|
Indepth Arts News:
"Glee:
Painting
Now"
2000-09-24 until 2001-01-07
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art
Ridgefield, CT,
USA
With the Y2K scare little
but a distant memory, it is
clear that the Internet is here
to stay. New computer
technology has permeated
every aspect of our lives
from the way we learn,
communicate, and consume,
to how and why we create.
The populist aims of the
Internet stand in contrast to
the individualistic nature of
painting the most revered
form of art relying on
gesture, signature, and
originality. We are living at
the dawn of a new
millennium and a digital
revolution, and painting
today reflects the promise
of this moment while
imaginatively commenting
on its own past.
The Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art is
pleased to present Glee:
Painting Now, an
exhibition examining
artists1 renewed confidence
in painting in the face of
new visual technologies. A
confident, irreverent, and
decidedly giddy attitude
prevails among the painters
represented in this
exhibition. The work in this
exhibition revels in
appealing color, bold lines,
and flat, crisp forms, while
it consciously skirts
weighty subject matter or
politicized content. While
many contemporary artists
are tempted to view art
history as burdensome and
monolithic, the artists in
Glee are all accomplishing
the important task of
reclaiming difficult,
unorthodox moments of
post-war visual history.
Influences range from Op
art and Pattern &
Decoration to 3D-computer
art and 1970s psychedelia Ð
influences that have resisted
the strict categorization
established by critics for
twentieth century painting.
Precedents set by artists
like Gene Davis, Larry
Poons, Frank Stella, and
Ellsworth Kelly are as
important to painting now
as new computer
capabilities, pop culture, and
advertising. The works in
Glee all point to
marginalized artistic
traditions, new technologies,
and even some historically
modernist elements Ð the
shaped canvas, saturated
color fields, geometric
abstraction, for example Ð in
order to prove that painting
is as culturally relevant as
ever in this exciting era.
Curated by Amy
Cappellazzo, curator at the
Palm Beach Institute of
Contemporary Art, and
Jessica Hough, assistant
curator at The Aldrich
Museum, this exhibition
features the work of twenty
artists: Franz Ackermann,
Ricci Albenda, Pedro
Barbeito, Linda Besemer,
Alex Blau, Greg Bogin,
Alex Brown, Ingrid
Calame, Sharon Ellis,
Jeff Elrod, Carl Fudge,
Wayne Gonzales, Peter
Halley, Jim Isermann,
Sarah Morris, Stephen
Mueller, Albert Oehlen,
Monique Prieto, John F.
Simon Jr., and Yek.
Related Links:
| | 
|
