Nan Goldin Exhibition @ Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Nan Goldin

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

March 2 – April 29, 2023 

NAN GOLDIN:

Memory Lost, 2020 

Pigment print, 44 x 65 inches (framed) [111.8 x 165.1 cm]

© Nan Goldin, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery

Fraenkel Gallery presents Nan Goldin’s fifth exhibition with the gallery since 1994. Memory Lost, the exhibition’s centerpiece, is a slideshow in which Nan Goldin explores the darkness of drug addiction through images and recordings from her extensive archive. The exhibition also features dreamlike photographs from Memory Lost, along with a recent series of intimate portraits made at home during the pandemic. 

Projected in a darkened room, Memory Lost presents a haunting and emotional narrative comprised of outtakes drawn from Nan Goldin’s archive of thousands of slides. Depicting scenes from her life and circle of friends, the 24-minute piece recounts the pain and fleeting moments of beauty in life lived through the lens of addiction. Presented for the first time on the West Coast, the piece includes a score commissioned from composer and musician Mica Levi, with additional music by CJ Calderwood and Soundwalk Collective, interwoven with Nan Goldin’s own voice, answering machine tapes from the 1980s, and contemporary interviews.

The still photographic prints from Memory Lost convey Nan Goldin’s distinct sensibility with mysterious depictions of skies, beaches, animals, and crowds. Often blurred or overexposed, the images suggest luminous fragments from a partially remembered past. 

The most recent works in the exhibition were made at home during quarantine in 2020-21, portraying writer Thora Siemsen, who moved into Nan Goldin’s apartment early in the pandemic. Tender, intimate, and quiet, the photographs exhibit the artist’s singular understanding of chiaroscuro, and mark Nan Goldin’s rare return to portraiture.

Nan Goldin’s slideshows are the subject of a major touring retrospective, This Will Not End Well, organized by Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and traveling to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. In 2017, Nan Goldin co-founded the group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), seeking to address the ongoing opioid epidemic by targeting the pharmaceutical companies that have profited from it. She is the subject of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the award-winning 2022 film directed by Laura Poitras, which follows the artist and P.A.I.N.’s fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for their role in the drug crisis. Her work has been the subject of major touring retrospectives organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and by Centre Pompidou, Paris and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; and solo exhibitions at the Louvre, Paris, and Tate Modern, London, among others. Goldin’s work is in the collections of major institutions around the world. Awards include inclusion in the French Legion of Honor, the Hasselblad Foundation International Award, the Edward MacDowell Medal, and the Kathë Kollwitz Award. 

FRAENKEL GALLERY

49 Geary Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108

fraenkelgallery.com

James Welling @ David Zwirner Gallery, Hong Kong - Metamorphosis

James Welling: Metamorphosis

David Zwirner, Hong Kong

1 April – 8 May 2021

JAMES WELLING

4776, 2015

© James Welling

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

My mind is bent to tell of bodies changed into new forms.

—Ovid, Metamorphoses

David Zwirner presents work by the American photographer James Welling, on view across two floors of the gallery’s Hong Kong location. The exhibition will mark the first solo presentation of the artist’s work in Greater China and provides an overview of James Welling’s forty-year career in photography, with key series from the 1980s to the present that highlight his ongoing exploration of abstraction, figuration, color, and process. 

Welling’s first major body of work, Aluminum Foil (1980–1981), is made up of black-and-white close-ups of crumpled aluminum foil. This early work signaled a break with traditional ideas of the medium by shifting attention to constructing images for the camera rather than finding them in the world. The Aluminum Foils initially read as abstractions, but upon further viewing other readings emerge: starry skies, rippling water, summer foliage, geological strata. This tightrope act in which the work hovers between abstraction and representation became one of the hallmarks of Welling’s practice.

