Art meets books: Very cool and far away
Print/Out will exhibit more than 200 works of printed materials such as artists' books from MOMA's collection, including pieces by Martin Kippenberger, Ai Weiwei, and SUPERFLEX. It's the first such exhibit since 1996.
The museum writes:
Over the last two decades, the art world has broadened its geographic reach and opened itself to new continents, allowing for a significant cross-pollination of post-conceptual strategies and vernacular modes. Printed materials, in both innovative and traditional forms, have played a key role in this exchange of ideas and sources. This exhibition examines the evolution of artistic practices related to the print medium, from the resurgence of ancient printmaking techniques—often used alongside digital technologies—to the worldwide proliferation of self-published artists’ books and ephemera.
The exhibit will be on the museum's sixth floor. Another, Printin', will be on the second, in the Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries. It takes as its start "DeLuxe," a portfolio of 60 works by Ellen Gallagher, and then "brings work by more than 50 artists from multiple disciplines in a sweeping chronology that extends from the 17th century to the present day, to propose a free-flowing yet incisive web of associations that are reflected in DeLuxe." Both exhibits will be up from mid-February to mid-May.
An associated exhibit opened this week: Print Studio in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building. The independent Brooklyn-based Reanimation Library is among the projects that can be found in the Print Studio through March 9, where interactivity is encouraged. The Reanimation Library is a showcase of books that have fallen out of circulation that have strong visual components. Its "outdated and discarded" books, it writes, "have been culled from thrift stores, stoop sales, and throw-away piles, and given new life as a resource for artists, writers, cultural archeologists, and other interested parties."
Opening in Februrary in the Cullman building is another related exhibit, Millennium Magazines, a survey of art and design magazines. Will it include shelter porn like "Dwell"? Maybe. The exhibit "explores the various ways in which contemporary artists and designers utilize the magazine format as an experimental space for the presentation of artworks and text." Or maybe not. The exhibit closes in mid-May.
A number of gallery talks and other conversations are scheduled for the duration. They include a conversation with Ellen Gallagher, a panel discussion with K8 Hardy of "LTTR," Flint Jamison of "Veneer Magazine," Kristina Lee Podesva and Jeff Khonsary of "Fillip," Anthony Smyrski of "Megawords," and Marina Abramović in conversation with art publisher Jacob Samuel.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: The Museum of Modern Art. Credit: Andy Miah via Flickr