimore Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; De Menil Foundation, Houston; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Minneapolis Institute of Art. In New York City, he is represented in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Jewish Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In Washington, D.C., he is represented at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery of Art. He is also represented by the Tate Gallery, London, the Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas.

An illustrated color catalogue of the Rivers Fashion and The Birds is available.

This exhibition is accompanied in the small gallery by a show of small sculptures by Arnaldo Pomodoro.

Following Larry Rivers' exhibition in December will be an exhibition of paintings by Vincent Desiderio.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

www.marlboroughgallery.com

Kiki Smith at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin - Convergence

Kiki Smith: Convergence
Irish Musuem of Modern Art, Dublin
24 October 1997 - 15 February 1998

The first major solo exhibition in Ireland of the work of Kiki Smith, one of America’s leading contemporary artists, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on 24 October. Kiki Smith: Convergence ranges over ten years of Kiki Smith’s work from 1988 and reflects her main concerns in terms of subject matter and use of colour and materials. It features a number of her characteristic sculptures based on the human body, a number of more recent drawings from 1996 and 1997, and mixed-media works using materials such as glass, crystal and neon, which mark a shift in focus from the human to animal forms and the natural world. 

Kiki Smith is best known for her works based on the female body which she presents in stark, often provocative terms - its flesh, blood, secretion and excretions suggesting fundamental questions of life and death. As an artist Smith gives birth to adult forms still grimy with the process of delivery. Indeed, a paradox of her works is that one cannot tell if they are coming into existence or passing out of it through decay and disintegration. Both formally and psychologically, these sculptures break with traditional notions of the depiction of the human figure in art. 

Using the physical body as her starting point, Kiki Smith explores the wider female condition in works suggesting pain, humiliation and subservience. There are also allusions to religious rituals and beliefs, which reflect her Catholic upbringing. The artist has selected works for this exhibition by using the device of colour for individual rooms at the museum - red, yellow, blue, green, brown and silver - colours which have been a strong force in her work. 

Kiki Smith was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1954. She moved to the United States as a child and in 1976 moved to New York where she now lives and works. In 1979-80 she began to work with the body using Gray’s Anatomy as a reference. She had her first solo exhibition Life Wants to Live at The Kitchen in New York in 1982. Since then she has exhibited to considerable critical acclaim in solo and group shows worldwide. Kiki Smith’s sculpture was included in From Beyond the Pale at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1994. 

Irish Museum of Modern Art
Royal Hospital, Military Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8
www.modernart.ie

Roy Dowell at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles - New Work

Roy Dowell: New Work

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles

4 October - 1 November 1997

The Margo Leavin Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by ROY DOWELL (b. 1951). The exhibition, which marks the artist’s second one-person show at Margo Leavin Gallery, includes nine mixed-media paintings on wood panel and sixteen mixed-media collages on paper.

With a background in photography from Oakland’s College of Arts and Crafts and painting from the California Institute for the Arts, Roy Dowell has been able to unite these two seemingly disparate mediums. Roy Dowell’s work combines collage elements from printed video images and advertisements with abstract painted forms to create a coherent overall composition.

Roy Dowell’s imagery refers to the abundance of visual information disseminated through television, outdoor media, printed matter, and commercial products. In Roy Dowell’s work, however, specific images are distorted or altered so that no one reference is necessarily identifiable. The layering and juxtaposition of the collage elements with the painted elements in Roy Dowell’s work create patterns and colors that function similarly to brushstoke passages found within more traditional abstract painting.

Roy Dowell’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions across the country and has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica; Otis College of Art and Design, Pasadena; and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art.

MARGO LEAVIN GALLERY

812 North Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Tracey Moffatt at Dia Center for the Arts, NYC

Tracey Moffatt: Free-falling
Dia Center for the Arts, New York
October 9, 1997 - June 14, 1998

Dia Center for the Arts presents an exhibition of the work of Australian photographer and filmmaker, Tracey Moffatt. This exhibition, entitled Free-falling, will be on view on the fourth floor of Dia's galleries at 548 West 22nd Street, New York City.

