Positive Fragmentation: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Positive Fragmentation includes more than 150 works by 21 contemporary artists who use fragmentation both stylistically and conceptually. Through their prints, they question the status quo and suggest new perspectives. For some, the result is enough: pulling apart images and ideas exposes what lies beneath or heralds the value of each part. Other artists assemble fragments to create a new whole defined by its components. This exhibition explores these creative approaches in the work of some of the most important contemporary artists.
Artists in this exhibition fragment, and often reassemble, elements including shape, color, perspective, text, idea, or stereotype. Betye Saar and Wendy Red Star construct new meanings and iconographies through assemblage of repurposed imagery, while Lorna Simpson, Ellen Gallagher, and Jenny Holzer use fragmented text to reveal the limitations and power of language. Other artists, such as Louise Bourgeois and Wangechi Mutu, focus on the body, with works that respectively isolate body parts and combine them from disparate sources to probe assumptions about gender and race. Nicola L贸pez and Sarah Morris both use architecture, whose elements鈥攂eams, girders, sheathing, wiring鈥攖hey distill and rearrange to emphasize the unseen social forces that support or destabilize our environments.
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Drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Positive Fragmentation includes more than 150 works by 21 contemporary artists who use fragmentation both stylistically and conceptually. Through their prints, they question the status quo and suggest new perspectives. For some, the result is enough: pulling apart images and ideas exposes what lies beneath or heralds the value of each part. Other artists assemble fragments to create a new whole defined by its components. This exhibition explores these creative approaches in the work of some of the most important contemporary artists.
Artists in this exhibition fragment, and often reassemble, elements including shape, color, perspective, text, idea, or stereotype. Betye Saar and Wendy Red Star construct new meanings and iconographies through assemblage of repurposed imagery, while Lorna Simpson, Ellen Gallagher, and Jenny Holzer use fragmented text to reveal the limitations and power of language. Other artists, such as Louise Bourgeois and Wangechi Mutu, focus on the body, with works that respectively isolate body parts and combine them from disparate sources to probe assumptions about gender and race. Nicola L贸pez and Sarah Morris both use architecture, whose elements鈥攂eams, girders, sheathing, wiring鈥攖hey distill and rearrange to emphasize the unseen social forces that support or destabilize our environments.
Artists on show
- Barbara Takenaga
- Betye Saar
- Cecily Brown
- Christiane Baumgartner
- Ellen Gallagher
- Jennifer Bartlett
- Jenny Holzer
- Judy Chicago
- Judy Pfaff
- Julie Mehretu
- Kara Walker
- Lorna Simpson
- Louise Bourgeois
- Mickalene Thomas
- Nicola López
- Nicole Eisenman
- Polly Apfelbaum
- Ridykeulous
- Sarah Morris
- Swoon
- Wangechi Mutu
- Wendy Red Star
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The National Museum of Women in the Arts announces its first off-site exhibition to take place while its historic building is temporarily closed to the public for a major renovation.
Big names: Betye Saar, Lorna Simpson, Julie Mehretu, Kara Walker, Wendy Red Star, Judy Chicago.