1993 Museum of Modern Art

Th e
Mu s e u m
of
Modern
Art
Members Galendar
tuTmW
SSS#
May Gontents
Exhibitions
John Heartfield: Photomontages
T h r o u g hJ u l y6 .
secondfloor.
WestWing galleries,
Philip Lorca diCorcia.BrentBooth,27 yearsold, Colorado,$30. 1990-1992.
) .5 x2 2 3 1 +Co
". u r te syth e a r tist.In the
Ch rom ogen i cc o l o r p r i n t ( E k t a co lo r 1
d i C o r c i a:Str a n g e r s.
ex hibit ion P h i l i p - L o r c a
Exhibitions
Jo hn Hear t f ield:Phot om ont ages
3
Ma x Ern s t : Dada
an d the Dawn of Sur r ealis m
3
Thin kin g is For m :
The Draw ings of J os eph Beuy s
4
William Wegman's Cinderella
4
Ph ilip-L or c adiCor c ia: St r anger s
5
Projects: Readymade ldentities
5
Th re sh olds / Sant iago Calat r av a:
Structur e and Ex pr es s ion
6
Collection Exhibitions
7
Film and Video Programs
8
Calendar of Films and Events
12
Membership Programs
25
Public Programs
27
Family Programs
29
The Party in the Garden
29
At the Museum Stores
30
General lnformation
31
Gome to--.
The Party in the Garden, June 2
See page 29 for details.
2
John Heartfield(1891-1968)createdworks that remain among the most powerful examples of political
art of the modern era. A significantfigure of twentie t h - c e n t u r yG e r m a n a r t a n d a m e m b e r o f t h e Be r l i n
Dadaists,Heartfieldpioneeredthe use of mass media
t e c h n i q u e st o p r o b e a n d r e v e a l h a r s h p o l i t i ca lr e a l i ties. He is known as one of the inventors of the phot o m o n t a g e ; h i s w o r k s i n t h i s m e d i u m p r e s e n te xc e p t i o n a l l yv i v i d a n d p a s s i o n a t es a t i r i c a li m ag e s o f
p o l i t i c a lc o n d i t i o n s i n G e r m a n y i n t h e 1 9 2 0 sa n d
1930s.Heartfield'sachievement is particularlyrelevant today, when many artists in Europe and North
America similarly draw upon visual elements of popular cultureto produce highly politicizedart.
T h i s e x h i b i t i o n f e a t u r e sa p p r o x i m a t e l y 1 2 0 w o r ks,
includingover sixty photomontages,as well as a number of the book covers and images from the left-wing
pu bl ication Arbeiter IIIu stri e fte Ze itu n g (Wo rkers'
lllustrated Newspaperl for which the photomontages
servedas originaldesigns.Theseworks were selected
from the 1991touring retrospectiveassembledby the
Akademie der Kiinste zu Berlin,the Landesregierung
nd
Nordrhein-Westfalen, and the Landschaftsverba
Rheinland.John Heartfield:Photomontages was organized by Magdalena Dabrowski,Curator, Department of Drawings.The showing at The Museum of
Modern Art has been made possible by a generous
g r a n t f r o m R o b e r t L e h m a n F o u n d a t i o n ,l n c .
Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism
ThroughMay 2.
groundfloor.
International
CouncilGalleries,
This comprehensivesurvey exploresthe work of Max
E r n s t ( 1 8 9 1 - 1 9 7 6 )a s h e r a d i c a l l yt r a n s f o r m e d h i s
early style of painting into a unique form of Dada and
early Surrealism.lt focuses on the works created
d u r i n g t h e e x t r a o r d i n a r ya n d g e r m i n a l y e a r s o f 1 9 1 2
through 1927, a crucial period of the artist's pioneering achievementswhich also signaledthe emergence
o f t h e m e s t h a t c o n t i n u e dt h r o u g h o u t h i s l i f e .
Consistingof approximately 180 works, the exhibit i o n i n c l u d e sp a i n t i n g s ,r e l i e f s c u l p t u r e s ,c o l l a g e s,
d r a w i n g s , a n d p r i n t s , a s w e l l a s d o c u m e n t s r e l a ti n g
to Ernst and Dada. Ernst's artisticdevelopments are
c o n s i d e r e dw i t h i n t h e c o n t e x t o f h i s t i m e , a n d h i s
i n t e r a c t i o n sw i t h d i v e r s e i n d i v i d u a l sa n d g r o u p s i n
the avant-gardecultures of Cologne and Paris are
examined.
Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism was
o r g a n i z e db y Wa l t e r H o p p s . C o n s u l t i n gC u r ato r ,a n d
Susan Davidson,AssociateCurator,Twentieth Century Art, The Menil Collection;it was coordinatedfor
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The Museum of Modern An by Kynaston McShine,
S enio r Cu rato r,De par t m ent of Paint ingand Sc ulpture. The exhibition is made possiblewith the generous suppoft of LufthansaGerman Airlines.Additional
fun din g ha s be en pr ov ided by t he Nat ionalEndowment for the Arts; Association Franqaised'Action
Artistique, Ministdre des Affaires Etrangdres;the
Foreign Office of the FederalRepublic of Germany;
and Daimler-BenzNorth America Corporation.An
indemnity for the exhibition has been granted by the
FederalCouncil on the Arts and the Humanities.
