To Begin, Again: A Prehistory of the Wex, 1968–89

With To Begin, Again: A Prehistory of the Wex, 1968–89, the Wexner Center for the Arts retraces the origins of contemporary arts programming at The Ohio State University, examining the cultural currents from which the center emerged in 1989 through a presentation—the largest to date—of the university’s permanent collection.

The exhibition, on view February 5–May 8, 2022, will fill the Wex’s galleries with works by more than 70 artists that were acquired or presented by Ohio State during the 1970s and ’80s, including major pieces by Futura2000, Eva Hesse, Adrian Piper, Sol LeWitt, and Frank Stella.

Inspired by the uprisings of 2020, To Begin, Again looks back to the revolts of the late 1960s, a period that saw artists, activists, and students demand systemic change from mainstream institutions. As flashpoints of dissent during this era, universities responded to protest in various ways—frequently with violent force; but also with progressive reforms, including the creation of the first Black, women’s, Latinx, and American Indian studies programs and the elevation of contemporary art and popular culture within the academic hierarchy.

Ohio State was no exception. Rocked by protests that brought the campus to a standstill in April and May of 1970, the university sought to chart a new direction in the years that followed. Emblematic of the changing culture was the school’s decision to elevate a recent MFA graduate, Betty Collings, to the directorship of the University Gallery of Fine Art—a new position at Ohio State, which, unlike other peer institutions, lacked an independent art museum. Between 1975 and 1980, Collings launched an acclaimed program of contemporary exhibitions—with solo projects by Joan Brown, Chris Burden, Jackie Ferrara, Sam Gilliam, and Joseph E. Yoakum, among others—and began collecting major works by artists such as Hesse, LeWitt, Stella, Robert Smithson, Donald Judd, and Agnes Denes.

The University Gallery under Collings served as a multidisciplinary gathering place where visiting artists, critics, and curators engaged students and faculty in peer-to-peer dialogue. In the 1980s, with new Gallery Director Jonathan Green, the university began a plan to create a comprehensive visual arts center at Ohio State, drawing international attention with the architectural competition that yielded Peter Eisenman’s winning design for the Wex.

During Green’s tenure, the gallery also took an openly activist stance, generating several nationally significant, community-led exhibitions including All’s Fair: Love and War in New Feminist Art, curated by Lucy Lippard; RAPE, the first national touring show to address the politics of sexual violence; and AIDS: The Artists’ Response. This evolution in the gallery’s programming also led to acquisitions by socially engaged artists like Piper, Vito Acconci, Benny Andrews, and Nancy Spero; and dovetailed with the work of faculty in Ohio State’s Department of Photography and Cinema, including Allan Sekula, Thom Andersen, and Noël Burch, whose critical approach to visual culture and ideology set an important precedent for the future Wexner Center.

To Begin, Again charts this important shift in the direction of contemporary arts programming at the university and is organized around a selection of more than 80 works acquired by the former University Gallery, which the Wex has stewarded since its founding. Standouts include a 36-foot-long mural painting by legendary graffiti artist Futura2000 (his moniker at the time, since shortened to Futura), which has not been shown since it was first created on campus in 1984; Piper’s installation Four Intruders Plus Alarm Systems (1980); Hesse’s large-scale sculpture Area (1968); and Stella’s monumental metal-relief painting Puerto Rican Blue Pigeon (1976). Selected loaned artworks, including the “relic” from Chris Burden’s performance Shadow (1976) and a multimedia installation from artist Ann Fessler, Rape: A Crime Report (1984), bring the cultural life of the university and the wider region during the era into sharp focus.

To Begin, Again: A Prehistory of the Wex, 1968-89 is organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and curated by Associate Curator of Exhibitions Daniel Marcus with Curatorial Associate Kristin Helmick-Brunet and Curatorial Intern Arielle Irizarry.

Artists represented
Vito Acconci* • Mary Albrecht* • Jerri Allyn* • Benny Andrews* • Artists’ Poster Committee of Art Workers Coalition* • Rudolf Baranik* • Lynda Benglis* • Billy Al Bengston* • Mel Bochner* • Gary Bower* • Matt Bower* • Joan Brown • Chris Burden • Peter Campus* • Josely Carvalho • Colleen Casey* • Michael Cianchetti* • Reverend St. Patrick Clay* • Betty Collings • Columbus AIDS Task Force • Charles Csuri* • Peter d’Agostino • John DeFazio* • Agnes Denes* • Frank Detillo* • Ann Fessler • Futura2000* • James George • Sam Gilliam* • Heidi Gluck* • Ilona Granet • John Greyson • Hans Haacke* • Donald E. Harvey* • Eva Hesse* • Barbara Hammer • Michael Horvath* • Isaac Julien • Tom Kalin* • Bertram Katz* • Michael Keyes • Shigeko Kubota* • Victor Landweber* • Barry Le Va* • James Lenavitt* • Sol LeWitt* • Craig Lucas* • Vicki Mansoor* • Duane Michals* • Lynette Molnar • Elizabeth Murray* • Dennis Oppenheim* • Nam June Paik* • Adrian Piper* • William Price* • William Ramage* • Harold Reddicliffe* • Dan Reeves* • Dorothea Rockburne* • Joel Shapiro* • Robert Smithson* • Allan Sekula • John M. Sokol* • Nancy Spero* • Frank Stella* • May Stevens* • Robert J. Stull • Testing the Limits Collective • Norman Toynton* • Richard Tuttle* • Woody and Steina Vasulka* • Ruth Vollmer* • Jacqueline Winsor* • Joseph E. Yoakum • Scott Zaher*

*From the collection of The Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts

Related events
A winter exhibition preview will take place Friday, February 4, during which Marcus will moderate a public conversation with former University Gallery staffers Stephanie K. Blackwood and Mark Svede, art historian and writer Julian Myers-Szupinska, and artist and educator Jerri Allyn on how the history of experimental arts programming at Ohio State might help us to navigate the crises and challenges of the present moment.

On Wednesday, March 2, Futura will join fellow artist Zephyr at the Wex for a public conversation moderated by art critic and author Carlo McCormick.

More details will be announced closer to the exhibition’s opening.

The Wex extends its sincere thanks to funders for supporting To Begin, Again.