The Montclair Art Museum Exhibits "The Spectacular of Vernacular"

Written by Tricia Ecclestone Thursday, 13 October 2011 01:29

Montclair, New Jersey.- The Montclair Art Museum is proud to present "The Spectacular of Vernacular", on view from October 7th through January 1st 2012. The exhibition focuses on the role of vernacular forms in the work of 25 contemporary artists who utilize craft, folklore, and roadside kitsch to explore culturally specific iconography in the context of an increasingly global world of art. The exhibition will look closely at this particular brand of culture known as the vernacular, a term used to describe amateur or regional forms of expression that tend to be more homegrown than high-end. From dime-store plaques and snapshot photography to the objects attending folk rituals, these items often possess a warm familiarity. Yet for the artists who take them on as subjects, these humble forms can become nuanced and loaded symbols, offering clues about who we are and where we live.

Inspired by artist Mike Kelley’s observation that “the mass art of today is the folk art of tomorrow,” the exhibition examines the role of vernacular forms in more than two dozen works that run the aesthetic gamut: the hand-crafted work of Aaron Spangler juxtaposes with Lari Pittman’s carnivalesque day-glo paintings; Marc Swanson’s glittering trophy heads with Rachel Harrison’s urban relics. Also on view are photographs from Walker Evans, William Eggleston, and Shannon Ebner, who revel in the signage and other elements of roadside culture. Focusing on pieces made since the 1970s, the exhibition shows how the vernacular, in its very ubiquity—its integration into home life, social rituals, and sense of place—is an ongoing fascination for artists. With artworks that draw from such diverse sources as billboards and handmade domestic items, it’s suggestive of a long, meandering road trip through the emblems and eyesores of everyday culture, replete with tourist destinations and outmoded hotels. Every locale has its own singular brand of vernacular—discernible in the ways people dress, decorate their homes (especially around the holidays), and self-identify with behaviors seen as typical of the area.


A number of artists here consider those aspects of local culture, probing the markers of place and region. Some hint at the sprawl of the Western strip, filled with commercial billboards, signs, and shopping malls. Several come from the Midwest and respond to its conditions in their work—its landscape, structures, and weather; others look to the South for inspiration, while still others examine the Northeast’s industrial landscape. The culture of today provides a vast source material of readily accessible and massproduced goods, which is in direct contrast with the tangible, locatable reality addressed by the artists in The Spectacular of Vernacular. In a world that is increasingly networked, with influences flowing in from an endless stream of sites and sources, the issue of what remains particularized, even regionalized, is an open question—and one among many that artists engaging the vernacular seek to address.


The Montclair Art Museum was one of the country’s first museums primarily engaged in collecting American art (including the work of contemporary, nonacademic artists) and among the first dedicated to the study and creation of a significant ethnographic art collection. This pioneering spirit still reverberates in the Museum’s pursuit and presentation of high-quality art that characterizes and celebrates America’s diversity. The collection has grown to over 12,000 works. The American collection, which began with a gift of 30 paintings from William T. Evans, a Montclair civic leader, comprises paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculpture dating from the 18th century to the present, and features excellent works by Benjamin West, Asher B. Durand, George Inness, John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as younger and emerging artists such as Louise Lawler, Chakaia Booker, Whitfield Lovell, and Willie Cole. The Museum’s superb holdings of traditional and contemporary American Indian art and artifacts represent the cultural achievements in weaving, pottery, wood carving, jewelry, and textiles of indigenous Americans from seven major regions—Northwest Coast, California, Southwest, Plains, Woodlands, Southeast, and the Arctic. The collection was begun by Annie Valentine Rand and carried on by her philanthropic daughter Florence Rand Lang, one of the Museum’s founders, and continues to grow with commissioned works, gifts, and purchases that celebrate the vitality and modernity of traditional forms and beliefs. Among the contemporary American Indian artists represented are Tony Abeyta, Dan Namingha, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Allan Houser, Bentley Spang, and Marie Watt. The Museum’s extensive education programs serve a wide public and, often in collaboration with cultural and community partners, bring artists, performers, and scholars to the Museum on a regular basis. MAM’s Yard School of Art is the leading regional art school, offering a multitude of comprehensive classes for kids, teens, adults, seniors, and professional artists. One of the first museums to be accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Montclair Art Museum welcomes more than 65,000 visitors annually to its acclaimed exhibitions and programs. The expansion and progress of the Museum has been made possible by the participation, generosity, and farsightedness of its founders, trustees, members, and friends. Their support has helped to make the Montclair Art Museum the vital institution it is today. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.montclairartmuseum.org

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