Lost Boys and The Artist’s Eye
Until 7 July 2013
Lewis Glucksman Gallery
University College Cork
Ireland
T +353 (0) 21 490 1844
info [at] glucksman.org
www.glucksman.org
The Lewis Glucksman Gallery presents two new exhibitions in its spring/summer programme: Lost Boys: The Territories of Youth, and The Artist’s Eye: Photographic Portraits of Artists from the collection of the Galleria civica di Modena.
Lost Boys: The Territories of Youth
Curated by Denis Linehan and Matt Packer
Artists: Eleanor Antin, Doug DuBois, Douglas Gordon, David Haines, Seamus Harahan, Richard Hughes, Julien Nguyen, Alex Rose, Collier Schorr, Steven Shearer, Gillian Wearing
Lost Boys looks at the spaces of male adolescence from Irish, European, and North American artistic perspectives. From the high street and sports arena to the bedrooms of heavy metal fanatics, Lost Boys reflects on the public and private territories where male identities are invented, performed and contested. It is in these places that young men forge friendships, navigate social relationships, express their individuality, and come to terms with their impending adulthood.
Works in the exhibition range from Seamus Harahan‘s video works and Doug DuBois‘ photographs, where their young subjects are captured hanging out in spaces beyond the adult gaze; through to works by David Haines and Richard Hughes that reference teenage rituals of boredom and misbehavior. In works by Steven Shearer, Julien Nguyen and Alex Rose, it is the cultural conditions of sexuality and self-representation that are emphasised, while the empowerments of photographic representation are also crucial to the female artists in the exhibition: Eleanor Antin, Collier Schorr and Gillian Wearing.
Lost Boys also explores how the experiences of male adolescents have been affected by broader circumstances, such as unemployment and emigration. Through artworks that examine group behaviour, fashion, gender and sexuality, the exhibition explores these new models of masculinity and the ways in which they reflect our changing society.
An exhibition guide accompanies the exhibition. For further information, please contact exhibitions [at] glucksman.org.
The Artist’s Eye: Photographic Portraits of Artists from the collection of the Galleria civica di Modena
Curated by Fiona Kearney and Marco Pierini
The Artist’s Eye presents photographic portraits of artists working, relaxing, and sometimes deliberately posturing for the camera. It is an opportunity to see into the intimacy of the studio environment as many artists are depicted in personal reflection and the creation of the work of art. We glimpse the surrealist Max Ernst smoking in an ornate chair by Arnold Newman, the neatly arranged ceramics of Pablo Picasso by Robert Doisneau and the intense performances of Joseph Beuys by Gianfranco Gorgoni. The knowingly dramatic stance of Salvador Dali contrasts strongly with the thoughtful self-portraits of Francesca Woodman and Elina Brotherus.
The Artist’s Eye is produced in partnership with the Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy, and includes both historic and contemporary photographic images. The earliest work in the exhibition is by August Sander. It is titled Painter (Anton Räderscheidt), and depicts a rather stern looking gentleman in a dark coat and hat, stopped still on an empty street. There is no clue to his profession. We are not in the studio or the salon. Räderscheidt is not carrying any paintbrushes, canvas or materials that might hint at his creative work. Rather, he is an everyman—an ordinary citizen going about his daily business—and yet, he is alone. Sander photographed the artist at 6am on Bismarckstraße in Cologne, deliberately isolating his painter from other human beings while resolutely connecting him to the urban environment.
Here lies the nub of an artist’s portrait: how to relate the artist to the world they represent and simultaneously suggest that they remain separate from it, spectators as well as participants in modern life. An illustrated catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale accompanies The Artist’s Eye with essays by Fiona Kearney, Marco Pierini, Silvia Ferrari and Francesca Mora. For further information, please contact exhibitions [at] glucksman.org.
