On Dec. 16, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) opens the first solo museum exhibition of Chicago-based artist Diane Simpson (b. 1935, Joliet, Illinois). Organized by Dan Byers, Mannion Family Senior Curator, Diane Simpson is on view at the ICA through March 27, 2016. Over the last thirty-five years, Simpson has produced a unique group of highly stylized sculptures that draw inspiration from clothing, the body, architecture, and the domestic sphere. The ICA will present a concise survey of Simpson’s sculptures featuring 15 works made between 1980 and 2014, along with a selection of related drawings and a slideshow made in collaboration with San Francisco-based artist Vincent Fecteau. The exhibition also includes a sculptural work on view for the first time.
While Simpson’s sculptures appear deceptively simple, they are in fact the result of a rigorous approach to making that mixes elements of clothing with construction techniques and display details gleaned from vernacular architecture, store window display, and interior design. Simpson trained as a painter and printmaker, and all of her sculptures begin as highly-detailed drawings, often made from images she has collected. Each of Simpson’s drawings is inspired by a different element of clothing, from historical sources such as samurai armor or shaker bonnets, to accessories found closer to home, like aprons or bibs. Simpson then fashions her sculptures from a wide range of both common and specialized materials—from corrugated cardboard and medium-density fiberboard to a diverse range of woods, metals, and textiles—depending on the source, as well as the intended shape and structure of each work. Surface and support intertwine: ornamental elements are constructed to hold the object together, while joints and supports create repeating patterns and moments of embellishment.
For Simpson, the sculptural process is one of translation, whereby her construction methods and material choices derive from the desire to realize each drawing in three-dimensions. Through this process, Simpson creates sculptures that consider formally and conceptually the way bodies are covered, shaped, and defined through dress. In doing so, Simpson’s works appear both vividly corporeal, as they reveal the body through spaces left around clothing, as well as abstract, with a restrained vocabulary of simple forms used to define each covering element. The results are carefully constructed, deceptively complex sculptures that interweave structure and function, and are layered with ideas about gender and dress, domestic and urban spaces, and an ethics of labor and making.
A publication, including an interview with the artist, will accompany the exhibition.
About the artist
Diane Simpson received a BFA in 1971 and a MFA in 1978 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1979 she has been an active participant of numerous solo and group exhibitions in the USA. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include SILBERKUPPE, Berlin (2015); New York University’s Washington Square East Gallery (2014); Chicago Cultural Center (2010); and Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin (2007). Recent and forthcoming group exhibitions include The Jewish Museum (2015); Maccarone Gallery, New York (2015); Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York (2015); and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2015). The artist’s work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL; Racine Art Museum, Racine WI; Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL; The James R. Thompson Center, Chicago; and the Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewiston, PA.
Photo by Liza Voll.
Respini is currently organizing exhibitions of artists Walid Raad and Liz Deschenes.
Eva Respini, the Barbara Lee Chief Curator, will deliver the annual Beckwith lecture for the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The lecture will take place at the Museum of Fine Arts at 6:30.
Respini is currently organizing the first U.S. museum survey of Walid Raad and the first museum survey of Liz Deschenes. In her previous position as Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, she organized the critically acclaimed retrospectives Cindy Sherman and Robert Heinecken as well as exhibitions with artists Klara Liden, Anne Collier, Leslie Hewitt, and Akram Zaatari.
“Upon arrival in a city, one should proceed directly to the national art museum.”
In September I had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland as the courier accompanying Marlene Dumas’s German Witch, 2000, back to Boston after its six-month jaunt in Europe. I would be in Basel for a couple of days to pack and crate the work, but I decided to use the occasion to spend some time in Zürich, as well as to travel to the 56th Venice Biennale.
Zürich
I have always advocated that upon arrival in a city, one should proceed directly to the national art museum. As someone who spends much of my time in museums, I feel these spaces represent an environment both national and extranational; behavioral codes are universal, the vocabulary is set and independent of language. No matter the country, for me, museums are a safe space where history and the present reveal themselves, speaking eloquently and plainly. Needless to say, after my redeye flight into Zürich, the Kunsthaus was my first stop.
