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New York, NY (July 2, 2012) —Today, the National Academy announced its fall exhibitions which open in September 2012. Among the highlights is the only New York showing of John Cage’s visual work, presented during the artist’s world-wide centennial celebration. As part of its upcoming season, the Academy also inaugurates three new series, representing new initiatives for the Academy.
“Our new series underscore the Academy’s commitment to contemporary art,” states Carmine Branagan, the Academy’s Director. “We are thrilled to be exhibiting a large-scale site-specific installation by Phoebe Washburn in our iconic rotunda and showcase video art in our Fifth Avenue windows, inaugurated by Julian Opie. In addition, a new program recognizes emerging artists deserving of a closer look through museum exhibition. These initiatives signal the Academy’s recommitment to contemporary art by showcasing the talent of today.”
Windows on Fifth present video and animation artists in the Museum’s Fifth Avenue windows, opening in the fall with Julian Opie and continuing in the spring with Adam Chapman. Opie is perhaps best known for the animated figures from his Walking Series, which will be featured. Chapman’s digital portraits and figures combine traditional drawing with a technological dimension.
Showcasing large-scale contemporary sculpture in the Academy’s iconic rotunda began with John Chamberlain’s Tasteylingus in September 2011. This fall the Academy will feature a site-specific installation by artist Phoebe Washburn entitled Nudes, Housed Within Their Own Clothes and Aware of Their Individual Thirst, Descending a Staircase. An expansive structure, the cylindrical tower, 14 feet high and 11 feet in diameter, rises from the center of the rotunda and is surrounded by the distinctive Ogden Codman-designed staircase. The sculpture is penetrated by colorful “wormholes”, or tunnels, through which the viewer peers as they ascend the spiral staircase to the second floor, adding an interactive dimension to the work. Created from scrap wood and refuse that Washburn collected in her travels around New York City, the sculpture presents a striking aesthetic with the beaux-arts decoration.
In summer 2013, the Academy will premiere Emerging Artist – bi-annual solo exhibitions that highlight promising, contemporary artists, whose art deserves closer attention. The inaugural exhibition features Brooklyn-based artist Jeffrey Gibson, who has created a body of work that has drawn critical acclaim for his commentary on cultural hybridity and has established him as a leading artist of his generation. Gibson, who is half Cherokee and a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, explores notions of identity and modernism within the context of twenty-first century perceptions, drawing on his own heritage as a Native American artist.
Also on view is the continuing Artist’s Eye series with an exhibition conceptualized by sculptor and Academician Judith Shea who selected a group of women artist’s portraits from the Academy’s extensive collection. Other exhibitions include a grouping of watercolors featuring Charles Burchfield and Andrew Wyeth, as well as decorative work from one of the last major movements in American art, Pattern and Decoration, including artists Robert Kushner, Joyce Kozloff and Betty Woodman.
2012 EXHIBITIONS:
On view September 12, 2012 – January 13, 2013
John Cage: The Sight of Silence showcases 60 works most of which Cage created while he was an artist-in-residence at the Mountain Lake Workshop in Virginia during the 1980s and again in 1990. The exhibition showcases this production as well as some of the artist’s unusual graphic musical scores accompanied by recordings of his music, photographs and video of Cage performing and painting, as well as other documentary material, providing insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s most important avant-garde thinkers.
In conjunction with the show, the Academy presents Chance Encounters, a series of seventeen public programs that include readings, demonstrations, dance and musical performances by artists, writers, and musicians many of whom knew Cage including Robert Berlind, Kenneth Goldsmith, Margaret Leng Tan, Du Yun, Robert Kushner, and many others.
Drawn from the Academy’s extensive portrait collection, sculptor and National Academician Judith Shea has selected a group of women artists’ portraits spanning from the late 19th century to today for Her Own Style: An Artist’s Eye With Judith Shea. Throughout her career, Shea has been intrigues with the self-image of women and explores how a group of female Academicians portrayed themselves, shaped their personal identity, and, ultimately, chose to present themselves for the lens of history through portraiture. She has selected artists who bravely depart from convention, experiment with new angles and palettes and insert the previously absent female protagonist into the genre. Shea has created two original sculptures, one of Elizabeth Catlett and one of Louise Bourgeois, two similarly iconoclastic and groundbreaking artists.
From Burchfield to Wyeth: A Selection of 20th Century American Watercolors illuminates the National Academy’s highly esteemed collection of American watercolors from the 1940s-onward. The works range in subject from the experimental, expressionistic landscapes of Millard Sheets, William Thon and Eliot O’Hara to the moody, almost gothic scenes of rural America by John Pike, Charles Burchfield, and Andrew Wyeth.
Drawing inspiration from the textiles and decorative arts of the Middle and Far East, Pattern and Decoration introduces work by the Pattern and Decoration artists, believed by many art historians to be the last movement in American art. It emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s with ornamental, complex works that challenged the late-modernist paradigm of Minimalism. A highlight of this compelling installation is a collage by Miriam Schapiro, an early member of the movement and a pioneering feminist artist. Works by other major artists include Robert Kushner’s painting on a Japanese screen, a Joyce Kozloff watercolor, and a vase diptych by Betty Woodman.
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ABOUT THE NATIONAL ACADEMY
Throughout its storied history, the National Academy has followed a simple yet powerful mission: to promote the fine arts in America through exhibition and education. Founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand, the National Academy is the only institution of its kind that integrates a museum, art school, and association of artists and architects – the National Academicians. Academicians include over 330 of today’s most recognized artists and architects, including Christo, Ann Hamilton, Richard Meier, Rafael Viñoly, and many others.
Illuminating canonical figures as well as those deserving of reappraisal, the museum widens the lens through which American art is viewed and appreciated. Rotating exhibitions include 19th, 20th and 21st century art and architecture, reflections of contemporary American culture, and selections from the permanent collection. Exhibitions are supported with lectures, symposia, and panel discussions that engage the public with the Academy’s living artistic legacy.
EXHIBITION:
Dates: September 12, 2011 – January 13, 2013 Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Closed Mondays and Tuesday and major holidays
NATIONAL ACADEMY MUSEUM
1083 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street
Admission: Adults: $15; Seniors (65+) and students with valid ID: $10
Children under 12, members, and students of the
National Academy School: free
PRESS CONTACT
Heidi Riegler, Director Marketing and Communications
National Academy Museum and School
212.369.4880, x 214
hriegler@nationalacademy.org
www.nationalacademy.org
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