Thirty years after Aluminum Foil, Welling began Chemical (2010–), his ongoing series of chemigrams (photographs made in room light with photographic chemicals on black-and-white photo paper). Using different tools to spread liquid and powdered developer across photosensitive material, Welling creates abstractions resembling miniature action paintings. As with the Aluminum Foils, the viewer is presented with an abstraction that lends itself to figurative readings—abstraction on the edge of representation.

James Welling began using color in 2004 for Flowers, a series of photograms (cameraless photographs) that he created until 2017. The first Flowers were made in a color darkroom by layering brightly colored gels above a black-and-white negative of a flower to produce irregular fields of vibrant color. In 2014, James Welling started working with flower imagery on the computer using the red, green, and blue color channels of Photoshop. The work became increasingly psychedelic and several examples of Flowers in the show are among his most intense and vibrant.

As James Welling worked on Flowers, he developed a parallel project, Glass House (2006–2010), photographs of the architect Philip Johnson’s Connecticut home built in 1949. Again, Welling turned to the color filters from the early Flowers, this time holding them up in front of the camera lens. Glass House evolved over four years of visits and encompasses multiple views of The Glass House and the surrounding landscape in all seasons.

In Choreograph (2014–2020), James Welling applied the intense colors of the recent Flowers to superimpose images of landscape, architecture, and modern dance. (Welling studied dance briefly in his early 20s.) For the dance images, he photographed rehearsals and performances of a dozen dance companies, including the LA Dance Project and the Lucinda Childs Dance Company. By compositing these images, Welling produces what could be called “digital collages” where layers of figuration obscure and compete with each other. Bodies, begun in 2018, uses a similar layering technique but emphasizes the body over landscape and architecture. However, in these photographs, we no longer see a modern dancer but rather a god or a mortal from antiquity.  

James Welling continues to picture Greek and Roman sculptures for his most recent series Cento, begun in 2019. After photographing sculptures and objects in dozens of museums around the world, the Cento photographs use a process the artist invented in which he applies oil paint to photographic prints. A cento is a poem made up of lines from other poems. In titling his series Cento, James Welling draws these fragments from antiquity into a new pictorial whole.

JAMES WELLING was born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh before receiving his BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. The artist has been represented by David Zwirner since 2005, and Metamorphosis marks his ninth solo presentation with the gallery. 

Welling’s work has been the subject of a number of significant survey exhibitions. Most recently, in 2017, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent and the Kunstforum Wien in Vienna co-organized Metamorphosis, a traveling solo show encompassing the artist’s work from over four decades. A major survey, Monograph, was organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio and accompanied by a catalogue published by Aperture in 2013. The exhibition traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. In 2000, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, organized a major survey of his work, which traveled to The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Welling’s work was also featured in documenta IX in 1992.

In 2020, Choreograph, a solo exhibition of Welling’s work, was on view at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. Things Beyond Resemblance: James Welling Photographs was hosted in 2015 by the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and presented fifty works from the artist’s Wyeth project. The museum also commissioned the artist to create eight site-specific installations, Gradients, which explore the intersection of photography and sculpture. In 2012, The Mind on Fire at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, England, explored the origin and development of Welling’s abstract photographs from the 1980s. The show traveled to the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.

Additional solo exhibitions have been held at the Art Institute of Chicago (2014); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2013); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut (2012); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota (2010); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2002); Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (2002); Sprengel Museum Hannover (1999); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1998); and the Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (1998). In 1990, the artist’s first museum exhibition was presented by Kunsthalle Bern.

In 2014, James Welling was a recipient of the Infinity Award given by the International Center of Photography, New York, and in 2016, he received the Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award from Woodbury University, California. From 1995 to 2016, Welling was Professor in the Department of Art at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and since 2012 he has been a Lecturer with the rank of Professor in Visual Arts and the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.

The artist’s work is held in major museum collections internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; Vancouver Art Gallery; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in New York.