Thinking is Form: The Drawings of Joseph Beuys
ThroughMay 4.
Ren6d'Harnoncourt
Galleries,
lowerlevel.
Joseph Beuys(1921-1986)is the centralfigure of postwar German art. While his best-known work may be
his later sculpture and performance pieces,it was
his drawing that carried Beuys from his early days as
an isolatedoutsider to his later positions as a pivotal
teacher, an avant-gardeperformer, and ultimately a
"social sculptor" intent on worldwide reform. This
exh ibitio n tra ce s his ex panding c onc ept of dr awing
over five decades,and includes 180 works in a variety of traditional and less conventional materials.
Thinking is Form: The Drawings of Joseph Beuys
was co-organizedby Bernice Rose,Senior Curator,
Department of Drawings, The Museum of Modern
A rt, an d An n Te mk in, M ur iel and Philip Ber m an
Curator of Twentieth Century Art, The Philadelphia
Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possibleby
generous grants from the Ministry of ForeignAffairs
of the Fed era lRe publicof G er m any , Deut s c heBan k ,
The Pew CharitableTrusts, LufthansaGerman Airline s,Th e And y War hol Foundat ionf or t he Vis ua
Arts. Inc.,The Bohen Foundation,and the National
Endowment for the Arts. An indemnity has been
granted by the FederalCouncil on the Arts and the
Huma nitie s.Th e New Yor k s howing has been s upported generously by Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder,
with additional assistancefrom The Solow Foundation. The publicationis supported in part by grants
f rom Mr. a nd Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder ,New Yor k , and
Mr. and Mrs. Josef Froehlich,Stuttgart.
William Wegman's Cinderella
May 13 -Ju ly6 .
The EdwardSteichenPhotography
Center,secondfloor.
F or mo re tha n a d ec ade,W illiam W egm an has bee n
making inventive photographs of his Weimaraner
dogs in improbable costumes and poses. Now, in a
series of photographs by turns affecting and hilarious, Wegman and his dogs have retold the story of
Cinderella,for adults as well as for children.William
Wegman's Cinderella, organized by Peter Galassi,
Director,Departmentof Photography,is the first in an
ongo ing se ries o f s m all ex hibit ions of r ec ent bodie s
of photographic work.
4
Philip-LorcadiCorcia: Strangers
T h r o u g hJ u l y 6 .
Center,secondfloor.
The EdwardSteichenPhotography
A m e r i c a n p h o t o g r a p h e r P h i l i p - L o r c ad i C o r ci aw a s
b o r n i n 1 9 5 3a n d l i v e s i n N e w Y o r k C i t y . H i s w o r k
since the late 1970shas explored still photography's
capacityto suggest narrativefiction. His lush color
prints are like frames from unforgettablemovies that
were never made-arrested dramas in which people
play their more mysterious selves.
This exhibition presents some twenty-five pictures
from a recent series,begun in 1990,for which
d i C o r c i ah i r e d y o u n g m e n , w h o m h e f o u n d o n Sa n ta
Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, to pose in settings
he arrangedforthem in motel rooms, in parking lots,
or on the street. Each work is titled with the name of
t h e m a n , h i s a g e a n d p l a c e o f b i r t h , a n d t h e su m
diCorcia paid him to pose. The pictures are neither
oortraits nor documents of a street culture in California. The series is an invention-diCorcia's moving
poem of lost lives-but it has the unmistakablybitter
taste of our time and no other.
Philip-LorcadiGorcia:Strangers was organized by
Peter Galassi,Director,Department of Photography.
S oni a
B al ass ani an.
The Other Side,
// (detai l ).1993.
Mannequins ,
fabri c,mi rrors ,
and floodl i ghts .
Instal l ati on
s pac e
11' 4" x 15' x 23' .
C ol l e c ti onthe
artist"Photo:
Marty H ei tner.In
the ex hi bi ti on
Proiects:Readymade ldentities.
Projects: Readymade ldentities
ThroughMay 18.
GardenHallGallery,groundfloor.
Over the past decade, artists have often turned to
c l o t h i n g a s a m e d i u m f o r e x p r e s s i o n ;t h i s e xh i b i ti o n
brings together works by six artists who use garments
in a variety of ways. The materials used in the work
, u z an Etki n ,
o f J o h n A r m l e d e r , S o n i a B a l a s s a n i a nS
A n n H a m i l t o n , M a u r i z i o P e l l e g r i n ,a n d F r e d Wi l so n
run the gamut from ready-to-wearto handmade
clothing as each artist comments on stereotypingin
h i s o r h e r o w n v e r y p e r s o n a l m a n n e r . F r o m Fr e d
Wi l s o n 's u n i f o r m e d g u a r d s t o S o n i a B a l a s sa n i a n 's
installationof veiled women, the exhibition presents
different readings of collectiveidentities,moving
from socially constructed images to psychological
perceptionsof the self.