Free-falling includes two newly commissioned works: a suite of twenty-five photographs called Up in the Sky (1996) and a video installation, Tracey Moffatt's first in this medium. The subject of this video piece will be a surfer, a figure close to the heart of Australia's contemporary self-image. By contrast, Up in the Sky, which was shot near Broken Hill in the Outback, draws on imagery and a landscape that have long been central to the Australian mythos. In addition, the exhibition includes Guapa (Goodlooking), a series of twelve monochrome photographs loosely based on the theme of the roller derby, which Tracey Moffatt made in 1995 while on a residency at ArtPace in San Antonio, and Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1990), her early but prophetic short film. Guapa explores the intersection of violence with eroticism as sanctioned under the umbrella of sport. Silhouetted against neutral backdrops, the carefully choreographed female contestants create formally compelling images recalling at times sculptural groupings from the art of the past: artifice is as intrinsic to this sport as it is to Tracey Moffatt's aesthetic.

Of Abori-ginal descent, Tracey Moffatt has gained increasing international attention in the past several years. In 1995 she was awarded a prize at the Kwangju Biennale in Korea, and two of her films were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Given that she is also included in this year's Venice Biennale and Site Santa Fe exhibitions, Tracey Moffatt, who was born in 1960 in Brisbane, is among the preeminent Australian artists of her generation. Free-falling is her most substantial exhibition to date.

Major funding for this exhibition has been provided by the Lannan Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Embassy of Australia on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and The Australia Council for the Arts with an additional generous contribution by the Wolfensohn Family Foundation.

Dia Center for the Arts
www.diacenter.org

Willie Cole, Alexander and Bonin, NYC - New Sculpture

Willie Cole: New Sculpture

Alexander and Bonin, New York

September 27 - November 8, 1997

Alexander and Bonin presents its inaugural exhibition at 132 Tenth Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets) in New York.

WILLIE COLE (American, born 1955) have his first New York exhibition since 1994. Willie Cole exhibits recent sculptures which continue several of his intersets and themes. Some of these works are based on the form of an iron -- an image which he began investigationg in 1989. Willie Cole was first attracted to the iron for both its form and for its perceived embodiment of the spirit of the person who used the iron. The earliest versions, which he referred to as Household Gods and Domestic Demons, dealt with these ideas by utilizing found objects. More recently, Willie Cole has been constructing enlarged versions (i.e. an iron 600 times actual size) made from diverse materials both found (banisters, pullies) and constructed or carved (two egg 'beaters' that resemble African sculpture and which were carved out of two large sections of porch post).

Since his last New York show, Willie Cole has been an artist-in-residence at Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle; The Contemporary, Baltimore and Capp Street Project, San Francisco. His work is currently featured in the group exhibitions Biennial for Public Art, Neuberger Museum, Purchase and Performance Anxiety organized by MCA, Chicago and now on view at Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Willie Cole's Sculptures are included in permanent museum collections in Chicago, Dallas, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis and Stanford. Simultaneous with his show at Alexander and Bonin is his first one-person exhibition in Europe at the Galerie Almine Rech, Paris.

ALEXANDER AND BONIN

132 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

www.alexanderandbonin.com

Thomas Moran Exhibition at National Gallery of Art, Washington

Thomas Moran 

National Gallery of Art, Washington 

September 28, 1997 - January 11, 1998 

The first retrospective of paintings by THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926), long recognized as one of America's foremost landscape artists, is on view at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition features approximately 100 of Thomas Moran's finest watercolors and oil paintings, which provided Americans with breathtaking views of the American West, including the first images of Yellowstone. Viewers can see a selection of Thomas Moran's paintings of Yellowstone that inspired Congress to establish the first national park in the United States. The Thomas Moran exhibition coincides with the 125th anniversary celebration of the creation of Yellowstone National Park. Also included in the exhibition is the painting, The Three Tetons, which hangs in the Oval Office of the White House.

The Thomas Moran exhibition is being organized by the National Gallery of Art, in association with the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, which holds the largest collection of works by Thomas Moran. After its showing in Washington, the exhibition will be at the Gilcrease Museum, February 8 - May 10, 1998, and the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, June 11 - August 30, 1998.

In the period of renewal following the Civil War, the government sponsored survey teams to explore and map the vast resources of the American West. Thomas Moran's original watercolors, completed on the first survey expedition to Yellowstone in 1871, are being lent by the National Park Service as part of its anniversary celebration. They are installed with photographs by the noted photographer William Henry Jackson who traveled with Thomas Moran on the historic expedition.

Thomas Moran's watercolors of Yellowstone played a decisive role in the creation of the first national park in the United States just a few months after being seen by the public and the U.S. Congress. Thomas Moran subsequently rose to national prominence when his first great painting of the American West, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872), with its vast, spectacular landscape, was purchased by Congress to hang in the U.S. Capitol.

The exhibition includes Thomas Moran's three most famous oil paintings, hung together for the first time as the western triptych he intended: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) and Chasm of the Colorado (1873 - 1874) from the Department of the Interior, and Mountain of the Holy Cross (1875) from the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles.

