Metropolis
dal 27/2/2002 al 2/9/2002
Segnalato da
27/2/2002
Metropolis
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
In the Machine Age. An exhibition exploring how the modern city inspired numerous avant-garde artists in the 1910s, 20s and 30s. The show in the museum's 'Collection in Context' series, focuses on the early 20th-century era when technology altered the look and feel of life, manufacturing replaced the rural economy, and cities grew upward and outward.
"Metropolis in the Machine Age," an exhibition exploring how the modern
city inspired numerous avant-garde artists in the 1910s, 20s and 30s, will
open on Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden, Independence Avenue at Seventh Street S.W. The show
continues through Sept. 2, 2002.
This sixth and largest exhibition in the museum's "Collection in Context"
series, which uses works from the collection and other Smithsonian sources
to explore broad historic themes, focuses on the early 20th-century era
when technology altered the look and feel of life, manufacturing replaced
the rural economy, and cities grew upward and outward.
As embodied by nearly 40 works on view, some 23 painters, sculptors,
printmakers and photographers working on both sides of the Atlantic - -
from the Cubo-Futurists in Europe to the Precisionists in America - - used
urban images as metaphors for utopia and streamlined geometric styles as
visual equivalents for a "machine-tooled" future. Their visions range
from gleaming skyscrapers and semi-abstract symbols to close-up photographs
and sculptures of workers who built and toiled in cities.
Valerie Fletcher and Judith Zilczer, the Hirshhorn curators who organized
the exhibition, use extensive wall labels to trace the show's theme. In
an introduction (paraphrased here) they state: "When the Eiffel Tower was
created for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, its status as the highest
structure in the world challenged European and American architects to
design ever-taller buildings, altering the shape of the modern metropolis.
Improvements in elevator engineering and steel manufacture made possible
the towering edifices that began to dominate skylines. Before long, the
skyscraper came to symbolize civic pride, economic success, and modernity."
"Revelations offered by history are often unexpected," the curators
continue. "Although the exhibition was conceived before September 11,
2001, the memory of that day's events may impart, for some viewers, a
particular poignancy to the images presented here. Let us hope that this
view of the past, when artists interpreted the city and its buildings as
compelling symbols of modern life, leads to revealing perspectives on the
present."
The exhibition, presented in three contiguous galleries on the second
floor, begins with "The New Urban Landscape," a section of paintings and
prints from the century's early decades by Americans John Marin, Abraham
Walkowitz and Max Weber. In them, Cubo-Futurist principles of simultaneous
perspective, actions compressed in time, and repetitive lines evoke the
energy of crowds in the streets and the speed of mass transit. Also
included are clean-edged, prismatic cityscapes by the American Precisionist
Louis Lozowick; New York, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Seattle and Butte,
Montana are the subjects of these paintings and prints.
The second gallery, titled "People in the City," features the American
Saul Baizerman's dynamic bronze ensemble, also in a Cubo-Futurist style,
of buildings under construction surrounded by small sculptures of
individual workers intended, but never realized, as life-scale urban
monuments. Howard Cook's "Forty Ninth Street" (1929) and Arnold Rönnebec
k's "Wall Street"(1925), contrasting tenements with skyscrapers, are also
included here, as are photographs of riggers, ironworkers, riveters and
buildings-in-construction at dizzying heights by Lewis Hine, as well as
crisp photographs of the changing urban skyline by Berenice Abbott and
Alfred Stieglitz.
The centerpiece of the final gallery, "Urban Symbols," is the Hirshhorn's
8-foot high reconstruction of Vladimir Tatlin's soaring, spiral-steel
"Monument to the Third International" (1920). This unrealized structure
for Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), twice the height of the Eiffel Tower,
was to provide a government hub and dramatic symbol for the then new
Soviet Union. Nearby paintings of the older Parisian monument by Robert
Delaunay emphasize its continuing power as a symbol during the 1920s, and
the sharp arabesques of a 1914-1915 steel relief by the Italian Giacomo
Balla present an exuberant metaphor for speed, industry and city life.
Skyscraper forms become symbols in works by John Storrs, Josef Albers,
Georgia O'Keeffe and Man Ray. The show draws to a close with a brief
look at the New York World's Fair of 1939 through Hugh Ferriss' drawing of
the Trylon and Perisphere under construction and a photo of an architect's
model showing a city with vast housing projects and freeways.