DAVID ZWIRNER

5–6/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong

www.davidzwirner.com

Design @ Sotheby's London

Design
Sotheby's London
15 November 2016

The market for important works of design has gone from strength to strength in recent months, with outstanding results at Sotheby’s design sales in New York and Paris in 2016. The May sale at Sotheby’s Paris, led by 18 works by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, achieved €7.8 million (est. £4.1-5.7m), the highest-ever total for a Design auction in France. The second-edition of a dedicated Design sale for London is underpinned by pioneering works of Post-war Scandinavian, Italian, French, American and Contemporary Design, including superb examples by Studio Job, Nacho Carbonell, Gio Ponti, Arne Jacobsen and Gerrit Rietveld. The sale takes place just days ahead of the landmark opening of a major new home for London’s Design Museum, further evidence of the city’s evergrowing status as an influential hub for the international design scene.

Highlights

Arne Jacobsen, Desk, 1952

Stainless steel, lacquered Cuban mahogany, leather, ebony

Estimate: £40,000-60,000

Designed the same year as his iconic ‘Ant’ chair, the present model, along with a low table and armchair, were made for the offices of the American-Scandinavian Foundation in New York. Although intended for American export, the present lot has remained in Denmark from the time of its execution. Only the third time that this model has ever come to auction, this piece belonged to a collector who was close friends with Jacobsen. At the time of acquiring the desk circa 1953, the original owner resided in a home designed by Jacobsen himself, located in the Danish town of Hellerup, close to the architect's home.

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, ‘Zig Zag’ Chair, 1939

Oak, brass

Estimate: £15,000-20,000

This is a rare and early example of Rietveld’s iconic ‘Zig Zag’ chair was produced by Gerard van de Groenekan in 1939, four years after the first model was made. Rietveld, renowned for his ‘Red and Blue Chair’ and the ‘Schröder’ house, was a leading figure in the artistic movement known as De Stijl. This particular chair has remained with the same family since its production and comes with a signed certificate from Gerard van de Groenekan.

Ico Parisi, Monumental Bookcase, circa 1955

Rosewood, glass, enamelled copper

Estimate: £20,000-30,000

This monumental bookcase by the Italian architect and designer Ico Parisi was created in collaboration with the renowned enameller Paolo de Poli, who produced the handles. Over the course of his 50-year career, Parisi - who considered himself a ‘Renaissance’ artist - mastered a wide variety of discipline, including architecture, design, painting, and photography.

Peder Moos, Daybed, circa 1944

Pine with Alpaca skin upholstery

Estimate: £8,000-12,000

This bed is one of five pieces on offer designed by Danish master cabinet maker Peder Moos for the Østrupgaard manor, Denmark, between 1944 and 1945.

During World War II, Østrupgaard manor was used as a hideout from the Gestapo; in this period, Moos produced around 20 pieces for the estate. Using the humble materials available on-site including pine, teak and beech, the results are deceptively simple and beautifully understated. Displaying a high degree of craftsmanship and fine attention to detail, each unique example bears testament to one of the greatest Danish cabinet makers of the 20th Century.

Hans Coper, Monumental ‘Spade Form’ Vase, circa 1970

Glazed stoneware

Estimate: £50,000-70,000

Hans Coper, Large ‘Disc Form’ Vase, circa 1965

Glazed stoneware

Estimate £35,000-45,000

Hans Coper (1920–1981), the German-born studio potter, who fled from Nazi Germany for Britain in 1939, revolutionised British ceramics.

These two large scale vases, ‘Spade Form’, created circa 1977, and ‘Disc Form’ made circa 1965, are hugely rare and important examples of Coper’s work, and very rarely seen on the market.