While Thomas Moran's great Western paintings form the heart of the exhibition, visitors also have an opportunity to see his rarely exhibited Italian, English, and Mexican scenes, as well as his little known Pre-Raphaelite-style landscapes of the eastern United States.

In addition to loans from private collectors, public lenders to the exhibition include the Gilcrease Museum; The White House; the National Park Service; the Smithsonian Institution; the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming; the Museum of Western Art, Denver; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the Detroit Institute of Arts; Berea College, Berea, Kentucky; the Union Pacific Museum Collection, Omaha; the National Archives, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Accompanying the exhibition is a comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue with contributions from Nancy Anderson, associate curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, along with other leading Thomas Moran scholars including Anne Morand, curator of art, Gilcrease Museum; Joni Kinsey, professor of art history, University of Iowa; and Thomas Bruhn, acting director, Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs. The catalogue, published by the National Gallery of Art in association with Yale University Press, is the first extensive, scholarly work on Thomas Moran. It includes an illustrated chronology, color plates of every painting in the exhibition, and appendices of rare Moran documents available in part for the first time. One of the appendices includes illustrations of the series of chromolithographs that Thomas Moran did for Louis Prang in 1876, widely recognized as the finest chromolithographs done in nineteenth-century America. For the first time these are reproduced in color together with original text.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Fourth Street at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20565

www.nga.gov

Richard Serra at Dia Center for the Arts, New York

Richard Serra: "Torqued Ellipses"
Dia Center for the Arts, New York
September 25, 1997 - June 14, 1998

Dia Center for the Arts presents an exhibition of new sculpture by the American artist RICHARD SERRA. Titled "Torqued Ellipses," this exhibition will mark the debut of Dia's second exhibition building for temporary exhibitions, at 545 West 22nd Street, located directly across the street from its current facility at 548 West 22nd Street, New York City.

The Torqued Ellipses mark a new departure in Richard Serra's oeuvre, one which involves bending steel in a totally unprecedented manner. Four years ago, Serra conceived this group of approximately twenty sculptures in the form of lead models. A CATIA computer program was developed from the models to enable a rolling machine to torque the steel plates. After a protracted search, Serra finally located Beth Ship, a shipyard and rolling mill at Sparrow's Point outside Baltimore, which was willing to undertake the project. To date, four sculptures from this series have been realized, three of which will be on view at Dia this fall.

As Mark Taylor writes in his essay for the catalogue that will accompany the exhibition:

The effect of these works is extraordinary. Though made of heavy industrial materials and massive in size, they have the delicacy of finely folded ribbon or even paper twisted to form a Möbius strip that never quite reaches closure. As one moves from outside to inside by passing through the gap in these works, everything shifts. Lines that appear straight on the outside bend and buckle on the inside; arcs that seem to tilt away when viewed from without bend inward to enfold subject in object when experienced from within. As twisted space surrounds or even circulates through the perceptive body, the space and time of the work of art become utterly destabilizing and disorienting.

Born in San Francisco in 1939, RICHARD SERRA has a longstanding engagement with steel. After financing his college degree by working in steel mills, Serra adopted steel as his preferred material in the late sixties: he has continued to use it in different ways, propped, bent, forged, and rolled for over three decades.

Since his first solo show in Rome in 1966, Richard Serra has had numerous exhibitions throughout the world, including a 1986 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition, he has created a number of seminal site-specific sculptures in public venues in both North America and Europe. Most recently, as his contribution to the current Sculpture Projects in Münster, Germany, Serra was commissioned to make a permanent installation at one of that city's most renowned historic buildings, the Haus Rüschhaus designed by the Baroque architect J.C. Schlaun. Serra recently installed Snake, a 100-feet-long, 13-feet-high sculpture commissioned by the Guggenheim's new museum in Bilbao. In the fall of 1998, he will open an exhibition of large-scale installations at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Dia Center for the Arts
www.diacenter.org

Sensation - Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London

Sensation - Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection

Royal Academy of Arts, London

18 September - 28 December 1997

The achievements of a generation of young British artists whose original and challenging work has received international acclaim are the focus of this major exhibition. Entitled Sensation, the show presents work by artists selected from The Saatchi Collection. As well as highlighting the vitality and inventiveness of current British art, the exhibition also demonstrates the commitment that Charles Saatchi has shown in collecting the work of these young artists.