The museum’s collection—surprising, impeccably displayed, thorough, and brought to vivid life through wonderfully inventive didactics—was beyond reproach, but the architecture and décor were, without a doubt, the takeaways for me. Carpets laden with gridded patterns, inlaid wood accents of many variations, textured balustrades, marble colonnades, and plush velvet armchairs on which to sit all provided pleasing accompaniments to the stunning collection of masterworks on display.
In sharp contrast to the regal and decidedly old-world aesthetics of the museum, a small exhibition of works by queer icon John Waters in the basement of the museum was a pleasant surprise. To come across such an inherently American and ironic body of work put in dialogue with, and immediately adjacent to, a gallery of elegant and iconic walking Giacomettis, brought a wry smile to my face.
Arsenale and Giardini
Many others have penned excellent and accurate reviews of the 2015 Biennale (see Benjamin Buchloh, Jessica Morgan, and Claire Bishop’s takes on the exhibition in this month’s Artforum, for example), and I wholeheartedly echo the general consensus. Challenging, terse at times, unforgiving, and unrelenting in message, while simultaneously prescient, unexpected, and aesthetically agnostic, Okwui Enwezor’s presentations at the Arsenale and Giardini make an unequivocal statement that put the complex network of labor, capitol, translation (both of the visual and language-based varieties), marginalization, and immigration into sharp focus. A few standouts for me at the Arsenale included Eduardo Basualdo’s poetic manipulations of modest objects; Thea Djordjadze’s arrangement of sculptural and furniture-based elements, which briefly gave me a glimpse of what it would be like to live inside a Braun calculator; and Ayoung Kim’s strange didactic theatre relaying a fictive history of the 1970s oil crisis and its legacy. Perhaps the work which most eloquently captured the narrative arc of Enwezor’s Biennale was Meriç Algün Ringborg’s installation Souvenirs for the Landlocked, 2015. Within an ostensibly domestic environment, the artist arranged a series of kitschy tourist souvenirs that, in their representation of the landscapes or objects which typify a certain location, belie the actual origins of their manufacturing.
At Enwezor’s exhibit within the Giardini, which was perhaps more aesthetically considered, if not any less politically pressing, Elena Damiani’s copper and granite sculptures were a fitting contrast to a large-scale Robert Smithson sculpture in the following room. A trio of works seemed to capture the conceptual framework which undergirded the structure of the entire installation: a reinstallation of Marcel Broodthaers’s The Winter Garden II, 1974 provided the most rewarding and wittily ironic commentary on the imperfect and problematic nature of the museum exhibition; Glenn Ligon’s room-size polyptych Come Out, 2014, was striking, succinct, and ominous, poetically capturing the prevailing mood, and finally, a installation of Hans Haacke’s seminal works distilled the Biennale down to its essence, serving as a lodestar to the aspirational power that museums, and in fact art at large, hope to exert within democratic societies.
The National Pavilions
At the national pavilions the work was pleasantly varied and expectedly uneven. Much has been said of Hito Steyerl’s work Factory of the Sun, 2015 at the German pavilion, and the installation is truly deserving of praise—it brings together wit, politics, and poetry while nipping at the heels of what appears as a yet-to-be-crystallized aesthetic of the 21st century. Pepo Salazar’s multi-room installation at the Spanish pavilion captured the tragedy of fame, notably personified by the downward trajectory of “Cheeto-queen“ Britney Spears. Sarah Lucas’s unapologetically yellow and comical presentation of sculptures both turgid and flaccid at the British pavilion was a welcome departure from the all-too-serious tone of much of the Biennale (the accompanying pamphlet containing Lucas’s incredibly funny and witty statements is not to be missed).
Punta della Dogana
In addition to the Arsenale and Giardini, the only other exhibition that I would recommend visiting was Danh Vō’s arrangement of works at the Pinault Collection, housed at Punta della Dogana. An exhibition clearly aimed at art-world insiders and fellow artists, Slip of the Tongue convened a cadre of notable artists whose work, when presented in the context of Tadao Ando’s renovated Venetian warehouse and in dialogue with one another, truly showcased the possibilities for artist-curated exhibitions. The accompanying booklet, with its mix of both historical and personal information, provided thoughtful (and necessary!) interpretation for Vō’s inspiring presentation.
