Upcoming Exhibitions in the Galleries

Opening Reception:

Saturday, June 6
Members' Preview: 6 — 7 pm
Public Reception: 7 — 9 pm
FREE

This summer DeCordova Sculpture Park + Museum will host the award-winning traveling show The Old, Weird America, the first museum exhibition to explore the widespread resurgence of folk imagery and mythic history in recent art from the United States. Organized by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston senior curator Toby Kamps, the exhibition illustrates the relevance and appeal of folklore to contemporary artists, as well as the genre’s power to illuminate ingrained cultural forces and overlooked histories. The exhibition borrows its inspiration and title—with the author’s blessing—from music and cultural critic Greil Marcus’ 1997 book of the same title that examines the influence of folk music on Bob Dylan and The Band’s seminal album, The Basement Tapes.

The Old, Weird America was the recipient of a prestigious award from the International Art Critics Association: Best Thematic Museum Show Nationally, 2008. This exhibition will also be the largest in the history of DeCordova, filling all of its indoor galleries.

The Old, Weird America will feature eighteen artists who explore native, idiomatic, and communal subjects from America’s past: Eric Beltz, Jeremy Blake, Sam Durant, Barnaby Furnas, Deborah Grant, Matthew Day Jackson, Brad Kahlhamer, Margaret Kilgallen, David McDermott and Peter McGough, Aaron Morse, Cynthia Norton (a.k.a. Ninny), Greta Pratt, David Rathman, Dario Robleto, Allison Smith, Kara Walker, and Charlie White. Covering the period from the first Thanksgiving in 1621 to the beginning of the Space Age in 1957, their representational paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, installations, and videos reconsider important legends and figures in United States history. Indians, Pilgrims, Founding Fathers, cowboys, Civil War widows, bobby soxers, and Depression-style drifters are among the Ur-American characters populating storytelling works that —like all good folklore —recklessly combine myth and fact to suggest an alternative national history.

During times of change and social stress, cultures look to their master narratives. For example, in the United States, Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and other artists in the Regionalist movement of the 1930s and 40s rejected abstract, European Modernism and turned their attention to depicting rural and domestic life in realist styles, in part as a reaction against the horrors of that continent’s First World War. Similarly, says exhibition curator Kamps, “in this post-9/11 America of high-emotion and sweeping change, artists naturally look for inspiration in the forgotten and unresolved relics of our nation, the volatile and mercurial old, weird America of folk history.”

To be included in the exhibition are renowned works, such as: Kara Walker’s animated, Balinese-style shadow-puppet video, 8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America, a Moving Picture by Kara E. Walker (2005), a fearless satire of black origin myths and white racism in outrageous vignettes featuring slave ships, gay master-and-slave sex, and dancing cotton-boll babies; Sam Durant’s sculptural installation Pilgrims and Indians, Planting and Reaping, Learning and Teaching (2006) restages two amateurish dioramas from the defunct Plymouth National Wax Museum in Massachusetts juxtaposing two radically different versions of how the Jamestown Colony came to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in 1621; Margaret Kilgallen’s installation Main Drag (2001) depicts, in a playful, cartoon-like style, a low-rent town of the imagination inhabited by surfers, hobos, juvenile delinquents, and dames in beehive hairdos; Barnaby Furnas’s paintings and watercolors express the chaos and confusion of battle, and works on view such as John Brown (2005) feature glowing blood, explosions, and tracer bullets as well as representations of time-lapse movement reminiscent of film and videogame special effects; Jeremy Blake’s digitally composed video Winchester (2002), inspired by the labyrinth-like house of rifle heiress Sarah Winchester, morphs vintage photographs of the house, mysterious cowboy shadows, and Blake’s own abstract “digital paintings” to create a lush, engulfing image of a uniquely American form of madness.

The Old, Weird America has been made possible by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston patrons, benefactors, and donors to its exhibition fund. This exhibition has been made possible by generous support from Union Pacific and Nina and Michael Zilkha. Its appearance at DeCordova is made possible by Trustee and Overseer support of DeCordova’s Fund for the Future.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 162-page, full-illustration catalog published by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston that will provide a cultural and historical context for the artworks. The publication will include essays by Kamps, the show’s curator; Colleen Sheehy, Director of Education at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum and art historian at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; and Michael Duncan, a critic and curator based in Los Angeles. It will also contain reproductions of the exhibited work, as well as biographical and bibliographical information on each artist. This catalogue was made possible by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc.