This recent explosion of creativity and excitement in the visual arts has not been seen since the emergence of Pop Art in the early 1960s. This current phenomenon was originally identified in the late 1980s through exhibitions in the east end of London, most notably Freeze and Modern Medicine. These exhibitions were organised by a group of young artists who, having just graduated from art school, sought venues that lay outside the traditional institutions of the art world in order to show their work. Since then the energy and ingenuity that many artists have shown in promoting their own work has been one of the factors of their success.

The individuality of their work makes it impossible to brand this generation of young artists as a movement, even though many of the artists know and support each other. By showing their work together, which ranges in media from paintings and sculpture to video, photography and ready-made objects, it is possible to appreciate the interaction and shared concerns of their work which can, in turn, be exuberantly humorous or brutally forthright.

The artists represented in Sensation are: Darren Almond, Richard Billingham, Glenn Brown, Simon Callery, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Adam Chodzko, Mat Collishaw, Keith Coventry, Peter Davies, Tracey Emin, Paul Finnegan, Mark Francis, Alex Hartley, Marcus Harvey, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Michael Landy, Abigail Lane, Langlands & Bell, Sarah Lucas, Martin Maloney, Jason Martin, Alain Miller, Ron Mueck, Chris Ofili, Jonathan Parsons, Richard Patterson, Simon Patterson, Hadrian Pigott, Marc Quinn, Fiona Rae, James Rielly, Jenny Saville, Yinka Shonibare, Jane Simpson, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gavin Turk, Mark Wallinger, Gillian Wearing, Rachel Whiteread and Cerith Wyn Evans.

CATALOGUE

The catalogue accompanying the exhibition examines the rise of these young British artists and places their work in a historical and critical context. Norman Rosenthal, Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy, writes an introduction to the exhibition, Richard Shone charts the story over the past 10 years from the Freeze exhibition to Rachel Whiteread's 'House' and Lisa Jardine looks at the role of the collector in the twentieth century. Martin Maloney focuses on the works in the exhibition and Brooks Adams examines the work of the young British artists from an international perspective. The catalogue has over 180 illustrations including photographs of the artists by Johnnie Shand Kydd. Published by Thames & Hudson, the catalogue will be available both in softback (£21.95 and £19.95 for Friends) from the Royal Academy during the exhibition and in hardback from shops nationwide.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS

Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1V 0DS

www.royalacademy.org.uk

Durst Lambda 76 - Medium Format Digital Laser Imager

Durst Lambda 76 

Medium Format Digital Laser Imager 

DURST LAMBDA 76

© Durst Phototechnik AG

Durst Phototechnik AG, manufacturer of the first and most popular Large Format Digital Photo Printer with no size limitations, the Durst Lambda 130, is announcing deliveries of the 32" Lambda 76 to start by the end of 1997.

The Medium Format Digital Laser Imager Durst Lambda 76 exposes digital image and text data via laser directly onto photographic silver halide materials (color negative papers, color reversal papers and blacklit materials, etc.).It features a patented continuous roll to roll exposure with an automatic paper take-up device. The prints generated with the Durst Lambda 76 feature unsurpassed photographic quality.

The Lambda 76 is the perfect device for portrait and people as well as commercial photo labs for doing high volume of small and medium print sizes. The 81.2 cm/32" paper width makes the Lambda 76 ideal for printing pop-up displays with no print length limitations.

Durst Lambda 76: Key Features 

Direct to photographic media

- Straight from a digital file, the Durst Lambda can print any creation directly onto photographic media (reflective -> paper / backlit -> transparent or opaque film)

- It combines the advantages of classical silver halide photography with the potential of the latest laser and digital technology, without an intermediate film stage - and without the compromises of CMYK output.

- Because the receiving media is photgraphic paper, the color space is RGB, the same as any designer`s monitor.

- The photographic media is still the best when it comes to reproduce images combined with text and logos. It can reproduce the finest details, as it does not require any form of screening / dittering.

Total flexibility

No size limitations thanks to the unique, patented flatbed continuous roll to roll laser exposing system (for paper widths from 20.3 cm/8" to 81.2 cm /32"), from "icons" to large murals. (with auto- and custom paneling functions). One seamless print can be as long as one entire 81.2 cm/32" roll (50 m / 160ft))

High Image and Text Quality

Dual resolution of 200 and 400 ppi for superior image sharpness of small print sizes. The Lambda 76 features high color saturation and color fidelty, better image quality, more details and sharper type than other alternatives.

High Output Speed

Exposes all medias at a linear speed of 12"/min. Compared with other digital systems the Lambda is "remarkably faster" and can produce up to 270 prints 20x25 cm / 8x10" an hour.