"While such utopian dreams of a perfect urban society have yet to be
realized, these visionary works demonstrate the enduring appeal of the
idea of the modern metropolis," the curators conclude, regarding this
final section.
Complementary works for this collection-based Hirshhorn show come from
other Smithsonian resources: the Archives of American Art; Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum; National Museum of American History; Smithsonian
American Art Museum; and Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The National
Gallery of Art is also a lender.
FREE MUSEUM PROGRAMS THROUGH MAY
Only programs scheduled from March through May are listed below. Programs
continue throughout the summer. For a complete schedule, please call
(202)357-1618 ext. 3. All programs are free of charge and take place at
the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Independence Avenue at Seventh
Street S.W. Take Metro to L'Enfant Plaza, Maryland Avenue exit. The
Hirshhorn is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Closed Dec. 25).
Video Portraits of Two Documentary Photographers in "Metropolis"
Thursdays, March 8, 15, 22, 29, noon
"Berenice Abbott: A Woman With a Vision" (1992). In 1929, the 31-year-old
Midwesterner left her job as an assistant in Man Ray's Paris studio to
pursue a career photographing New York City. Directors Kay Weaver and
Martha Wheelock capture the straight-talking homespun reflections of the
92-year-old photographer.
Thursdays, April 11, 18, 25, noon
"America and Lewis Hine" (1984). Nina Rosenblum's award-winning study
focuses on how Hine's images raised public awareness about the plight of
immigrants at Ellis Island, the hardships endured in Manhattan tenements,
and the scandal of child labor.
Gallery Talk
Wednesday, March 6, 12:30 p.m.
"New Urban Visions." Curator of paintings Judith Zilczer will discuss
the exhibition. Meet at the Information Desk.
Workshop for Educators
Saturday, March 9, 9 a.m. * 1 p.m.
"Bright Lights, Big City." Participants explore images of the city
created by international artists in the last 100 years and learn about
differing attitudes toward technology and the urban environment.
Teachers' packets distributed. Preregistration required; call (202)357-3235
, ext. 117, or e-mail.
Films - "Sarah and the City"
Thursday, April 4, 8 p.m.
Friday, April 5, 8 p.m.
American-born artist Sarah Morris will present three films that complement
a cycle of paintings she created in response to the urban landscapes of
Las Vegas, Manhattan and Washington, D.C.
Art Explorers Workshop for Adults
Friday, April 19, 1 - 3 p.m.
"A City of Your Own." Participants create a personal cityscape using
recycled materials. Preregistration required; call (202)357-3235, ext.
117, or e-mail.
Young at Art
Saturday, April 20, 10 a.m - noon
"Kid City." Children ages 6 to 9 accompanied by an adult will learn about
buildings and bridges and then become architects of the future in this
artist guided workshop. Preregistration required; call (202)357-3235,
ext. 117, or e-mail.
Film - "Manhatta" (1921)
Thursdays, May 2, 9, noon
Charles Sheerer collaborated with Paul Strand on the first American
experimental silent film. Sheerer's signature precisionist style fuses
the pace and architecture of the city into a gleaming abstraction.
Gallery Talk
Wednesday, May 8, 12:30 p.m.
"Metropolitan Life." Curator of paintings Judith Zilczer will discuss
other works in the collection that relate to the theme of the exhibition.
Meet at the Information Desk.
Family Tours
Thursdays May 30, June 27, Aug. 1, 5 p.m.
"Bright Lights, Big City." Using photographic clues, the tour group will
discover amazing city spaces and those who dwell there in paintings and
sculpture. Meet at the Information Desk.
Gallery Talk
Thursday, May 30, 7 p.m. (an "Art Night" event)
"Utopia Before the Fall." Curator of sculpture Valerie Fletcher will
discuss the exhibition's embodiment of pre-World War II positivism. Meet
at the Information Desk.
Art to Go
On-going
Museum staff and volunteers will bring a slide presentation on "Bright
Lights, Big City" and related activities to your classroom or community
center. To schedule an "Art to Go" presentation, call (202)357-3235, ext.
117, or e-mail.
Image: Robert-Victor-Felix Delaunay, Eiffel Tower And The Gardens, Champs De Mars
Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Independence Avenue at Seventh Street S.W (202)357-1618