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Painting the Glass House:
Artists Revisit Modern Architecture
Curated by Jessica Hough
and Monica Ramirez Montagut
Alexander
Apostol / Daniel Arsham
/ Gordon Cheung / David
Claerbout / Angela
Dufresne / Mark Dziewulski
/ Christine
Erhard / Cyprien
Gaillard / Terence Gower
/ Angelina
Gualdoni / Natasha
Kissell / Luisa
Lambri / Dorit Margreiter
/
Russell Nachman / Enoc
Perez / Lucy
Williams
The Yale:
Private view 11 Feb 2008
6:30 pm Panel discussion featuring moderator Joan Ockman
along with Peter Halley, Robert Storr, and Anthony Vidler.
The Aldrich:
Private view 9 March 2008 3-5pm
Panel discussion 2 pm Panel discussion with curators Jessica Hough
and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, along with artists Daniel
Arsham, Angela Dufresne, and Terence Gower
Sleek modern houses that float on icebergs, nestle into idealized
painted landscapes, or become the backdrop for surreal emotional
dramas are some of the images to be seen in a sixteen-artist group
exhibition that invites viewers to reconsider modern architecture
and what it has come to represent for a new generation.
Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture—curated
by Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut—will
be presented by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum with the Yale
School of Architecture Gallery. It will open at Yale on February
11, 2008, and at The Aldrich on March 9, 2008.|
Modern architecture is generally identified with buildings by Le
Corbusier, Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright,
which represent a period driven by developments in technology, engineering,
and the introduction of industrial materials such as iron, steel,
concrete, and glass. Architects at this time engaged in a practice
that not only incorporated structural innovations, but also encouraged
social change.
The artists featured in the exhibition are interested not only in
the potential of utopian ideas, but also the sense of a passing
idealism that modern architecture now embodies. Hough comments,
“The artists are less interested in the built structures themselves
and what it might feel like to be inside one, and more interested
in the philosophy and idealism they represent. The way in which
the buildings signal a possibility of utopia is essential—a
future that could have been. Sentimentality runs through much of
the work.”
Ramírez-Montagut adds, “This melancholic remembrance
comes at a time when great works of modern architecture are at risk
due to neglect, deterioration, and demolition. Underlying all the
artworks is a feeling of deep admiration for the architects who
sought to elevate culture and bring it to the broad masses, yet
their sense of failure is also prevalent; the artists’ knowledge
of modern architecture’s crisis and demise tints their works
with some kind of nostalgia.”
Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture
brings together two-dimensional works of
various media (including video) that explore an interest among emerging
artists in architecture of the modern period. The exhibition includes
work by Alexander Apostol, Daniel Arsham, Gordon Cheung, David Claerbout,
Angela Dufresne, Mark Dziewulski, Christine Erhard, Cyprien Gaillard,
Terence Gower, Angelina Gualdoni, Natasha Kissell, Luisa Lambri,
Dorit Margreiter, Russell Nachman, Enoc Perez, and Lucy Williams.
Both The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Yale School of
Architecture Gallery will present a portion of the exhibition in
their galleries. In order to fully appreciate the project, viewers
will be encouraged to visit both venues.
The Aldrich will host an Exhibition Reception on Sunday, March 9,
2008, from 3 to 5 pm. Prior to the
opening there will be a 2 pm Panel Discussion: Painting the
Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture, with curators
Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, along with
artists Daniel Arsham, Angela Dufresne, and Terence Gower. The reception
is FREE for members. Refreshments will be served. Round-trip transportation
from New York City is available; please call the Museum at 203.438.4519
for reservations. Please note that the bus will not arrive in time
for the panel discussion. The reception and panel will take place
at the Museum located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield.
Yale will debut their component of the exhibition on Monday, February
11, 2008, with a 6:30 pm Panel
Discussion: Painting toward Architecture, Architecture toward
Painting. This will feature moderator Joan
Ockman along with Peter Halley, Robert Storr, and Anthony Vidler.
The discussion will be held at McNeil
Lecture Hall at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street,
New Haven (entrance on High Street). This will be followed by the
opening reception, at the Architecture Gallery, 32 Edgewood Avenue,
New Haven. Both the panel and reception are FREE. The installation
at Yale is designed by Dean Sakamoto, director of
exhibitions.
Additionally, a book related to the exhibition is being co-published
by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Mills College Art Museum,
and Yale University Press, and is scheduled for a fall 2008 release.
Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture
is curated by Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut.
The exhibition has been organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art
Museum with the Yale School of Architecture Gallery. Both The Aldrich
and Yale will present a portion of the exhibition in their galleries.
The exhibition will travel to Mills College Art Museum in California
following its Connecticut debut.
EXHIBITION DATES:
Yale School of Architecture Gallery (New Haven,
CT): February 11 to May 9, 2008
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield,
CT): March 9 to July 27, 2008
Mills College Art Museum (Oakland, CA): January
14 to March 22, 2009
ABOUT THE CURATORS:
Jessica Hough is director
of the Mills College Art Museum where she recently curated Don’t
Let the Boys Win: Kinke Kooi, Carrie Moyer, and Lara Schnitger.
Hough was previously curatorial director at The Aldrich Contemporary
Art Museum, where she organized exhibitions including Glee:
Painting Now; Into My World: Recent British Sculpture; Karkhana:
A Contemporary Collaboration; and Alyson Shotz: Light, Sound, Space.
She earned her Master’s from the Center for Curatorial Studies
at Bard College.
Mónica Ramírez-Montagut is assistant
curator of Architecture and Design at the Guggenheim. She most recently
co-curated Zaha Hadid (2006), which received the second place award
for Best Architecture or Design Show from the AICA; curated Restoring
a Masterpiece: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum
(2007); and is currently part of the curatorial team working on
the retrospective of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang slated to open
in February 2008. Her curatorial interests focus on the blurring
of boundaries between art, architecture, and design; young emerging
Latino artists; and installations. She is an architect, with a Master’s
degree in Art and Architecture and Ph.D. in Theory and History of
Architecture.
ABOUT THE INSTITUTIONS:
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is one
of the few non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United
States. Founded on Ridgefield’s historic Main Street in 1964,
the Museum enjoys the curatorial independence of an alternative
space while maintaining the registrarial and art-handling standards
of a national institution. Exhibitions feature work by emerging
and mid-career artists, and education programs help adults and children
to connect to today’s world through contemporary art. The
Museum is located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877. For
more information visit www.aldrichart.org or call 203.438.4519.
Yale School of Architecture Gallery is a significant component of
the School’s active public programs and the Yale Arts Area,
which includes the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale Center for
British Art, and Yale Repertory Theater. This year, due to the renovation
of the Art & Architecture Building, the School of Architecture
Gallery is temporarily housed in the future Yale School of Art Sculpture
Gallery, 32 Edgewood Avenue, New Haven, CT. The Architecture Gallery
is renowned for its display of important exhibitions on contemporary
and historical architectural topics of international scope.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877
Tel 203.438.4519, Fax 203.438.0198, www.aldrichart.org
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