Two exhibitions
dal 15/9/2009 al 30/10/2009
Segnalato da
15/9/2009
Two exhibitions
Gagosian Gallery - Madison Ave, New York
An exhibition of new bronze sculptures by Cy Twombly, some of these contain allusions to the static, closed forms of Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture, as well as to other architectural and geometric references such as the repetition of rectangular pedestals and circular structures. "Proud Flesh", is a series of new photographs by Sally Mann. Her latest photographic study taken over six years, has resulted in a series of candid nude studies of a mature male body that neither objectifies nor celebrates the focus of its gaze.
Cy Twombly
Eight Sculptures
Bronze unifies the thing. It abstracts the forms from the material. People want to know about what the material constituents are; it helps them identify the work with something. But I want each sculpture to be seen as a whole, as a sculpture.
--Cy Twombly
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new bronze sculptures by Cy Twombly. This exhibition will coincide with the inauguration of Gagosian's Athens gallery with an exhibition of new paintings by Twombly entitled "Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves". Two major museum exhibitions, "Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000-2007' that inaugurated the new wing of The Art Institute of Chicago, and "Cy Twombly: Sensations of the Moment" at Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, run through October 2009.
Since 1946 Twombly has fashioned sculptures from everyday materials and objects, usually painted with white gesso. In 1979 he began casting some of them in bronze, thus unifying, preserving, and transforming them into cohesive wholes, independent from the original bricolages. The surface and patina of these cast bronzes evoke weathered artifacts that have been exhumed from the earth, an effect that is heightened in those that have been coated in white oil paint.
Some of these sculptures contain allusions to the static, closed forms of Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture, as well as to other architectural and geometric references such as the repetition of rectangular pedestals and circular structures. Others refer to historical representations such as Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal) (2000-2009), an allusion to the scholarly Assyrian king whose military prowess was the subject of a rival king's dream in which his eventual submission to Assyria was predicted. While the components of these sculptures have been partially merged and abstracted by the casting process, in works such as Untitled (2004-2009) a progression of precariously balanced objects is clearly demarcated, in this case a broom inside a funnel that rests on a cylindrical pedestal. Twombly's continued play between fragility and obduracy, figuration and abstraction, ancient and modern imbues each work with its characteristic tension.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Kate Nesin.
Born in 1928 in Lexington, VA, Cy Twombly studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1947–49); the Art Students League, New York (1950–51); and Black Mountain College, NC (1951–52). In the mid 1950s, following travels in Europe and Africa, he emerged as a prominent figure among a group of artists working in New York that included Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. In 1959, Twombly settled permanently in Italy. In 1968, the Milwaukee Art Center mounted his first retrospective. This was followed by major retrospectives at the Kunsthaus Zürich (1987) travelling to Madrid, London and Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1994) (travelling to Houston, Los Angeles, and Berlin) and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2006). In 1995, the Cy Twombly Gallery opened at The Menil Collection, Houston, exhibiting works made by the artist since 1954. The European retrospective "Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons" opened at the Tate Modern, London in June 2008, with subsequent versions at the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome in 2009.
"Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000-2007" is on view at The Art Institute of Chicago, concurrent with another major survey "Sensations of the Moment" at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna. Both exhibitions run until October 11.
Twombly lives in Lexington, VA, and Italy.
----
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present "Proud Flesh", a series of new photographs by Sally Mann.
Children, landscape, lovers—these iconic subjects are as common to the photographic lexicon as light itself. But Mann's take on them, rendered through processes both traditional and esoteric, is anything but common. From the outset of her career she has consistently challenged the viewer, rendering everyday experiences at once sublime and deeply disquieting.
In previous projects, Mann has explored the relationships between parent and child, brother and sister, human and nature, site and history. Her latest photographic study of her husband Larry Mann, taken over six years, has resulted in a series of candid nude studies of a mature male body that neither objectifies nor celebrates the focus of its gaze. Rather it suggests a profoundly trusting relationship between woman and man, artist and model that has produced a full range of impressions – erotic, brutally frank, disarmingly tender, and more. While the relation of artist and model is, traditionally, a male-dominated field that has yielded countless appraisals of the female body and psyche, Mann reverses the role by turning the camera on her husband during some of his most vulnerable moments.
Mann's technical methods and process further emphasize the emotional and temporal aspects of these fragile life studies. The images are contact prints made from wet-plate collodion negatives, produced by coating a sheet of glass with ether-based collodion and submerging it in silver nitrate. Mann exploits the surface aberrations that can result from the unpredictability of the process to produce painterly photographs marked by stark contrasts of light and dark, with areas that resemble scar tissue. In works such as Hephaestus and Ponder Heart, the scratches and marks incurred in the production process become inseparable from the physical reality of Larry's body.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published in collaboration with Aperture including a text by C.D. Wright.
Sally Mann was born in Lexington, VA in 1951. She has received numerous awards, including three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of major museums and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and The Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.
For more information, please contact Carolyn Francis at 212.744.2313 or carolyn@gagosian.com or newyork@gagosian.com
Image: Cy Twombly, Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal), 2000-2009. Bronze 41 1/8 x 20 7/8 x 21 5/16 inches (104.5 x 53.1 x 54.2cm)
Ed. of 3
Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10075
Hours: Tue-Sat 10-6