High Productivity 

- Same as the Lambda 130 and unlike other large format digital photo printers, the Lambda 76 features a simultaneous exposure and paper transport, exposing a print size of 80 x 260 cm / 32 x 100" ready to process in less than 10 minutes.

- DEC-Alpha workstation with 64-Bit Digital UNIX Operating System for on-the-fly image processing and short ripping times (Cheetah-RIP by DICE America: 100 MB in approx. 1 Minute).

- Small prints are automatically printed side by side for fast multiple printing and optimal use of large paper widhts.

Open System: Exposes image and text files from major systems and application programs (PC,Mac and Workstations).

Supported File Formats:

     - RGB and Grayscale - TIFF /TIFF/LZW

     - RGB and Grayscale - JPEG

   - PostScript Level 2 (PS, inculding images in CMYK, RGB, EPS, JPEG, Grayscale etc.). with automatic conversion of CMYK to RGB during the ripping process.

The marketplace expects the highest in quality and short turn-around times. The Lambda 76 is the ultimate production machine and "work horse" providing high quality prints with neutral grays matching exactly from edge to edge, with text and edge sharpness far surpassing the ability of any enlarger, even if the original is from a high resolution film recorder. Panel color and consistency is unmatched.

Becasue of the high image quality and productivity and the total size flexibility, the Durst Lambda 76 will allow the commercial and portrait/people labs to increase their productivity with shorter turn-around times and less paper waste.

The Durst Lambda 76 is sold as a complete working system, including the imager, DEC- Alpha workstation with Lambda software, integrated Cheetah-RIP by Dice America, X-Rite densitometer, etc.

DURST PHOTOTECHNIK AG

www.durst-online.com

Updated Post

Marlborough new gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan's newest art district

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY, NEW YORK, 

TO OPEN A NEW GALLERY IN CHELSEA

Pierre Levai, Director of Marlborough Gallery, New York, has announced that Marlborough will open a gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan's newest art district, on September 18, 1997. The addition of Marlborough Chelsea marks the ninth venue for Marlborough, which, in addition to its 57th Street location in Manhattan, has galleries in London, Madrid, and Santiago, Chile, and offices in Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Zurich.

Marlborough Gallery's program in Chelsea will include exhibitions of work by artists represented by Marlborough as well as exhibitions organized by independent curators that will feature artists represented by Marlborough in addition to other artists. Furthermore, Marlborough Chelsea will house the offices of International Public Art, Ltd. the independent corporation of Marlborough Gallery Inc. formed last fall, which-under the direction of Dale M. Lanzone, formerly Director of the United States Federal Government's public art program-is committed to the development of international public art projects, with an emphasis on the integration of art, architecture, and the urban and natural environments.

"Marlborough Chelsea provides an excellent opportunity for us to continue our commitment to an expanded international presence on behalf of our artists. Moreover, the new gallery will give us an alternate forum to mount exhibitions that are unique and separate from Marlborough Gallery's 57th Street program," stated Pierre Levai.

Located at 211 West 19th Street, Marlborough Chelsea is comprised of architectural elements characteristic of downtown exhibition spaces. The 4,000 square-foot, glass storefront-which has been designed by Mr. Lanzone in collaboration with architect Eli King-features 14 foot ceilings, a concrete floor and a central row of columns.

The Marlborough Chelsea inaugural exhibition, which will be on view September 18 through October 25, will feature large-scale sculpture by gallery artists Magdalena Abakanowicz and Sir Anthony Caro, as well as Louise Bourgeois. This is Anthony Caro's first exhibition with Marlborough since joining the gallery this month. Marlborough Chelsea, 211 West 19th Street, opens to the public Thursday, September 18th. 1997. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

www.marlboroughgallery.com

British sculptor Anthony Caro - Marlborough Gallery - The artist is represented by the gallery in the USA

BRITISH SCULPTOR SIR ANTHONY CARO 

REPRESENTED BY MARLBOROUGH GALLERY 

IN THE USA

Marlborough Gallery, New York, announces that renowned British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro has joined the gallery and will be represented by Marlborough throughout the United States.

Sir Anthony Caro was born in Surrey, England in 1924. He attended the Royal Academy in London and, during that time, served as assistant to sculptor Henry Moore. Throughout his career Sir Anthony has been a dedicated educator, holding teaching positions at St. Martin's School of Art in London and Bennington College in Vermont. In 1982, he founded the Triangle Artists' Workshop, an annual gathering of sculptors and painters in Pine Plains, New York. In 1987, he was knighted for his contribution to art. Sir Anthony Caro lives and works in London.