The Old, Weird America Public Programs:

During the exhibition please visit the Process Gallery on the 3rd floor to learn more about some of the themes addressed in this exhibition, as well as various artists‘ creative processes and inspirations. Additional programming includes the following:

Free Friday Nights in July!
Admission is FREE after 5 pm
July 3, 10, 17, 24, + 31 from 5-9 pm

Gallery Talks:
Artist Dario Robleto: Saturday, June 6 at 3 pm
Senior Curator Nick Capasso: Saturday, July 11 at 3 pm
Artist Matthew Day Jackson: Saturday July 25 at 3 pm

Panel Discussion:
American Perspectives in the Arts, with exhibiting artists Barnaby Furnas and Matthew Day Jackson
Thursday, June 25 at 6:30 pm

Preview Screening:
The Banjo Project with Filmmaker Marc Fields
Saturday, June 13 at 3 pm

Workshop Series:
Americana Sculpture with Dario Robleto
Saturday, June 6 + Sunday, June 7
Register through the DeCordova Museum School at 781/259-0505

Eye Wonder Family Program:
Dario Robleto
Sunday, June 7 from 1 — 3 pm

On view in the Museum School Gallery:

Juried Student Exhibition: America
May 9 — June 28, 2009
Reception: Sunday, June 28, 2 — 3 pm

This exhibition will take a cue from the Museum exhibition, The Old, Weird America, and will explore contemporary perspectives of America. Whether it‘s a Lincoln landscape, a commentary on our “weird” history, or an editorial on the recent election, this exhibition will cover it all!

 

Lalla Essaydi: Les Femmes du Maroc
Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery
Sep 26, 2009 – Jan 3, 2010

Les Femmes du Maroc is an extensive series of photographs that directly reference the composition and subjects of 19th-century Orientalist paintings and which build on Essaydi’s previous work addressing the oppression of women in both colonial and post-colonial Islamic cultures.

The title of Essaydi’s series Les Femmes du Maroc is adapted from Eugène Delacroix’s famous French Romantic painting Les Femmes d’Algiers (1834), a voyeuristic male fantasy of languorous women in an opulent harem. Paintings like these, as well as the 19th-century European colonial occupation of much of the Arab world, fostered orientalism, a political and cultural climate smitten with visions of Muslim women as mysterious, cloistered, yet sexually available slaves and odalisques. Increasingly violent and lurid Orientalist paintings were created by European artists like Jean-Léon Gérome, Auguste Bouchet, and Rudolf Ernst well into the early 20th century.

However in her photographs, Essaydi drains the paintings of color, removes all male figures, clothes the women, and sets everything within a shallow stage-like space defined by white fabric. All surfaces are covered with Arabic calligraphy – backdrops, floor, drapery, and skin – applied to the surfaces themselves, not overlaid on the photographs. This text is subversive on many levels. In Islamic culture, calligraphy is a male art form, used primarily to transcribe the Q’uran and other sacred literature. In Essaydi’s work, the writing is applied with henna, a tradition women’s art of body beautification, and the words are taken from the artist’s journals and discuss cultural and individual identity, memory, communication, and personal freedom. This exhibition is organized by Senior Curator Nick Capasso

 

Platform 1: Andrew Mowbray
James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Fourth Floor Hallway Gallery, and Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Roof Terrace
September 26, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Platform is a series of solo exhibitions by early- and mid-career artists and artist collaboratives from both the New England and national arts communities. These shows focus on work that engages with DeCordova’s unique architectural spaces and social, geographical, and physical location. The Platform series is intended as a support for creativity and expression of new ideas, and as a catalyst for dialogue about contemporary art.

Boston-based artist Andrew Mowbray inaugurates the Platform program. Mowbray investigates the life of objects through a mixture of sculpture and performance, questioning the boundaries between body and object in the process. For Platform 1, Mowbray will present The Tempest Prognosticator, a series of sculptures, videos, and drawings that explore our contemporary relationship with weather. This exhibition is accompanied by a full-color exhibition brochure and is organized by Assistant Curator Dina Deitsch.