Gabriella Crespi, ‘Gothic’ Mirrored Cabinet, circa 1977

Brass, mirrored glass

Estimate: £6,000-8,000

This rare mirrored cabinet by Gabriella Crespi has a functioning storage compartment and drawer below. Considered by many to be one of the greatest Italian designers of the 1960’s and 70’s, Crespi was influenced early on in her career by Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Fontana Arte, Low Table, Model No. 1774, 1959

Lacquered metal, brass, mirrored convex glass, glass

Estimate: £40,000-60,000

This table, with a striking mirrored glass top, is one of the most iconic works produced by the Milanese firm Fontana Arte. It was created in the late 50’s under the direction of Max Ingrand – a French master glazier and decorator, renowned for his stained-glass church windows.

Angelo Lelii, 9 Arm Wall/Ceiling Light, circa 1950

Brass, frosted glass

Estimate: £12,000-18,000

These rare nine arm lights by Angelo Lelii can be mounted on the ceiling or wall, and come with confirmation of authenticity from Arredoluce. Founded by Lelii in 1947, Arredoluce boasts collaborations with renowned designers such as Gio Ponti, Ettore Sottsass and the Castiglioni brothers.

T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Five ‘Klismos’ Chairs, circa 1965

Greek walnut, leather cord

Estimate: £7,000-10,000

Offered from a private collection acquired directly from the producer in the 1960s, the Klismos chairs by the British designer T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings take their inspiration directly from ancient Greek examples. Works by this maker are among the most soughtafter by interior designers; a set of six ‘Klismos’ chairs by Robsjohn-Gibbings, estimated at €8,000-12,000, sold for €73,499 at Sotheby’s Paris in 2014.

Andrea Branzi,

‘Piccolo Albero’ Bookcase, 2013

Polished stainless steel, beech

Estimate: £20,000-30,000

This intriguing work is the last of only six examples ever produced. A world record for a piece by Branzi was set in May 2015, when the same model sold for €81,000 at Sotheby’s in Paris.

Ron Arad, ‘Loop Loop’ Chair, designed 1992

Polished woven bronze

Estimate: £50,000-70,000

This fun and playful work - one of the Ron Arad’s most iconic designs – was produced by the Gallery Mourmans in a rare bronze edition. It is one of a number of collaborations between Israel-born industrial designer Arad and the Dutch gallerist Ernest Mourmans, with other examples including the ‘Thumbprint Chair’.

Nacho Carbonell, ‘Evolution’ Bench, 2008

Recycled paper, iron, metal wire

Estimate: £12,000-18,000

The first example from an edition of five, this bench by the Spanish contemporary designer Nacho Carbonell allows one to seek solitude from the outside world. “Living in a time where we are saturated by information at a frenetic rhythm, I wanted to create a refuge were you can escape...” says Carbonell.

Terence Woodgate and John Barnard, Prototype

‘Surface Table’, 2008

Lacquered unidirectional carbon fibre, steel

Estimate: £40,000-60,000

Only two examples (both prototypes) of this monumental, six metre-long table were ever produced. This is the sole remaining example, as the first prototype was discarded by Established & Sons. Despite its slight frame, this table is in fact strong enough to support a car’s weight.

Gio Ponti, Wall-Mounted Chest, circa 1959

Elm, brass

Estimate: £15,000-20,000

This wall-mounted chest embodies Italian designer Gio Ponti’s flair for quirky, asymmetrical patterning. One of the most influential designers of the 20th century, Ponti’s remarkable output spanned architecture, industrial design, art, and even publishing; his creations put Italy in the spotlight as a global design centre. This chest is one of 10 works by Ponti in the sale.

Amanda Levete and Future Systems, ‘West’

Bench, from the ‘Around the Corner’

Collection, 2008

Walnut

Estimate: £70,000-100,000

This elegant bench was designed by British designer Amanda Levete and Future Systems, and produced by London-based Established & Sons. With its fluid and interwoven form, reminiscent of the infinity symbol, this piece appears to defy gravity. Works from the ‘Around the Corner’ series were designed to create a spatial relationship between the corners of a room and the pieces, as Levete was interested in filling the “lost spaces” created by corners.

