pfgal0pin-in-sf0bay:

Adrian Ghenie

Dada is Dead, 2009

Romanian visual artist Adrian Ghenie’s giant haunted paintings left me breathless at the SFMOMA’s uppermost floor. The global impression I had was the one of a trauma, buried memories that Ghenie has tried to appear again. In fact, most of his artworks are meant to reflect the collective shock that Romania felt during the soviet dictatorship – and how it still has its importance on Romanian’s today society.

Working between Cluj-Napoca, Romania and Berlin, Germany, the painter gives a very particular texture to his artworks. I have heard many times that 21^st century paintings were hard to re-invent themselves since abstract art from the interwar period – and sometimes, I quite agreed with this thought. But the very staged, cinematic, and phantasmagorical painted scenes exhibited there seemed to discredit that idea. The diversity of textures, the skillful chiaroscuro plays, and the ghostly human presence(s) in Ghenie’s works completely make them alive, but “damaged”.

His 200x220cm piece, Dada is Dead, particularly caught my attention. Not only because of the centered wolf (as it can be seen here), but because of the nostalgic effect of the setting (an empty-left room), the angle of the stage (a corner), the title (which contains… “Dada” and “dead”), and the dark, burnt, wet colors that he used. In an interview from 2009 (published in Flash Art #269), Adrian Ghenie explains the idea for the Dada artwork series:

“The state of painting today prompted me to choose this subject. The ongoing debate about the “death of painting” may be intellectually stimulating, but I think it is also anachronistic. There is enough evidence to conclude that painting is not dead. And yet, I wanted to return to the historic context in which this problem was first articulated. I view key moments and personalities of the avant-garde like Duchamp from a great distance and from a reversed perspective. Although I recognize the liberating effects produced by the outburst of the avant-garde movements (of which I am also a beneficiary), I can’t help but notice the extent to which some of their ideas — exposed in time to manifold appropriations — have imposed themselves with such forcefulness as to become canonical. I simply want to question this state of affairs without making accusations. But I feel I have the right to see idols like Duchamp or Dada in a different light.”

Dada is surely a dead movement, which still has imprints on contemporary artist’s works, for better or for worse. His painting, which would be appreciated here in San Francisco in the Six Lines Of Flight exhibition at SFMOMA, could also be seen as a metaphor of the artistic process, particularly when it is driven by a will to question a (past) practice, in a fictional world.

Thank you for this thoughtful post.

Check out our Rooftop Garden from this vantage point! Looks like a Rooftop Garden for ants ;-)

Jim Campbell’s Exploded Views will be coming down next week, so come see it in our Atrium while you can!

And, as we mentioned a few days ago, we’re so thrilled that Jim Campbell is being honored at this year’s Bay Area Treasure dinner on Tuesday :)

Image © Jim Campbell; photo: Sarah Christianson

Some things never change :)

Below: Pirkle Jones, Log and Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, from Portfolio Two…, 1952; ca. 1968

Internationally renowned media art pioneer Jim Campbell mixes technology, sculpture, cinema, and light into an art form uniquely his own. Suspended above our Atrium, Jim Campbell’s “Exploded Views” has captivated visitors since it went on view last November. We’re thrilled to announce that Campbell will be honored on Oct. 23 with the 2012 Bay Area Treasure Award.

Curious to find out how Exploded Views was created? Watch this video to hear Campbell speak on the genesis of the piece.

Photo by Johnna Arnold

Image: © 2012 Drew Altizer

Just a little peek at what you’ll soon be seeing around town in San Francisco… :)

wiblog:

SO excited for Trevor Paglen’s #TheLastPictures talk @SFMOMA tmrw night. If you’re into space and/or art, you should prrrobably make sure to not miss this.

Image: Waterspout, Florida Keys. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.

Get tix online here!

creativetime:

Artist Talk: Trevor Paglen | SFMOMA | Thursday, Oct. 11, 7 PM

Alongside Litquake and Creative Time, the San Francisco Museum of Art will be hosting an Artist Talk with artist-geographer Trevor Paglen.  Paglen’s multimedia performance lectures connect to his latest book, The Last Pictures, for which he assembled one hundred images.  The images are intended to demonstrate and teach to an audience not of our civilization the existence of the people who “built a ring of communications satellites around Earth.” Paglen will be signing copies of the book from 6-7PM in the MuseumStore before the talk.

The Last Pictures lecture series is organized by Creative Time in conjunction with ten museums and non-profit spaces around the globe. Use the hashtag #TheLastPictures to join the conversation on Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram.

So excited for this talk tomorrow night! Get your tix here.

Why yes, Clock Smith, we DO happen to have some chainsaws in stock here at SFMOMA. Please consult our offerings here.