Charline von Heyl & Wade Guyton, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California
Oranges and Sardines
November 9, 2008 – February 8, 2009November 9, 2008 - February 8, 2009
Oranges and Sardines: Conversations on Abstract Painting with Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilmann, Amy Sillman, Charline von Heyl, and Christopher Wool
Oranges and Sardines examines how art can illuminate art, exploring the impact of approaching art through the eyes and minds of artists. Six contemporary abstract painters—Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilmann, Amy Sillman, Charline von Heyl, and Christopher Wool—select one of their own recent paintings as well as works by other artists who have been significant in their thinking about their work. Six separate and generous galleries will present their choices in a constellation of diverse works to include Paul Klee, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Eva Hesse, Pablo Picasso, and Dieter Roth, and artists less well known to the public. The artists' choices have developed through many conversations with curator Gary Garrels about the issues of their work, their studio processes, their appraisals of art history, and the status of contemporary art. Throughout this process, a distinct distillation of choices has developed for each artist that is wide ranging but very specific—works that are figurative as well as abstract have been chosen, sculptures and some works on paper have been selected in addition to painting; and historical as well as more contemporary works will be juxtaposed. Shown together, these works will engage in a "conversation" with each other, provoking fresh insights into artists who are well known and opening consideration of artists that may be more obscure.
About the Exhibition
The title for the exhibition is borrowed from American poet Frank O'Hara's poem Why I Am Not a Painter, which reflects on the elusiveness of the creative process, often resulting in a finished work that bears no resemblance to its initial inspiration. Oranges and Sardines hopes to offer manifold examples of abstraction's inventive potential and will suggest varied reasons why it remains vital and essential to contemporary art. Similarly, the works of the six artists who have developed the exhibition may be viewed with more complex appreciation and more insightful understanding.
Oranges and Sardines will be accompanied by a catalogue that will include an introductory essay by the curator and extended interviews with each of the artists. All the works in the exhibition will be reproduced in full-page color, and additional works will be reproduced in tandem with artists' interviews.
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