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Show Utah Museum of Fine Arts Exhibitions Place, 1977 Alex Katz Oil on Canvas 108" high x 144" wide Gift of Sydney and Frances Lewis, Whitney Museum of American Art from the exhibition, Figure as Subject FIGURE AS SUBJECT: THE FIGURATIVE REVIVAL SINCE 1975 Selections from the Whitney Museum November 13, 1988 to January 8, 1989 Gallery One The paintings and sculpture in this exhibition reflect a new direction in American art since the mid1970's: after a decade of abstract conceptions, the human figure has returned to the mainstream. Renewed interest in figuration stems from a multitude of sources and is characterized by a diversity of styles and techniques. Many of the artists in this exhibition have embraced earlier aesthetic attitudes and seem Jess possessed than their predecessors by the need to create an entirely new idiom. Thus the paintings of Jedd Garet, Ed Paschke, and William T. Wiley seem to represent a revitalization of the Surrealist tradition while those of JeanMichel Basquiat, Philip Guston, Susan Rothenberg, and Julian Schnabel are marked by the painterly gestures of Abstract Expressionism. Patterson Sims, exhibit curator, says: All of these artists, having absorbed the eclectic possibilities of the past, are possessed neither by the need to create an entirery·new visual idiom, nor by an interest in novel materials. Their use of the figure responds to a fundamental desire to reestablish contact with themselves and, not incidentally, with their audience -- an audience which, from the 1960s through the 1970s, had become increasingly disengaged by the austerity of Minimalism. The 31 works of art in this exhibition are from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, and made possible by the National Committee of the Whitney Museum. Ashputtle, 1982 John Baldessari Eleven black-and-white photographs, one color photograph, and text panel 84" high x 72" wide Purchased with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee, Whitney Museum of American Art from the exhibit, Figure as Subject |
