The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Features Collages by John Stezaker

Written by Edward Chilvers Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:21

St. Louis, Missouri.- The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is pleased to present "John Stezaker" on view at the museum from January 27th through April 23rd. Breaking through the onslaught of images in contemporary culture, British artist John Stezaker (b. 1949) subverts the familiar through collage in a way that is at once captivating and unsettling. "John Stezaker" - the first US museum exhibition of this influential artist’s work - reveals his lifelong fascination with the potent force of images, showcasing his investigations into the ways visual language can create meanings that vary dramatically according to context. Stezaker transforms classic movie stills and vintage postcards, magazines, and book illustrations by inverting, slicing, and combining them to challenge and complicate the original connotations. With over ninety works on paper from the 1970s to today, John Stezaker offers an in-depth survey of the artist’s ability to produce compelling new images by juxtaposing disparate images from found photographs.

John Stezaker is organized by the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Mudam, Luxembourg. The St. Louis exhibition is coordinated by Karen K. Butler, assistant curator. The exhibition will open on January 27, 2012 and remain on view through April 23, 2012. John Stezaker was born in England in 1949, and currently lives and works in London. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in the 1960s, and has since taught at Central Saint Martins School of Art, Goldsmiths College, and the Royal College of Art. Stezaker has exhibited widely across the UK and Europe from the early 1970s to today; recent solo exhibitions include Freiburg Kunstverein (2010); Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst Bremen (GAK) (2008); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2007); Stills Gallery, Edinburgh (2007); and White Columns, New York (2006). Major group shows include Collage: The Unmonumental Picture, New Museum, New York (2008); Tate Triennial 2006—New British Art, Tate Britain, London (2006); The British Art Show 5 (2000); and the 40th Venice Biennale (1982). With over 120 illustrations, the exhibition catalague presents the first overview of John Stezaker's work on paper from the 1970s onwards, featuring his found images, collages, image fragments, and a selection from The 3rd Person Archive. Essays by Dawn Ades and Michael Bracewell, as well as a conversation between the artist and curators Daniel F. Herrmann and Christophe Gallois, place Stezaker's work in a historical context and analyze his methodology and practice.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, sometimes referred to simply as "The Milly", is an art museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. It was founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, and initially located in a building in downtown St. Louis. It is the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi river. Its collection was formed in large part by acquiring significant works by artists of the time, a legacy that continues today. Now one of the finest university collections in the United States, the Museum contains strong holdings of 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century European and American paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and photographs. The collection also includes some Egyptian and Greek antiquities, Old Master prints, and the Wulfing Collection of approximately 14,000 ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine coins. The museum moved to its current home, designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Fumihiko Maki, in 2006. During its early years, the collection focused on contemporary American artists, notably William Merritt Chase. In 1905, Charles Parsons donated his private collection to the museum; this donation included pieces by Frederic Edwin Church, and established the museum as a major holder of contemporary American art.In 1906, the museum was relocated to the Palace of Fine Arts in Forest Park, where it was housed until 1909. In that year, the City Museum of Art was formed, and began to acquire works separately from the private university collection. The university collection would remain "on loan" to the public museum until 1960. In 1941, H.W. Janson joined the museum and began to focus on collecting contemporary European artwork, particularly examples of Cubism, Expressionism and Surrealism. In order to finance this project, he organized the sale of over 600 objects. Notable acquisitions during this period include works by Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and Juan Gris. Janson also arranged for a permanent home for the museum's collection, and in 1960, the museum moved to Steinberg Hall, located on the main university campus. At this time, the museum was also renamed as the Washington University Gallery of Art.Recently, the museum has continued to focus on the acquisition of contemporary works, including pieces by Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Jenny Holzer. In 2004, the museum was again renamed, this time as the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, as a division of the new Sam Fox School of Visual Art and Design. Two years later, in 2006, the museum moved to a new building adjacent to the old Steinberg Hall. The 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m2) expansion was designed by Fumihiko Maki, and is also home to the Washington University Art and Architecture library and the department of Art History and Archaeology. Visit the museum's website at ... www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~