Basel
Back in Basel, the Kunsthaus was closed for renovations. However, at the Kunsthalle Basel, Maryam Jafri’s video detailing the nebulous trajectory of fetish wear and Andra Ursuta’s poignant room of perverse and morbid miniature Washington Monuments were excellent presentations—politically biting, aesthetically provocative exhibitions that proved that the Swiss have a healthy appetite for American satire.
Museum fur Gegenwartskunst
At the Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, an installation of a monitor showcasing Andrea Fraser’s A Visit to the Sistine Chapel, 2005, reminded me that windows are not only to be looked through; perhaps something akin to this would suit the ICA’s Founders Gallery?
Fondation Beyeler
With my duties at the Fondation Beyeler complete I was able to spend some time admiring their impressive collection. A room of Ellsworth Kelleys, basking in natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows opposite them were a delight, as were Philippe Parreno’s vibrating Water Lilies, 2012.
Schaulager
The last stop on my tour of museums was the Schaulager, housed in a building designed by hometown favorites Herzog and de Meuron. Although photography is verboten, I was able to capture a few surreptitious shots of a remarkable installation by Robert Gober. Other impressive yet sadly unphotographable installations (come on museums/collectors, it’s 2015!) included a full run of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle series, Katharina Fritsch’s monumental, jet-black Rat King, 1993, and the stellar “view-in-the-dark” installation Mother and Son. My Mother’s Album, 1993, by Ilya Kabakov.
With our German Witch safe and secured in her pink travel outfit, we were back on the plane to Boston!
(BOSTON – Oct. 21, 2015) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents the Grammy Award-winning Parisian Ensemble intercontemporain on Sunday Nov. 15, at 3:00 p.m., in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater at the ICA (100 Northern Ave., Boston). General admission tickets are $25, $15 for members and students, and can be purchased at www.icaboston.org or by calling (617) 478-3103.
Between 1949 and 1954, composers John Cage and Pierre Boulez exchanged a series of letters that are the basis for this remarkable concert featuring soloists of the renowned Paris-based Ensemble intercontemporain. The group will perform a selection of works written during the composers’ correspondence including Boulez’s “Second Piano Sonata,” “Livre pour quatuor,” and “Douze notations,”and Cage’s “String Quartet in Four Parts,” “Six melodies for violin and keyboard,”“Music of Changes,” and “Sonatas and Interludes.” While teaching at Black Mountain College in 1952, Cage introduced students to the works of the young French composer, whom he viewed as a major figure in contemporary composition and sympathetic to his own musical developments. Many of the Cage compositions to be performed by Ensemble intercontemporain premiered at the College and illustrate his emerging compositional practices, which he discussed at length with Boulez. Selections from the letters will be read during the concert, offering a unique look at the work and practice of these hugely influential masters.
Program:
Pierre BOULEZ: Second Piano Sonata (excerpts)
Pierre BOULEZ: Livre pour quatuor for string quartet (excerpts)
Pierre BOULEZ: 12 Notations for piano (excerpts)
John CAGE: Music of Changes for piano (excerpts)
John CAGE: Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano (extracts)
John CAGE: Six Melodies for violin and piano (extracts)
John CAGE: String Quartet in Four Parts (excerpts)
(with Dimitri Vassilakis, piano, Hae-Sun Kang, Diego Tosi, violins, John Stulz, viola, Eric-Maria Couturier, cello, Damon Krukowski, reader)
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957
About Ensemble intercontemporain
Founded in 1976 by Pierre Boulez, Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is composed of 31 soloists who share a passion for 20th- and 21st-century music. Together they work in close collaboration with living composers, exploring instrumental techniques and developing new and multidisciplinary projects. With the Orchestre de Paris, EIC is one of the two ensembles in residence at the new Paris Philharmonie. Now entering his third season as Music Director of EIC, composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher also serves Principal Conductor Designate of the Lucerne Festival Academy, Artist-in-Association of the BBC Scottish Symphony, and Artist-in-Residence of the Danish National Symphony. He joined the composition faculty of New York’s Juilliard School in 2014.
This performance is supported, in part, by the David Henry Fund for Performance.
First Republic Bank is proud to sponsor the ICA’s 2015–16 Performance Season.
