Urgent Painting
Through March 3, 2002
ARC- Musee d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris
Beatriz Milhazes, Coisa linda I, 2001, acrylique sur toile; Coisa linda II, 2001, acrylique sur toile; photo – Marc Domage.
The artists: Adam Adach (France), Nathan Carter (U.S.A.), Verne Dawson (U.S.A.), Yayoi Deki (Japan), Tatjana Doll (Germany), Vladimir E. Dubossarsky & Alexander A. Vinogradov (Russia), Andreas Eriksson (Sweden), Franz Gertsch (Switzerland)/Alain Sichas (France), Liam Gillick (G.B.), Katharina Grosse (Germany), Arturo Herrera (Venezuela), Federico Herrero (Costa Rica), Sergej Jensen (Germany), Surasi Kusolwong (Thaoland), Michael Lin (Taowan), Miltos Manetas (Greece), Michaela Math (Autriche), Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia/USA), Beatriz Milhazes (Brasil), Sarah Morris (G.B./ U.S.A), Victor Mutale (Zambia), Laura Owens (U.S.A), Stiphane Pencriac’h (France), Matthew Ritchie/Carroll Dunham/Karen Leo (G.B./U.S.A.), Wilhelm Sasnal (Poland), Shahzia Sikander (Pakistan), Vasily Tzagolov (Russia), Anton Vidokle (Russia/U.S.A.).
Through March 3rd, 2002
View selections from Urgent Painting online at: www.e-flux.com/site2002/index.phtml?client=welcome/urgent/
Where is painting at right now?
Comprising the work of 32 international artists, this exhibition testifies to the sheer vitality of the current painting scene and homes in on major approaches to relevant artistic issues. There is now an urgent need to:
– return to an art form threatened with eclipse by the omnipresent new media and a frequent tendency to confuse painting and image
– rediscover that other time frame inherently specific to painting, in an age marked by rapid acceleration of the communication and production processes
– reassert painting’s tangibility in an age marked by proliferation of the virtual
– reassess painting against a much broader geographical setting and learn to appreciate the range of practices its diverse contexts represent.
The works on show have their roots in the everyday, the urban environment and current events seen in a critical or ironic light. Some of them are imaginings or recompositions of private or virtual worlds, others spill over into architecture, challenging or transforming it by calling on the public to participate.
Having cut itself free of the frame – but still freely able to return to it – painting is making no secret of its hybrid character, mingling modernity and tradition, figuration and abstraction, use of repeated themes, and ways of working derived from the most recent image production techniques.
Urgent Painting is not intended as an inventory; it aims to generate criticism and debate, and above all to allow painting to assert its unshakeable presence
Curators: Laurence Bossi, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Julia Garimorth.
The artists have been chosen by 17 international specialists – critics, curators and other artists.
Sandra Antelo-Suarez, Zdenka Badovinac, Daniel Birnbaum, Okwui Enwezor, Charles Esche, Bernard Frize, Liam Gillick, Thelma Golden, Yuko Hasegawa, Paulo Herkenhoff, Manray Hsu, Caroline A. Jones & Peter Galison, Viktor Misiano, Virginia Pirez-Ratton, Matthew Ritchie, Paul Schimmel, Iric Troncy.
Catalogue : Texts of Suzanne Pagi, Laurence Bossi, Michael Diers, Patricia Falguihres, Julia Garimorth, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and the contributions of the invited specialists.
304 pages, 45 euros
The catalogue is coordinated by Vivian Rehberg
Contact: Elsa Guigo/ Vironique Prest,
tel: 33 1 53 67 40 50, fax: 33 1 47 23 35 98
elsa.guigo@mairie-paris.fr www.paris-france.org/MUSEES
For more information go to: www.e-flux.com/site2002/index.phtml?client=welcome/urgent