One of the most accomplished and respected sculptors working today, Sir Anthony's work is among the most innovative of the 20th century. He has been a driving force in contemporary sculpture, and as a teacher has inspired an entire generation of younger British sculptors including Barry Flannagan, Richard Long, William Tucker, Bruce McLean and Gilbert & George. His sculptural language has evolved over the years to include works in various materials ranging from steel in different forms such as I-beams and ship's buoys, to ceramic, bronze, silver, lead and wood. Sir Anthony is continuously reinventing his art by challenging his own perceptions of scale and exploring new means with which to express his artistic vision.

Sir Anthony Caro first came to the forefront of the British contemporary art scene in the early 1960s, when he began to produce abstract, welded steel sculpture, painted in bright colors. In 1966, Sir Anthony turned his attention toward small-scale steel forms. His best-known work of this period is a series called Table Pieces. Unlike his large-scale steel sculptures which were set directly on the ground, these smaller-scale sculptures rested on table tops, making the table itself an integral part of the work. In the 1970s, he began to examine sculpture on a monumental scale and abandoned his use of painted steel for materials such as raw, unfinished steel, iron, bronze and wood. In May 1970, while a critic for The New York Times, Hilton Kramer wrote of Sir Anthony: "He is unquestionably the most important sculptor to come out of England since Henry Moore...One has the impression of an artist who, having totally mastered a new and difficult area of sculptural syntax, is now permitting himself a freer margin of lyric improvisation".

Since 1980, Sir Anthony has been predominantly interested in architecturally related sculpture. He was profoundly moved by a trip he made to Greece in 1985, in which he marveled at the relationship between the sculpture and architecture at such sites as the Parthenon, Delphi, Mycenae and Olympia. In 1987, he executed a series of works inspired by Greek pedimental sculpture, including After Olympia, a monumental work inspired by the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus. In the 1980s, Sir Anthony's interest shifted toward what he calls "sculpitecture", or works that examine the relationship and create a dialogue between architecture and sculpture. In more recent years, he has collaborated with numerous architects such as: Frank Gehry, with whom he realized the 1978 Architectural Village, a network of freely constructed wooden forms and linking walkways; and Sir Norman Foster, with whom he helped produce a winning entry for the 1996 Millennium Bridge Design competition for the first footbridge to be built over the river Thames in more than a century.

In a 1995 interview with Robert Hopper, Sir Anthony stated: "One thing that I like about the nineties is that possibilities are broader for me than they have been. I can tackle things in a fresh way. And the way forward is not clear."

Among Sir Anthony Caro's innumerable one-man exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide are a 1992 exhibition organized by The British Council and installed amid the ruins of the Trajan Markets in the ancient Roman Forum, and the largest retrospective of his work to date organized in 1995 by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. His sculpture is represented in more than one hundred public collections worldwide including: Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Tate Gallery, London; and the Tel Aviv Museum, Israel.

Large-scale sculpture by Sir Anthony Caro will be included in the inaugural exhibition opening September 18 at Marlborough's new gallery in Chelsea at 211 West 19th Street, New York City. His work will also be featured in a solo exhibition at Marlborough Chelsea in the spring of 1998.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

www.marlboroughgallery.com

Abakanowicz, Bourgeois, Caro - Marlborough Chelsea, New York - Inaugural Exhibition

Abakanowicz, Bourgeois, Caro

Marlborough Chelsea, New York

September 18 - October 25, 1997

For its inaugural exhibition, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, presents sculptures by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois and Sir Anthony Caro. 

The gallery's inaugural exhibition presents one work each by Abakanowicz, Bourgeois and Caro. Each of these works through their physical and conceptual presence, commands and defines the gallery's architectural spaces, creating three interrelated but markedly different environments. These sculptures are of such independent and forceful character that they dominate their environments through the drama of a physical discourse that captures the viewer as if he or she had stumbled into a theater and onto a stage occupied by giants.

Magdalena Abakanowicz channels her deeply personal feelings about loss, isolation, displacement and regeneration as experienced throughout her childhood in Poland into her sculpture. Gouged and smooth bronze surfaces display the marks of the artist's fingers and nails; her work becomes an expressionist rendering in three-dimensional form of angst, aggression and strength. Rather than representing a single historical moment, group or tragedy, Magdalena Abakanowicz says that her work "is about the human condition in general". Backward Seated Figures (1992-93), comprised of 20 bronze forms, suggests a crowd of people seated on the floor, hunched over slightly. The air between each sculpture is heavy and fraught with tension; the installation creates a mood which fills the gallery and pushes at the walls, enveloping the viewer. The installation at Marlborough Chelsea will be the first showing of this piece in the United States.