Marc Newson, ‘Big Lathed Table’, 2006

Carrara marble

Estimate: £70,000-90,000

This simple yet powerful table was carved from a single block of prized Carrara marble and produced by the Gagosian Gallery. Australianborn Newson’s pieces are characterised by smooth geometric lines, strength, and rounded edges.

SOTHEBY'S
www.sothebys.com

Sebastiano del Piombo: Acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago acquires newly discovered High Renaissance Painting, Christ Carrying the Cross, by Italian master Sebastiano del Piombo

SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO

Christ Carrying the Cross, 1515/1517.

The Art Institute of Chicago.

Lacy Armour, Ada Turnbull Hertle, Mary Swissler Oldberg Acquisition, Charles H. and Mary F. Worcester Collection funds; Wirt D. Walker Trust; Alyce and Edwin DeCosta and the Walter E. Heller Foundation Fund; Estate of Walter Aitken; Frederick W. Renshaw Acquisition, Marian and Samuel Klasstorner funds; Edward E. Ayer Fund in Memory of Charles L. Hutchinson; Lara T. Magnuson Acquisition, Director's funds; Samuel A. Marx Purchase Fund for Major Acquisitions; Edward Johnson, Maurice D. Galleher Endowment, Simeon B. Williams, Capital Campaign General Acquisitions, Wentworth Greene Field Memorial, Samuel P. Avery, Morris L. Parker, Irving and June Seaman Endowment, and Betty Bell Spooner funds.

The Art Institute of Chicago announces the exciting acquisition of SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO’s Christ Carrying the Cross (1515/1517) to strengthen its focused collection of Italian High Renaissance painting. The first major discovery of a work by Sebastiano in recent years, it was brought to light by Colnaghi, the renowned London-based art gallery, who facilitated its transition to the museum’s world-class collection. It represents one of the most popular compositions by one of the most distinguished painters working in Rome in the first half of the 16th century. Celebrated by the founding voice of art history, Giorgio Vasari, and given major commissions by Pope Clement VII, Sebastiano was hailed both in his time and beyond as a master of inventive painting who reimagined the monumentality and power of Michelangelo’s style, and the grace and balance of Raphael’s.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have this rare and wonderful opportunity to bring such an important painting—our first by Sebastiano—into the Art Institute’s permanent collection,” shared Gloria Groom, Chair of European Painting and Sculpture and David and Mary Winton Green Curator. “This acquisition affirms that through the extraordinary support of our generous donors, we can take our reputation for excellence in collecting to the next level, and tell a more creative and complete story in the galleries that feels exciting and relevant to our thousands of visitors to the museum each day.”

Jorge Coll, CEO of Colnaghi offered, “It was very exciting to have discovered this lost work by such an important Renaissance master, and it is extremely satisfying to know that it now belongs in one of the most important and visited museums in the world. It is of the utmost importance for Nicolas (Cortés) and me as the new partners in Colnaghi that we continue the company’s long and storied tradition of placing important works of art in the world’s greatest museums. This painting was the subject of the first of our new series of publications called ‘Colnaghi Studies’ – catalogues written by leading scholars in order to shed light on lesser known artists and unknown works of art – and we hope that there will be many more works from the ‘Studies’ series that find such prestigious homes in the future.”

Sebastiano developed the innovative composition for Christ Carrying the Cross to heighten the emotional charge of the image. The painting’s dramatic visual impact comes through in the monumental figures and their poignant expressions, the powerful diagonals of the cross, the dynamic and sculptural effect of Christ’s drapery, and the luminous landscape background. The popularity of the composition led Sebastiano to paint several versions and variations of the subject—the Art Institute joins the Museo del Prado, Madrid; Hermitage, Saint Petersburg; and the Szépmüvészeti Museum, Budapest in sharing Sebastiano’s iconic invention with audiences from all over the world.

