Pop And Illusion: Contemporary Works From The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Date: August 7, 2003 – November 8, 2003
Curated By: Billie Milam Weisman
Venue: Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
Exhibited Artists:
Lita Albuquerque, Arman, Joon-Sung Bae, Lesley Dill, Yrjo Edelmann, Candice Gawne, Joe Goode, Paolo Grassino, Red Grooms, Tim Hawkinson, David Hockney, Vincent James, Allen Jones, Howard Kanovitz, LA II (Angel Ortiz), Mitsuko Miwa, Joel Morrison, Matt Mullican, Daniel Oates, John Okulick, Claes Oldenburg, Michelanelo Pistoletto, Jose Luis Quinones, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Masaaki Sato, Keung Szeto, Christopher Taggart, Nicole Tran Ba Vang, Andy Warhol, Marijke van Warmerdam, Tom Wesselmann, and Masoud Yasami.
Pop And Illusion: Contemporary Works From The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
IN THE SPIRIT OF THE CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER OF VIRGINIA'S SUMMER SEASON, THESE SELECTED WORKS OF THE FREDERICK R. WEISMAN ART FOUNDATION HIGHLIGHT A RANGE OF VERSATILE AND INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO REPRESENTATIONAL ART. SPANNING POP ART TO THE CONTEMPORARY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ART SCENE, THE PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND PHOTOGRAPHS DISPLAYED HERE EMBRACE THE FAMILIAR IMAGE OR OBJECT, DELVE INTO THE REALM OF ILLUSIONISM, OR EXPLORE NEW TECHNIQUES OF VISUALIZATION. UNITING DIVERSE ARTISTS ACROSS TEMPORAL, NATIONAL, AND CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES, THE SHOW HIGHLIGHTS THE ECLECTIC COLLECTING PRACTICE OF FREDERICK R. WEISMAN AND HIS PASSION FOR VIBRANT, BOLD, AND PROVOCATIVE ART.
POP ART
The Pop Art movement is represented here with a selection of works from some of the most well-known figures in that move-ment, including Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenberg, James Rosenquist, and Tom Wesselmann. Additionally, the contemporary Italian movement of Arte Povera is represented by Michelangelo Pistoletto, and the French Nouveau Réalisme or New Realism by Arman. Together they demonstrate Pop's break with formal abstraction, and intense refocus on the realm of representa-tion. From Tom Wesselmann's erotically aggressive Study for Mouth, which focuses our attention on the power of the image to seduce and fascinate; to James Rosenquist's glistening canvases that evoke the slick pages of magazine advertising; to Andy Warhol's serially repeated portraits, the exciting new life of the visual image in the realm of mass culture becomes the focus.
PAINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Michelangelo Pistoletto's Hitchhiker from 1969 provides the earliest example of the many works in this show that deal with optics, perspective, and illusionism. In painting, a range of "fool the eye" effects are created in the work of Yrjo Edelmann, Candice Gawne, Howard Kanovitz, Mitsuko Miwa, Jose Luis Quiñones, Masaaki Sato, Keung Szeto, and Masoud Yasami. Edelmann, Quiñones, Szeto and Yasami recall the tradition of 19th century trompe l'oeil painting with ORANCE Crush E SODA works so deceptively real they encourage the viewer to reach out and touch them. Miwa dissolves a three-dimensional hat into an intricate flat surface pattern. Sato depicts an otherwise normal newsstand backwards, as if seen in a mirror. In the work of Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode, "California Pop" is represented with two paintings that merge a depiction of landscape with a flat, abstractly rendered surface. In photography, Metropolitan Opera House represents Los Angeles-based artist David Hockney's seminal "joiner" series of photographs. His work introduces other photographs in the exhibition, including French artist Tran ba Vang's uncanny images that merge body and clothing, and Dutch artist Marijke van Warmerdam's magically unreal sky full of weightless swans.
SCULPTURE
The unusual approaches to the object in Arman's accumulation of mass-produced shoes and in Oldenburg's humorously surreal take on traditional sculpture are continued in the work of John Okulick, LA II, Daniel Oates, Tim Hawkinson, Vincent James, Joel Morrison and Paolo Grassino. Their work evidences a range of developments in contemporary sculpture. Okulick's exquisitely crafted Blade merges painterly perspective and illusionism with wooden wall sculpture; Daniel Oates continues the legacy of Oldenburg with sculptures of enlarged everyday objects; Vincent James creates a surreal, animated cartoon world out of ordinary carrots; and Paolo Grassino's upended dog participates in the allegorical slant of his socially and politically motivated work.
RECENT WORKS
Finally, a number of recent acquisitions by the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation feature artists exploring new techniques of image-making to re- envision the human body, or using traditional painting methods to explore new realms of spirituality. Joel Morrison creates a unique mixture of painting and sculpture in soft, pierced bodies filled with recycled materials. Tim Hawkinson provides haunting, revolutionary images of the human body and its traces. Christopher Taggart employs his background in physics to create images from magnetic writing machines, and Lesley Dill creates a delicate poem-dress made of copper letters. Both Lita Albuquerque and Matt Mullican chart a new spiritual topography in images that create the illusion of a distant galaxy, or constellate the body as a series of mystical symbols.
- Billie Milam Weisman