MAM Shows " Big Juicy Paintings ..and more "

Tuesday, 13 June 2006 11:21

Miami, FL - Rich with color, filled with ideas and flavored with the cultural mix that makes Miami unique, a new encounter with Miami Art Museum’s permanent collection entices the visual palette.  Big Juicy Paintings (and more): Selections from the Permanent Collection is on view at MAM from June 16 through September 17, 2006.  Curated by MAM Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator Peter Boswell, the exhibition is drawn largely from MAM’s permanent collection and supplemented with loans from area collectors.

Then there’s big.  At 40 feet long, there’s no doubt that Arturo Herrera’s When Alone Again III is a big painting.  So too is Enrique Martinez Celaya’s 14-foot-tall portrait of painter Leon Golub.  While these works are among the highlights of the exhibition, the 70-plus works on display provide plenty of visual proof that bigger may indeed be better.

“MAM’s collection is growing so rapidly that visitors to the exhibition will see a show that is bigger and juicier than we could have imagined even six months ago,” Boswell said.  “The exhibition includes a number of new acquisitions, including Fernando Botero’s Still Life, Fabian Marcaccio’s From Raging Aggression to Decoration, and groups of recently donated works by Joseph Cornell and Purvis Young.  It also includes paintings familiar to MAM visitors, such as Morris Louis’ Beth Shin, Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes bild, and Frank Stella’s Chodrow II.” 

Several of the recent additions featured in Big Juicy Paintings were acquired for MAM’s permanent collection through the generosity of MAM’s recently created Collectors Council.  In addition to Herrera’s When Alone Again III, which combines fragments of imagery derived from Disney cartoons with painted passages that recall the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, Sarah Morris’ vibrant geometric abstraction Cinerama [Los Angeles] also exemplifies the Collectors Council’s additions to MAM’s holdings.

Although most of the works in Big, Juicy Paintings are indeed big, Washington Color School painter Gene Davis will be represented by works on two vastly different scales, demonstrating his witty response to the massive canvases that prevailed in much mid-20th century artwork.  Joining the artist’s large Blue Freak-out will be one of MAM’s most recent acquisitions and by far the smallest work in its collection, Davis’ Micropainting – which is less than ½ inch square.

Big Juicy Paintings (and more) includes paintings by established masters such as Francesco Clemente, Adolph Gottlieb, Morris Louis, Gerhard Richter, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Susan Rothenberg, Sean Scully and Frank Stella.  A number of works by artists with strong South Florida ties, including Carlos Alfonzo, José Bedia, Tomás Esson, Teresita Fernández, Lynne Golub Gelfman, Enrique Martinez Celaya and Robert Thiele are on view as well.

Adding the (and more) to the exhibition, a sculptural component includes large-scale installations by Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Edouard Duval Carrié, Nancy Graves and Chris Macdonald.  On exhihibition until 17 September.

Big Juicy Paintings (and more): Selections from the Permanent Collection is organized by Miami Art Museum and curated by MAM Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator Peter Boswell.  The exhibition is supported by MAM’s Annual Exhibition Fund.