Projects: Readymade ldentities was organized by
FereshtehDaftari, CuratoriaI Assistant, Department
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of Paintingand Sculpture.The Projectsseriesis made
possible by generous grants from the Lannan Foundatio n, Th e Bo he n Foundat ion,and The Cont em po rary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
ported by a generous grant from the Government of
V a l e n c i a .S p a i n .T h e i n s t a l l a t i o ni n t h e A b b y Al d r i ch
RockefellerSculpture Garden is made possible by
T h o m a s S c h m i d h e i n y ,S w i t z e r l a n d .
Gollection Exhibitions
Reading Prints
ThroughJuly 6.
thirdfloor.
PaulJ. SachsandTatvanaGrosmanGalleries,
Sa n tia g oCa la tr a va .
In te r io rd e ta il,Ku wa i t
Pa villio n ,1 9 9 2Wo r ld's
F a ir ,Exp o ' 9 2 ,Se ville.
Ph o to :Jo h n Ed wa r d
L in d e n .
Thresholds/ SantiagoCalatrava:
Structure and Expression
Thro ug hMa y 18 .
Architecture
fourthfloor.
and DesignGalleries,
Spanish architectand engineer Santiago Calatrava
has practicedfor little more than ten years; during
this brief period, he has constructed an impressive
number of structures.Resistinga traditional engineering approach that merely solves technical problems, his expressiveuse of technology and inventive
forms produces structural works of art.
This exhibition focuses on ideas of transformation
and movement in nine projects.For example, clearly
inspired by the tree form, Calatravatransforms it,
using it as a structural expression for such projects as
his de sig n fo r Berli n' sSpandau Railway St at ion and
his winning scheme for the completion of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. New York.
I nclud ed in the exhibit ion ar e m odels , dr awings ,
sketchbooks,and photo panels. In addition, special
insta llatio nsa re lo c at ed in t he Edwar d J ohn Noble
EducationCenter, in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
S cu lptu reGard en ,and at t he ent r anc et o t he Philip
Jo hn so n Galle ry.T his is t he f ir s t ex hibit ion in t he
Museum's newly-createdThreshold series,which is
devoted to thematic explorations of contemporary
issues in architectureand design.
Santiago Calatrava: Structure and Expression was
organized by Matilda McOuaid, Assistant Curator,
Department of Architecture and Design,and is sup6
The use of language as a pictorial element in twentieth-centuryprinted art is the focus of this exhibition
o f a p p r o x i m a t e l yo n e h u n d r e d w o r k s , w h i c h b e g i n s
with the Cubist drypoints of Georges Braque and
Pablo Picassoand concludeswith the work of contemporary artists.
While Braque and Picassobegan to introduce fragments of labels and newspapersto reinforcethe
surface of their work in the early paft of this century,
the Futuristswere revolutionizingthe pictorial nature
of typography by separatinglanguagefrom meaning.
The avant-gardein post-WorldWar I Germany, most
notably Kurt Schwitters and George Grosz,often incorporated text into their Dada-inspiredcompositions. After World War ll, Cobra artists such as Pierre
Alechinsky scrawled words in evocative gestures,
while the Lettristmovement in Francefocused on the
design of the alphabet to reinvest meaning into art.
Jasper Johns's perceptualword games, Pop Art's
banal signage, and ConceptualArt's descriptivenarratives of plans and events evidencethe ever-increasing role that language has played in modern art
i n g e n e r a l ,a n d i n t h e p r i n t m e d i u m s i n p a r ti cu l a r .
Throughout the twentieth century, socially and politicallyconscious art has always resulted in an outpouring of creative approachesto text and image.
Artists who have explored printmaking's ability to
integrate pointed statements into the visual whole
a r e f e a t u r e d i n t h i s i n s t a l l a t i o n ;a m o n g t h e m a r e
Barbara Kruger, Bruce Nauman, and Nancy Spero.
Reading Prints was organized by Wendy Weitman,
Associate Curator, Department of Prints and lllustrated
Books.
Selections from the Collection
Throughmid-May(thirdfloor)andJuly 1 (secondfioor).
galleries,
Paintingand Sculpture
secondfloor,and East
galleries,
thirdfloor.
Wing Paintingand Sculpture
Wh i l e m o s t o f t h e g a l l e r i e sn o r m a l l y d e v o t e d to th e
M u s e u m 's c o l l e c t i o no f p a i n t i n g a n d s c u l p t u r ea r e
being remodeled, selectedworks are on view on the
second and third floors.The second-floorinstallation
presentsworks from the end ofthe nineteenthto the
middle of the twentieth centuries,featuring such
masterpiecesas Vincent van Gogh's Poftrait of Joseph
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