Jules Aarons: In the Jewish Neighborhoods, 1946-1976 (tentative title)
Arcade Gallery, Photo Study Space, Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Media Space
September 26, 2009 – January 3, 2010

This exhibition will include approximately forty photographs by world-renowned photographer, Jules Aarons (1921-2008). Selected from the Permanent Collection portfolio In the Jewish Neighborhoods, 1946-1976, the images in this exhibition highlight the photographer’s career-long interest in documenting Jewish life in the Bronx, NY, Boston’s North End and West End neighborhoods, Israel, and Paris. This exhibition is organized by Koch Curatorial Fellow Nina Gara Bozicnik.

Permanent Collection Photography Show (title TBA)
Dewey Family Gallery
October 24, 2009 – September, 2010

In collaboration with one of Boston’s premier venues for photography, the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University (PRC), DeCordova has invited PRC curator Leslie Brown to organize an exhibition from the institution’s extensive photography collection. This exhibition initiates a new curatorial program of inviting guest curators and artists to explore DeCordova’s collection and bring to it new viewpoints. This exhibition is coordinated by Assistant Curator Dina Deitsch.

Platform 2: Eric Hongisto
Window Gallery
November 24, 2009 – Fall 2010

Eric Hongisto, a San Francisco-based artist, “dresses” architectural spaces in formally resolved wall paintings to create what the he calls “theatrical experiences.” Hongisto derives his visual language from imagery inspired by geography, physics, biology, and most recently, economic and financial charts and reports. For Platform 2, the artist will create a site-specific, immersive installation based on financial charts and graphs that visualizes human hubris and society’s futile efforts to predict and control our world. Over a two week installation period (November 10-November 22), visitors can engage with Hongisto and watch the artist work. This exhibition is accompanied by a full-color exhibition brochure and is organized by Koch Curatorial Fellow Nina Gara Bozicnik.

The DeCordova Biennial
Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery, James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Media Space, Fourth Floor Hallway Gallery
January 23 – April 25, 2010

For the past twenty years, DeCordova has supported the local New England arts community through The DeCordova Annual Exhibitions by exhibiting new and emerging work from the region. Beginning in 2010, the Museum will revitalize this program by shifting to a Biennial format and broadening its curatorial voice to include an advisory board of esteemed arts professionals from throughout the New England states. The new DeCordova Biennial will sketch out the topography of the current artistic landscape to highlight the most pressing themes in contemporary art of this moment. This exhibition is organized by Assistant Curator Dina Deitsch. Generous funding provided by the Deborah A. Hawkins Charitable Trust.

Chakaia Booker: Inside and Outside (working title)
Museum Galleries, Museum Terraces
May 15 – August 29, 2010

Chakaia Booker is one of America’s pre-eminent African-American contemporary sculptors. Her work in steel surfaced with cut and re-assembled auto and truck tires reconsiders the tradition of Modernist abstract sculpture in 21st-century contexts of black culture, identity, gender, and ecology. This exhibition will be the first to present a large selection of her work both indoors and outdoors. This exhibition is accompanied by a full-color exhibition catalogue and is organized by Senior Curator Nick Capasso.

Platform 3: Halsey Burgund
Sculpture Park and First Floor Museum Lobby
July — November 2010

Halsey Burgund is a musician and sound artist who lives and works in Bedford, MA. Burgund's projects are collaborative and give participants an active role in creating content. He fosters the democratization of knowledge production and dissemination by using open source technology and interactivity to create musical scores from community-collected spoken words that continuously evolve in real-time. Scapes, Burgund's project for Platform 3, creates a two-way audio experience for museum visitors influenced significantly by the physical location of the participant within the DeCordova grounds. Participants will use handheld wireless devices and headphones to listen to audio, and also make their own recordings which will be immediately assimilated into the piece for everyone to hear. This exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color exhibition brochure, and is organized by Koch Curatorial Fellow Nina Gara Bozicnik.

Martha Friedman
James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Fourth Floor Hallway Gallery
September 18, 2010 – January 9, 2011

In her sculptures Brooklyn-based artist Martha Friedman depicts tricks and balancing acts, while arguing for the possible sexual connotation of everything. Referencing the history of sculpture from high modernist abstraction to minimalism to the Duchampian Ready-made, Friedman is interested in locating the moment in which common objects slip into abstraction or eroticism. Food emerges as one of her subjects as do rubber bands, chairs, and gourds in large conglomerations that are beautiful, witty, and often set up visual/verbal double-entendres. Accompanied by a full-color exhibition brochure. Organized by Assistant Curator Dina Deitsch.

 

 

 

For more information about DeCordova's upcoming exhibitions, contact info@decordova.org.