historical takes · 2013-11-06 · HISTORICAL TAKES ELEANOR ANTIN Curated by Betti-Sue Hertz...

historical takes

01.b_Antin_FM_rl.indd 1 14.05.2008 10:49:36 Uhr

Constructing Helen (from Helen’s Odyssey), 2007

Chromogenic print, 68 x 119 in.

(172.7 x 302.3 cm)


HISTORICAL TAKES

ELEANOR ANTIN

Curated by

Betti-Sue Hertz

Contributions by

Eleanor Antin, Betti-Sue Hertz, Amelia Jones,

and Max Kozloff

San Diego Museum of Art

Prestelmunich · berlin · london · new york


This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes

held at the San Diego Museum of Art, July 19–November 2, 2008.

Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes is organized by the San Diego Museum of Art and made possible by the generosity of

Pam and Jerry Cesak, Sharon and Joel Labovitz, Gordon Brodfuehrer, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, the Artists Guild and an anonymous donor.

Additional support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture,

the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.

© 2008 by San Diego Museum of Art

© 2008 by Prestel Verlag,

Munich · Berlin · London · New York

All works by Eleanor Antin © Eleanor Antin, courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Additional Photograph and Reproduction Credits: Adoc-photos/Art Resource, New York: p. 82 (left)

Bibliothèque Nationale de France: p. 84 (left) | © Christie’s Images Ltd. [2008]: p. 86

Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York: p. 96 | © The National Gallery, London: p. 87

National Media Museum, Bradford, England; Photo: Science & Society Picture Library: p. 98

Private collection: p. 84 (right) | Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris/Art Resource, New York: p. 88

Timken Museum of Art, San Diego: p. 83 | www.sonofthesouth.net: p. 82 (right)

ISBN: 978-3-7913-4055-5 (trade edition) | 978-3-7913-6182-6 (museum edition)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008925113

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library;

Deutsche Nationalbibliothek holds a record of this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografi e;

detailed bibliographical data can be found under: http://dnb.ddb.de

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

san diego museum of art

1450 El Prado, San Diego, California 92101

www.sdmart.org

Prestel books are available worldwide.

Front cover: Plaisir d’Amour (after Couture) (from Helen’s Odyssey), 2007

Editorial coordination: Chris Lyon · Edited by Michelle Piranio · Project coordination in Munich: Anja Besserer

Copyedited by Jane Michael, Munich · Design and typesetting: Mark Melnick, New York · Production: Florian Tutte

Origination: Reproline Mediateam, Munich · Printing and binding: TBB, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

prestel publishing ltd.

4 Bloomsbury Place · London WC1A 2QA

Tel. +44 (0) 20 7323-5004 · Fax +44 (0) 20 7636-8004

prestel verlag

Königinstrasse 9 · 80539 Munich, Germany

Tel. (89) 24 29 08-300 · Fax (89) 24 29 08-335

www.prestel.de

prestel publishing

900 Broadway, Suite 603 · New York, NY 10003

Tel. +1 (212) 995-2720 · Fax +1 (212) 995-2733

www.prestel.com


foreword

Derrick R. Cartwright . . . 7

plates

The Last Days of Pompeii . . . 9

Roman Allegories . . . 35 Helen’s Odyssey . . . 61

Impossible Facts: Max Kozloff Interviews Eleanor Antin . . . 76

Eleanor Antin’s Transpositions: A Feminist View of Academic Painting in the

Age of Digital Photography, by Betti-Sue Hertz . . . 81

Time Traveler: Eleanor Antin as Mythographer of the Self,

by Amelia Jones . . . 93

plates

The King of Solana Beach . . . 101 Angel of Mercy . . . 109

Recollections of My Life with Diaghilev . . . 116

Exhibition Checklist . . . 123

Selected Bibliography . . . 126 Notes on the Contributors . . . 127

Acknowledgments . . . 128

contents


7

ince moving to Southern California in 1969, Eleanor

Antin has played a role in the still-evolving sense of

San Diego’s own art history. Indisputably part of the place,

but with a message extending beyond, Antin has produced

shrewd narratives that are delivered with all the cool de-

tachment expected of conceptual artists. Many of her early

acclaimed projects utilized the photographic medium and

were set in the local landscape, as in The King of Solana Beach

(1974). However, the reverberations of these projects were

seldom localized here. 100 Boots (1971–73), for example,

consists of fi fty-one postcards showing legions of foot-

wear trudging through a variety of regionally identifi able

settings, but the ultimate destination, both fi guratively

and literally, of these wandering shoes was the Museum

of Modern Art in New York: the eponymous boots visited

the midtown Manhattan museum as part of their cross-

country march, and MoMA showed the series virtually

upon its completion. So it has been, to a large degree, with

Antin herself. While she has kept a home in this county for

four decades, her impact as an exhibiting artist has been

most passionately tracked outside of San Diego. Until now.

Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes provides both a survey and a

contextualization of her very best recent work, celebrat-

ing this world- renowned artist in her hometown.

