With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 / Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection

On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) presents two large-scale exhibitions at the Hessel Museum of Art:

With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985
June 26–November 28, 2021
Organized by Anna Katz, Curator, with Rebecca Lowery, Assistant Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

Examining the groundbreaking yet understudied Pattern and Decoration art movement, With Pleasure is the first major North American survey to explore the movement’s broad reach in postwar American art. The exhibition brings together the work of 45 artists created between the ’70s and mid ’80s to explore the movement’s defiant embrace of forms and media traditionally coded as feminine, domestic, ornamental, or craft-based. It is fitting that this exhibition be presented at the Hessel Museum as Marieluise Hessel was an early and strong advocate of Pattern and Decoration and numerous works from her collection will be on view.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, scholarly catalogue published in association with Yale University Press.

Exhibition artists include: Neda Alhilali, Emma Amos, Ralph Bacerra, Tony Bechara, Lynda Benglis, Billy Al Bengston, Cynthia Carlson, Lia Cook, Brad Davis, Merion Estes, Sam Gilliam, Tina Girouard, Nancy Graves, Diane Itter, Valerie Jaudon, Jane Kaufman, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Pat Lasch, Al Loving, Kim MacConnel, Constance Mallinson, Susan Michod, Ree Morton, Judy Pfaff, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Tony Robbin, Sandra Sallin, Lucas Samaras, Miriam Schapiro, Dee Shapiro, Kendall Shaw, Alan Shields, Arlene Slavin, Sylvia Sleigh, Ned Smyth, Frank Stella, Franklin Williams, William T. Williams, Betty Woodman, Takako Yamaguchi, Robert Zakanitch, and Barbara Zucker.

Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection
June 26–October 17, 2021
Curated by Tom Eccles and Amy Zion

Drawn from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, Closer to Life focuses on how contemporary artists employ drawing and works on paper as a discrete, stand-alone part of their practice to communicate pressing and highly personal subject matter. Comprising approximately 100 works by more than 50 artists, the exhibition simultaneously traces four decades of collecting by the CCS Bard co-founder, from postwar Germany to Mexico City to New York City, with specific emphasis on Hessel’s most recent acquisitions.

Closer to Life is accompanied by a comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue of the Marieluise Hessel Collection.

Exhibition artists include: Kai Althoff, Deborah Barrett, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Cecily Brown, Nick Cave, William Copley, Nicole Eisenman, General Idea, Isa Genzken, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rachel Harrison, Jörg Immendorff, Clotilde Jiménez, Rashid Johnson, Ray Johnson, Anselm Kiefer, Seydou Keïta, Martin Kippenberger, David Koloane, Imi Knoebel, Robert Kushner, Maria Lassnig, Charles LeDray, Robert Longo, Sol LeWitt, Carlos Mérida, Dan Miller, Ulrike Müller, Matt Mullican, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Gabriel Orozco, Cady Noland, Giuseppe Penone, Sigmar Polke, Arnulf Rainer, Gerhard Richter, Allen Ruppersberg, Peter Saul, Thomas Schütte, Hollis Sigler, Diane Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Sable Elyse Smith, Nancy Spero, Rosemarie Trockel, Germán Venegas, Danh Vo, Kara Walker, Franz Erhard Walther, David Wojnarowicz, and Nahum B. Zenil.

The exhibition also includes selections from the limited edition ACT-UP Art Box (1993–94), Artifacts at the End of a Decade (1981), and Your House is Mine by Bullet Space (1989–1991), as well as select issues from Dieter Roth's Gesammelte Werke, Johannes Cladders' Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach series, William Copley's S.M.S., Hanuman Books, Interview magazine, Art Information Of, and On the Blackness of BLACKNUSS by Moor's Head Press (2016).

Exhibition summer hours are Wednesday through Monday from 12pm to 6pm. All CCS Bard exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public with advance reservation at ccs.bard.edu. For more visting information go to ccs.bard.edu/visit.

Exhibitions at CCS Bard are made possible with support from the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Foundation, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the Board of Governors of the Center for Curatorial Studies, the CCS Bard Arts Council, and the Center’s Patrons, Supporters, and Friends.

Lead support for With Pleasure is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Henry Luce Foundation. Major support for With Pleasure is provided by MOCA Projects Council and the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. Additional support for With Pleasure is provided by Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Foundation, Helen N. Lewis and Marvin B. Meyer Charitable Fund in Loving Memory of Marvin B. Meyer, and Thomas Solomon and Kimberly Mascola. Exhibitions at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Exhibitions with major funding provided by The Offield Family Foundation and generous funding provided by Dr. Alexander and Judith Angerman, Earl and Shirley Greif Foundation, Sydney Holland, founder of the Sydney D. Holland Foundation, Nathalie Marciano and Julie Miyoshi, Steven and Jerri Nagelberg, and Jonathan M. Segal through the Rhonda S. Zinner Foundation.