Highlight #26: Multicultural nourishment for the art lover
New perspectives in Norway, China and the U.S.
Norway, Oslo <IMPRESSIONS: FIVE CENTURIES OF WOODCUTS>
6 November 2015 ~ 24 January 2016_The National Gallery
The age-old art form of woodcuts has seen renewed interest in today’s digitalized society. This exhibition provides a possible reason for this reemergence: mass communication. Five hundred years ago, words and images were disseminated to the public through woodcuts—a concept of democratic distribution that remains at the core of printmaking.
Based on the museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition is divided into two themes: “Wood structure, lines, and color” and “Woodcut as a process.”
The first theme presents the functions and stylistic possibilities of woodcuts that have influenced artists from Albrecht Dürer to Emil Nolde. Sophisticated 19th-century Japanese woodcuts are displayed next to works by Nikolai Astrup and Hanne Borchgrevink.
The second theme showcases the large-scale work of German artist Thomas Kilpper, who takes a socially critical perspective. The exhibition dedicates an entire room to his work, where the prints have been transformed into three-dimensional installations. This show also features a group of students from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, who are working on a collaborative woodcut project.
-
Paul Gaugin <Love, and you will be happy>
1898/1899
-
Marianne Bratteli <Universe>
1993
-
Elin Rødseth <Passersby>
2014
China, Shanghai <IN MEMORY OF A LANDSCAPE II>
18 November 2015 ~ 3 January 2016_James Cohan Gallery Shanghai
The works of Lu Song, Wei Jia and Xie Fan are on view at James Cohan Gallery in Shanghai, in this second installment of the highly acclaimed and successful 2014 exhibition. The title of the show references American poet Frank O’Hara and plays with the idea that art should be deeply intimate and often autobiographical. The artists employ landscapes as a metaphor for the self: a place where their memories and most intimate feelings reside, not depicting the harsher realities, but reinventing the notion of a neo-utopia or Garden of Eden in their paintings. This escapism allows the artists to live within their memories of the past, where nature was the most inspiring and powerful force.
Wei Jia, born in 1975 in Sichuan Province, approaches painting in a precise and methodical manner, and accomplishes an ambivalence of expressiveness and meticulousness. Lu Song, born in 1982 in Beijing, spontaneously layers combinations of acrylic and oil paints while applying putty to the surface. Xie Fan, born in 1983, explores the medium of silk by creating dynamic visual—abstract from up close, but vibrant landscapes from a distance.
-
Lu Song <One day of being as Adam Pollo>
2015 oil on canvas 120×150cm
-
Xie Fan <Landscape>
2015 oil on canvas 200×50×6cm
U.S.A., New York <DONALD JUDD>
7 November 2015 ~ 19 December 2015_David Zwirner Gallery
The late works of Donald Judd(1928-1994), one of the pioneers of minimalism, are on view at David Zwirner in New York. The selected works for this exhibition features a wide range of forms in the distinctive material of Cor-ten steel, which the artist began to produce in 1989 and continued to elaborate on until his death in 1994. Made mostly in Marfa, Texas, where Judd had been living since 1973, these works represent the culmination of three decades of his aesthetic output and highlight the mastery and control over material and space that reflect Judd’s ideas and perceptions of art. As he wrote in 1968, “A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn’t be concealed as part of a fairly different whole.”
Some of the most significant works in this show are four floor works from 1989 that measure 1x2x2 meters. Each is open on the top and divided vertically in different spatial configurations, exploring serial repetition and difference. The exhibition includes a number of wall-mounted forms that present the varying iterations that comprised Judd’s work.
In addition to his investigation of form and spatial perception, his insightful understanding of color is highlighted. ■ with ARTINPOST
-
Installation view <Donald Judd> David Zwirner, New York, 2015.
Art ⓒ Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London
-
<Untitled>
1989 Cor-ten steel 39 3/8×39 3/8×19 11/16 inches (100×100×50 cm) Art ⓒ Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY; courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London
-
Installation view <Donald Judd> David Zwirner, New York, 2015.
Art ⓒ Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London
