calendario eventi  :: 

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21/1/2009

Two exhibitions

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Synthetic polymer paints

In the 1960s, artists began to use a range of new products that changed the possibilities of painting and sculpture. Synthetic polymer paints- popularly known as acrylics-became the first widely used alternative to oil, a material that had dominated painting since the Renaissance. Unlike oil, these water-based colors dried quickly and to a uniform surface.
Artists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis explored their physical properties, especially their ability to stain and be poured directly on raw canvas. Medium and support could merge and become equal. These new approaches advanced one of the fundamental ideas of modern painting: acknowledging flatness as part of a painting's status as object and picture. Other artists-those not working abstractly-explored how synthetic and commercial materials could impact an image's meaning.

The new emphasis on surface took on metaphorical as well as material importance. Andy Warhol inextricably merged process with subject matter in his screen-printed paintings. Richard Artschwager used commercially made materials to create a slick, plastic look that was integral to that which was represented. This exhibition explores how new synthetic products not only allowed for a new look but also aligned with subject matter to change the direction of postwar American art.

Image: Peter Halley (b. 1953). The Acid Test, 1991-92. Synthetic polymer, polymer emulsion, and fluorescent paint on canvas in four parts, 90 1/8 x 182 5/16 in. (228.9 x 463.1 cm) overall. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Louis and Bessie Adler Foundation, Inc., and the Painting and Sculpture Committee 92.28a-d. Photograph by Steven Sloman

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Elad Lassry: Three Films

This winter, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the first solo New York museum exhibition of the work of Elad Lassry, a Los Angeles–based artist who works in photography and film. Curated by senior curatorial assistant Gary Carrion-Murayari, Elad Lassry: Three Films opens January 22, in the second-floor Kaufman Astoria Studios Film & Video Gallery.
Lassry’s images – derived from portraiture, advertising, and nature photography – investigate the way the meaning of a picture can shift in different social or historical contexts. Often drawing on pre-existing source material, his work explores such fluctuations of meaning in images of remarkable visual clarity and precision. Deliberately projected on a small scale, these three films, shot in either 16mm or Super 16mm, reveal the picture as a dynamic, changing object.
Untitled (Agon) (2008) captures two dancers performing a pas de deux from choreographer George Balanchine’s 1957 ballet Agon. Basing his camera placement on an instructional diagram from dancer and choreographer Doris Humphrey’s 1958 book The Art of Making Dances, Lassry investigates the way the camera reframes and transforms the dance. By using fixed camera positions and a predetermined structure, Lassry draws on American Structural film of the 1960s and 1970s.
In Untitled (2008), Lassry restages a photograph from a 1971 science textbook in which a group of young people sit on an optical illusion of a house to illustrate perception. Lassry bypasses the image’s original use and instead focuses on the individual models, turning the image into a psychological portrait.
Zebra and Woman (2007) alternates its focus from the body of a zebra to the face of a woman. Through slow, deliberate camera movements, Lassry captures both surfaces in exacting detail to highlight the psychological gap between them and explore the transformative potential of portraiture. By focusing on surfaces and histories of the objects and individuals he captures, Lassry asks us to reassess our perception of even the most quotidian images.

About the Artist
Lassry (b. 1977) received a BFA in both Film and Studio Art from the California Institute of the Arts in 2003, and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Southern California in 2007. His first solo exhibition was at Cherry and Martin in Los Angeles in 2007. His work is included in such public collections as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Israel Museum. His work was on view this fall at the Art Institute of Chicago and he is currently participating in the 2008 California Biennial. Elad Lassry: Three Films is his first New York museum exhibition.

Press contact
Stephen Soba, Leily Solemani T: 212-570-3633 E: pressoffice@whitney.org

Whitney Museum
945 Madison Avenue 75th Street - New York
Museum hours are: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. Admission is $15 for adults; Members, children (ages 11 and under), and New York City public high school students free. Senior citizens (62 and over) and students with valid ID: $10. There is a $6 admission fee for a pass to the Kaufman Astoria Studios Film & Video Gallery only. Admission is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays, 6-9 pm.

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