Joan Didion: What She Means

The Hammer Museum at UCLA presents Joan Didion: What She Means, an exhibition as portrait of the author Joan Didion organized by Hilton Als—writer, curator, and critically acclaimed New Yorker contributor. Joan Didion: What She Means features roughly 60 artists including Vija Celmins, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Maren Hassinger, Silke Otto-Knapp, John Koch, Jorge Pardo, Noah Purifoy, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Pat Steir, and many others. Over 200 works will be presented, including paintings, photography, sculpture, video, film footage, manuscripts, and other ephemera. The exhibition will be on view from October 11, 2022 to January 22, 2023.

Opening less than a year after her death at age 87, Joan Didion: What She Means was first planned in 2019, with Didion’s blessing. The exhibition grapples with the evolution of Didion’s singular voice as a writer, observer of place and family, and chronicler of our times. Prior to Joan Didion: What She Means, Als had previously organized similar portrait exhibitions inspired by writers James Baldwin (2019) and Toni Morrison (2022), both at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. This will be his first such exhibition in Los Angeles.

The exhibition closely follows Didion’s life according to the places she called home and is laid out in chronological chapters—Holy Water: Sacramento, Berkeley (1934­­–1956); Goodbye to All That: New York (1956–1963); The White Album: California, Hawai‘i (1964–1988); Sentimental Journeys: New York, Miami, San Salvador (1988–2021).

Artists
Kenneth Anger, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Don Bachardy, Robert Bechtle, Barbara Bloom, Vija Celmins, Henry Clarke, Eleanor Colburn, Richard Diebenkorn, Griffin Dunne, William Eggleston, Kim Fisher, John Ford, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Maren Hassinger, Walterio Iraheta, Suzanne Jackson, Silke Otto-Knapp, John Koch, Brigitte Lacombe, Liz Larner, Alma Ruth Lavenson, Glenn Ligon, Helen Lundeberg, Susan Meiselas, Ana Mendieta, Ronald Morán, Dominique Nabokov, Chiura Obata, Bill Owens, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Jorge Pardo, Irving Penn, Frank Perry, Jack Pierson, Noah Purifoy, Martin Puryear, Umar Rashid, Elaine Reichek, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Alan Saret, Ben Sakoguchi, Jeffrey Henson Scales, Penny Slinger, Roger Steffens, Pat Steir, Jürgen Teller, Wayne Thiebaud, Anne Truitt, Elmer Wachtel, Andy Warhol, Todd Webb, Henry Wessel, Edward Henry Weston, Amanda Williams, Christopher Williams, Gary Winogrand, Michele Zalopany

Catalogue
Joan Didion: What She Means will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue published by the Hammer Museum and Prestel/DelMonico. The catalogue will follow the four chapters that frame the exhibition. These chapters are fleshed out in the publication with archival ephemera, three little-known essays by Joan Didion anthologized together for the first time, and images many of the exhibited artworks alongside a new essay by curator and writer Hilton Als.

Credits
Joan Didion: What She Means is organized by Hilton Als in collaboration with Connie Butler, chief curator, and Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, curatorial assistant.

Joan Didion: What She Means is made possible by lead funding from Cindy Miscikowski. Major support is provided by the Walske Charitable Foundation. Generous funding is also provided by Agnes Gund, Bill Hair, Amara and Alexander Hastings, Maurice Marciano Family Foundation, and Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, with additional support from Dana Delany, LLWW Foundation, Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, and Lee Ramer.

Media contact
Nancy Lee, nlee@hammer.ucla.edu