The painting, now on view in Gallery 205 within the Art Institute’s world-class collection of European Painting and Sculpture, offers visitors a new and exciting opportunity to understand a richer and more inclusive story of Renaissance art and is poised to educate and inspire our visitors for generations to come.

The Art Institute of Chicago
www.artic.edu

Graffiti Art Photos from Marseille and Barcelona

Graffiti Street Art Photographs from Marseille in South of France and Barcelona in Spain

(c) Gautier Willaume - Barcelona (Spain) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Barcelona (Spain) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Barcelona (Spain) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Barcelona (Spain) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Barcelona (Spain) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Barcelona (Spain) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Marseille (France) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Marseille (France) - 2008

(c) Gautier Willaume - Marseille (France) - 2008

(c) Graffitis sous copyright des artistes - Tous droits réservés - Last update: 08.01.2009 - Pictures from Barcelona added

Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000, LACMA, Los Angeles

Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000

LACMA, Los Angeles

October 22, 2000 – February 25, 2001

Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000, is a landmark exhibition that addresses the relationship between the arts in California and the state’s evolving image over the past century. Organized by LACMA – The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the exhibition goes beyond a standard presentation of California art to offer a revisionist view of the state and its cultural legacy. It considers both "booster" images of California and other coexisting and at times competing images, reflecting the wide range of interests and experiences of the state’s diverse constituencies. The core organizers of the exhibition are Stephanie Barron, vice president of education and public programs and senior curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; Sheri Bernstein, exhibition associate; and Ilene Susan Fort, curator of American Art. Made in California is the largest exhibition LACMA has ever organized or hosted, representing an unprecedented collaboration among nine curatorial and programmatic departments.

Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000 features more than 800 works of art in a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, graphic art, decorative art, costume, and video, as well as several period rooms. About 20 percent of the art in the exhibition is drawn from LACMA’s permanent collection. Also included are more than 400 cultural documents such as tourist brochures, rock posters, labor pamphlets, and documentary photographs from important public and private collections from across the nation, that convey California’s fascinating history and changing popular image. Installed throughout the exhibition are sixteen specially commissioned film and multimedia stations, two music stations, and three mural reconstructions to further enrich this examination of the fine arts and popular conceptions of the state.

"Because the year 2000 marks the 150th anniversary of California’s statehood as well as the end of the twentieth century, this is the perfect time for LACMA to undertake this expansive and innovative examination of the culture of our state," said Dr. Andrea Rich, president and director of LACMA. "This stimulating and in-depth presentation of California imagery, through both popular and fine art, will appeal to a wide ranging audience and will offer our members and visitors an opportunity to consider California from new perspectives."

"With Made in California, LACMA has pushed the envelope with an exhibition that is unlike anything we have ever done before," said Stephanie Barron, LACMA vice president of education and public programs and senior curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. "What makes the show so important is not its massive size and scope. This exhibition has a methodology – the finished product is a direct result of the cross-fertilization that has occurred among various different departments at the museum during the last five years. It has been exciting to work with the multi-disciplinary team to create something truly wonderful."

"Made in California approaches the past 100 years thematically, presenting works that engage in a meaningful way with the California image. As opposed to a survey exhibition, Made in California moves beyond the established canon of artists and art works to include lesser-known works by celebrated figures as well as a wider range of artists, more in keeping with the diversity of California’s population," said Ilene Susan Fort, curator of American Art and one of the core organizers of the exhibition. "It is the shared conviction of the exhibition organizers that this approach, intended to initiate a broader dialogue on California art rather than establish a new canon, befits this period of transition to the next century."

"The design of the exhibition functions as a whole to facilitate an intelligent and seductive museum experience," said Sheri Bernstein, exhibition associate and one of the core organizers of the exhibition. "The members of the exhibition design team participated in meetings for more than a year at which the exhibition concept was developed and refined. They then devised solutions for communicating the ideas of the exhibition through materials, arrangement, space, and various forms of didactic and visual communications working together."

Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900–2000 is presented thematically in five chronological sections spanning approximately twenty years each, plus a coda to the exhibition that focuses on the current moment, and occupies more than 45,000 square feet of gallery space within the Hammer and Anderson Buildings and LACMA West. While the sections are most powerful when viewed together, each section is designed to stand alone as a single exhibition. In conjunction with Made in California, LACMA is mounting a kaleidoscope of related activities and events including ongoing film and music programs, live performances, readings, family days, and lecture series.

In each section of the exhibition, diverse examples of art in a variety of media and styles are presented thematically, in tandem with relevant examples of ephemera and multimedia stations featuring film footage, music selections, and California murals.

Section One, located on the plaza level of the Hammer Building and covering the 1900s and 1910s, lays the conceptual groundwork for the exhibition. In this section visitors consider the various facets of the mythologizing of California as a pre-modern paradise, primarily by the state’s boosters, to a largely middle-class, Midwestern constituency escaping the influx of European immigrants. In addition to presenting the land itself as bountiful and unpopulated, boosters romanticized California’s cultural heritage by means of the Mission myth, and exoticized its contemporary Asian population.

Visitors then move to the second floor of the Hammer building for Section Two, which addresses the proliferation of a wider range of conceptions of California in the 1920s and 1930s. This section explores the impact of urbanization, new industries such as the Hollywood movie sector, and changing demographics – the influx of Mexicans in the 20s and the westward migration of North Americans during the Depression – on the image of California. For the first time, critical images of California began to proliferate, many of which were sympathetic to working class labor.

Section Three brings visitors to the third floor of the Anderson Building for California in the 1940s and 1950s. This section considers California’s image during and immediately following World War II, when the state emerged first as a center for war production, and then as a trend setter for the postwar suburban lifestyle. The prevalence of racist and xenophobic attitudes toward ethnic minorities during and after the War will be explored. Also considered will be other, coexisting images of California promoted by its urban subcultures, as well as dystopic views of mainstream culture promulgated by the Beats in San Francisco and the Los Angeles area.

Section Four, covering the 1960s and 1970s, examines how California and particularly the Bay Area became widely associated with non-conformity and anti-authoritarianism. During this period of pervasive protest and struggles for equality along ethnic, class, and gender lines, definitions of California and its populace came to be defined by a more diverse range of figures, who challenged homogeneous, Edenic images of the state. The exhibition will explore the participation of artists in this process of redefinition, as well as their immersion in aspects of popular culture such as beach and car culture.

Section Five of Made in California brings visitors to the plaza level of the Anderson Building to consider the 1980s and 1990s. This section addresses a multiplicity of California images that have existed over the past twenty years, fostered by the increasing diversity of the state’s constituency. Also considered is the impact of globalization, which in some respects has blurred boundaries between California and elsewhere. As visitors leave Section Five, they will enter a transition space that is free of visual images, filled with audio recordings that reflect the wide variety of cultures and languages coexisting in contemporary California. This profusion of the many competing/coexisting voices that define California today sets the stage for Made in California: Now, presented by LACMALab in the Boone Children’s Gallery in LACMA West.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Exhibition Team: Organized by Stephanie Barron, vice president of education and public programs and senior curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Sheri Bernstein, exhibition associate, and Ilene Susan Fort, curator of American Art.

With Ian Birnie, head of Film Programs, Bridget Cooks, assistant museum educator, Carol S. Eliel, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Howard Fox, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Dale Gluckman, curator of Costumes and Textiles, Sharon Goodman, associate curator of Prints and Drawings, Peter Kirby, adjunct curator, new media (Made in California only), Jo Lauria, assistant curator of Decorative Arts, Kaye Spilker, assistant curator of Costumes and Textiles, Dorrance Stalvey, head of Music Programs, Sharon Takeda, curator of Costumes and Textiles, Tim Wride, associate curator of Photography, and Lynn Zelevansky, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036

www.lacma.org