A native of France, American sculptor Louise Bourgeois' work developed initially in the 1940s through her exposure to the Surrealists. Her later works reflect a continuing interest in feminism and forms related to the body. While many of her recent projects have explored and represented personal recollections of childhood memories and experiences through seemingly fragile and delicate forms, Eyes (1995), included in this exhibition, is monumentally forceful in both its physical and conceptual presence. The pair of massive granite spherical eyes with hemispherical irises captures everything that falls within their gaze. At the direction of  Louise Bourgeois, the eyes have been positioned at a distance apart to reflect the proportions of a monolithic face. The eyes are positioned to create a field of vision and depth of focus that extends beyond the walls of the gallery into the city - the sculpture is both a corporeal anchor and conceptual window.

British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, who recently joined Marlborough for his North American representation, shapes mass and the spaces which his forms inhabit in a powerful yet carefully constructed way. His new work created specifically for this exhibition, Wareham Ziggurat (1997), rises over 12 feet high with its towering stepped shape. Ascending from floor to ceiling, the work forces one's attention upwards into the spaces that most sculpture does not reach. Because of the internal architectural "rooms" within the sculpture, the spectator is drawn inside and therefore deals with both external and internal notions of architectural form and space. The giant railroad sleepers from which the sculpture is made are stacked high like a vast pyramid, giving the work a physicality that is primal, ancient and mysteriously ritualistic in character.

Abakanowicz, Bourgeois, Caro will be followed by a group show curated by Raymond Foye, on view from November 1 through November 29, 1997. An exhibition of work by Spanish sculptor Francisco Leiro opens December 3, and will remain on view through January 3, 1998.

Marlborough Chelsea

211 West 19th Street, New York, NY

www.malgoroughgallery.com

Drawings by Dan Flavin, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas - Dan Flavin, Drawings 1962-1975 & untitled (to my father, D. Nicholas Flavin, 1891-1974), 1974

Dan Flavin, Drawings 1962-1975 & untitled (to my father, D. Nicholas Flavin, 1891-1974), 1974

Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas

October 4, 1997 - May 1998

The Chinati Foundation will present an exhibition of drawings by DAN FLAVIN that will open on the occasion of the museum's Open House celebration on October 4. It will be the first time in over twenty years that this aspect of Dan Flavin's oeuvre will be shown; the work was last exhibited in the US at the St. Louis Museum of Art in 1973 and the Fort Worth Art Museum in 1976. The last European showing was at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1975. This comprehensive survey contains over one hundred drawings executed between 1962 and 1975. During the mid 70s, Dan Flavin replaced these 'rough sketches' with 'diagrams' which were done after the installation in fluorescent light had been realized. His 'rough sketches,' on the other hand, are a direct reflection of Flavin's thoughts and ideas during the development of a work.

The earliest sketches in this exhibition relate to a series of "Icons," Dan Flavin's earliest works to incorporate electric light. Only eight of these Icons were ever realized ‚ seven of which are currently on view at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York. The drawings show that Dan Flavin explored many additional possibilities, and had already conceived specific arrangements that would later be realized in large scale fluorescent works.

The selection of drawings at Chinati will concentrate on works in relation to architecture. The first indication of a 'fluorescent room' dates back to 1963. From 1966 on, there are designs for installations occupying entire rooms or single works for a wall, corner, corridor, or stairway. The sketches do not so much present finished works, but reflect the thoughts leading up to them. Often occupying very small pieces of paper, these drawings can be regarded as notes, and some are indeed densely surrounded by the artist's notations. They provide insight into Dan Flavin's working process and are an indispensable resource for a thorough understanding of his work.The exhibition will also include one large fluorescent work from 1974: untitled (in memory of my father, D. Nicholas Flavin, 1891-1974).

The exhibition of drawings is related to a significant large scale project Dan Flavin designed for the Chinati Foundation. This work will consist of fluorescent light barriers to be installed in six buildings on the museum's grounds, illuminating their interiors with different constellations and intensities of blue, green, yellow and pink. The initial plans for this project date back to 1981 and once realized, this permanent work will be Dan Flavin's largest. The museum expects to complete the work by the fall of 1999. An illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition with a text by Marianne Stockebrand will be published before the show's conclusion.