' San Diego Museum of Art is proud of its role as the

region’s oldest, largest, and most visited art museum. Re-

cently, this identifi cation has led the institution to think

about its encyclopedic pretensions. Universal art muse-

ums must engage with a variety of cultures, media, and

programs, and it makes sense for contemporary art to have

a place among the many other projects we undertake. In

Antin’s case, her recent work engages with the history of

art in a profound manner. Whether it is through the clas-

sicizing work of Nicolas Poussin or the salon painting of

Thomas Couture, Antin’s reinterpretation of canonical

works from earlier art history benefi ts from being thought

about in the very spaces in which those works now reside.

This is just to say that her references to the past, both ex-

plicit and implicit, resound within the walls of the perma-

nent collection galleries, in San Diego and elsewhere.

' Photography has long been a key component of Antin’s

practice and it is an emergent focus of this museum. Using

photography fi rst as a means of documentation and now

as her favored medium, the artist treats her camera as a

device for the humorous exposure of a wide array of cul-

tural contradictions. The timing of Historical Takes has

been fortuitous, coinciding with SDMA’s eff orts to rees-

tablish its claims as a center for photographic study. To

that end, in late summer 2007, when Antin was looking for

a place to stage the large photographic tableaux that form

the basis for this exhibition, SDMA was able to off er her a

space to do so. She spent the better part of a week shoot-

ing in our auditorium, and the works she produced for

the series Helen’s Odyssey (2007) are now returning to San

Diego to receive their museum debut as part of this ex-

hibition. This catalogue similarly represents those same

works’ fi rst scholarly assessment. The opportunity to sup-

port Antin in her creative eff orts and to collaborate with

her in generating new knowledge for the fi eld is a source

of pride for this museum. I seize this opportunity, there-

fore, to express my appreciation, and my admiration, for

the artist. Her friendship has been one great reward of my

role at SDMA.

' This presentation of Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes

would not have been possible without the contributions

of a number of close friends of SDMA. I acknowledge my

personal gratitude to Gordon Brodfuehrer, Pam and Jerry

Cesak, Cam and Wanda Garner, Sharon and Joel Labovitz,

and Carlos Malamud for their generous support of this

exhibition and its accompanying publication. Addition-

ally, the support of SDMA’s Artists’ Guild has played a key

role, fi rst by enabling the acquisition of Antin’s work, and

then by their sponsorship of this publication. The entire

Board of Trustees at SDMA has my thanks for backing my

belief that an encyclopedic museum should also always

attend to the circumstances of local art history. This is the

third publication to be produced in less than a year that

considers San Diego’s unique place in a global art practice.

The San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, led by

Victoria Hamilton, has been another steadfast partner of

this institution and has supported our most recent eff orts

to meet the challenges of serving a diverse and worthy

public, for which we are grateful.

' Finally, I wish to record my respect for and apprecia-

tion of Betti-Sue Hertz, curator of contemporary art at

SDMA. Her deep commitment to challenging art and the

productivity that is joined to that impulse has resulted in

a vibrant series of exhibitions over the past seven years.

Historical Takes is but one of many demonstrations of

Betti-Sue’s curatorial skills and her diverse appetites as a

museum professional. I hope that, through both the last-

ing impact of this catalogue and the more ephemeral suc-

cess of the large exhibition that it accompanies, a broad

public will benefi t from her interest in and engagement

with Antin’s new work. Betti-Sue and the other contribu-

tors to this book have given us much to think about when

it comes to complex contemporary practices and their

eventual homes in museums. Certainly, the goal of this

eff ort has been to record and illuminate the concerns of

an artist who asks probing questions about art history and

to locate more precisely her enduring place in our com-

mon culture.

foreword

[ derrick r. cartwright · the maruja baldwin director ]

S


the last days of pompeii

9

Whether posterity will give us a thought, I don’t know—but surely we deserve one.

—Pliny the Younger

02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 9 14.05.2008 11:19:51 Uhr

11

The Artist’s Studio, 2001

Chromogenic print, 46 5⁄6 x 58 ⅝ in.

(118.9 x 148.9 cm)


13

The Slave Sale, 2001

Chromogenic print, 46 ⅝ x 94 ⅝ in.

(118.4 x 240.3 cm)


15

The Banquet, 2001

Chromogenic print, 35 ⅛ x 58 ⅝ in.

(89.2 x 148.9 cm)


A Hot Afternoon, 2001

Chromogenic print, 60 x 48 in.

(152.4 x 121.9 cm)

17


The Death of Petronius, 2001

Chromogenic print, 46 ⅝ x 94 ⅝ in.

(118.4 x 240.3 cm)

18


The Sacrifi ce, 2001

Chromogenic print, 46 ¾ x 94 9⁄16 in.

(118.7 x 240.2 cm)

21


UNVERKÄUFLICHE LESEPROBE

San Diego Museum of Art

Eleanor AntinHistorical Takes

Gebundenes Buch, Pappband, 128 Seiten, 30,0x24,060 farbige AbbildungenISBN: 978-3-7913-4055-5

Prestel

Erscheinungstermin: Juni 2008

http://www.randomhouse.de/book/edition.jsp?edi=316409

historical takes · 2013-11-06 · HISTORICAL TAKES ELEANOR ANTIN Curated by Betti-Sue Hertz...

Documents

Transcript of historical takes · 2013-11-06 · HISTORICAL TAKES ELEANOR ANTIN Curated by Betti-Sue Hertz...