THE CHINATI FOUNDATION

Marfa, TX 79843

www.chinati.org

Australia at the 1997 Venice Biennale - Kwementyai Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson: Fluent

Australia at the 1997 Venice Biennale

Kwementyai Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson: Fluent

17 June - 9 November 1997

Kwementyai Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie and Judy Watson's representation in the 47th Venice Biennale is the first time Aboriginal women have been exhibited at the most prestigious international event in the visual art world's calendar.

"Like the many canals that weave through Venice, the exhibition explores the subtle connections between works which suggest a continuous ebb and flow between modernity and tradition, art and craft, painting and sculpture, abstraction and narrative. fluent celebrates and pays tribute to the survival of Aboriginal culture on the international stage, reflecting the culture and creativity of both regional and urban communities." (Curatorium)

The title, fluent, not only suggests the visual fluidity of the artists' works and the intuitive nature of their creation, it also connotes the oral traditions of Aboriginal culture and the many languages that make up Aboriginal Australia.

Kwementyai Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie and Judy Watson create individual, bold and contemporary interpretations of a heritage that is 40,000 years old. These artists exemplify the challenging and innovative direction both urban and regional Aboriginal art has taken in the past decade.

KWEMENTYAI KNGWARREYE passed away last year and was believed to be in her eighties. In accordance with Aboriginal custon, the full name of the artist is not written or spoken out of respect for the deceased and their family. The substitute Kwementyai (meaning 'no name') and the artist's skin name, Kngwarreye, is used.

Kngwarreye is considered to be one of the most significant of Australia's contemporary artists. Her work is represented in major public and private collections in Australia and overseas. In 1992, she was the first Aboriginal artist to be awarded an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship. Kngwarreye lived a traditional lifestyle and worked on a cattle station in the outback of Australia in her youth. After a lifetime of traditional cultural practice, Kngwarreye was introduced to non-traditional art practices in her late sixties. Initially working with batik, it was not until over a decade later that Kngwarreye found the medium she came to master, painting on canvas.

fluent focuses on Kngwarreye's 'stripe' paintings which suddenly appeared in late 1993, disrupting her famous fields of shimmering dots. A spiritual analogy is made between the stripes of her paintings and the traditional body paint of Kngwarreye's awelye, yam dreaming cycles.

YVONNE KOOLMATRIE is recognised as one of the leading weavers in Australia, practising a rare form of Ngarrindjari weaving traditional to the Riverland country of South Australia. Originally intended to exist in the physical world of water, Koolmatrie's weavings are seemingly weightless and reveal the hand of the artist. Made of sedge grass reeds from the River Murray, chosen for their strength, colour and fragrance, Koolmatrie's weavings have an inherent gracefulness and balance which distinguishes her work.

JUDY WATSON, unlike the other two artists, trained in a formal academic system. As a Waanyi artist, Watson has said her work is about "memories washing over me". She regularly travels to her country in North West Queensland (Waanyi country), to draw inspiration from her rich personal and communal histories. Using principles of abstraction she exposes the hidden stories of the Australian colonial experience. The rich deeply textured surfaces, etched with innumerable marks and meanders, are breathtakingly beautiful. Her fluid painting style is enhanced as her unstretched canvasses float on the wall.

Watson has travelled extensively and held international residencies in Banff in Canada, Bhopal in India, Tuscany in Italy, Lillehammer in Norway and New Zealand. She was a recipient of the 1995 Möet & Chandon Fellowship and undertook a one year residency in France.

Australia's 1997 Venice Biennale curatorial team, consisting of curators, Hetti Perkins and Brenda L.Croft and coordinating curator Victoria Lynn, make an ideal blend of professional indigenous and contemporary art expertise.

HETTI PERKINS of the Arrernte people is an independent curator based in Sydney and has worked as a curator of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative and The Art Gallery of New South Wales. BRENDA L. CROFT of the Gurindji people is a practising artist, an independent curator and was General Manager of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. VICTORIA LYNN is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The exhibition fluent has been supported by The Art Gallery of New South Wales. The assistance of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative is gratefully acknowledged. This project has been assisted by the Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts funding and advisory body. The support of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commision is also acknowledged.

MICHAEL LYNCH, General Manager of the Australia Council, is the Commissioner for the Australian Pavilion.

Australia has officially participated in the Venice Biennale since 1954 when an exhibition of Sidney Nolan's work was presented. From 1978 the Australia Council became involved in selecting the artists to be exhibited and commenced funding Australia's participation, securing a site for Australia's own Pavillion in 1988.

THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au