Ernesto Neto, É ô Bicho! 2001, lycra tulle, polyamide tubes, hooks, turmeric, black pepper, and cloves; dimensions variable
THE MARGULIES COLLECTION AT THE WAREHOUSE
POP ART
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse is pleased to present an important Pop Art exhibition to the public from October 25th through December 10th, 2017. The exhibition includes early work from the 1960s by the artists at the very center of the Pop Art movement: Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann. All the works come from the private collection of Martin Z. Margulies.
Pop Art emerged from the heavy weight of the Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s and immediately became a famous, hot new movement. It was a new style that took into account the facts of common provincial America such as television, newspapers, magazines, billboards, commercial products, movies, and celebrities. Theirs was an art that was purely American which took its images from the commercial American icons of mass media. It required no translation, the public response was “now I understand” and the question became “what does it mean?”
“The Margulies Collection is very happy to bring these rarely seen historic works of Pop Art to our audience of students who will have the opportunity to study and enjoy one of the most influential art movements of the twentieth-century,” says curator, Katherine Hinds.
ERNESTO NETO, É Ô BICHO! 2001 AT THE WAREHOUSE THIS YEAR
“I first saw this work in Venice during the 2001 Biennale,” says collector Martin Margulies, “I remember walking deeper and deeper into the Arsenale and then seeing it. The impact was immediate. I stood there taking it all in. It was a moment of wonder. For me, the magic was in the way the organic sculptural forms hung from the ceiling and stretched downward, fostering an awareness of gravity. I later learned from the gallerist, Tanya Bonakdar, that the materials the artist used were Lycra fabric and various spices.”
This masterful work, É ô Bicho! by Ernesto Neto was first exhibited at the Warehouse in 2001, shortly after the artist represented Brazil in the 2001 Venice Biennale. It is made of fabric and spices. The spices fill the space with the aroma of turmeric, black pepper, and cloves.
NEW ANSELM KIEFER INSTALLATION DIE WALKÜREN, 2016
The Margulies Collection continues to add to its major holdings by the German artist Anselm Kiefer. New this season is a massive vitrine Die Walküren, 2016 from the artist’s Walhalla series. In this 20-foot vitrine we see the rigid gypsum bodies of the Valkyries, the flying handmaidens from Norse mythology. Hanging on a heavy iron arm balanced by a small boulder, the Valkyries: Hildr, Skogul, Brunhilde, and Walktraute, alongside others, are here labeled by lead tags and suspended over baked earth. On permanent view are other massive works by Kiefer including Sprache der Vogel.
NEW PAINTINGS AT THE WAREHOUSE
Imi Knoebel is one of the leading German artists of the Post War period. Born in 1940, he studied under the tutelage of Joseph Beuys at the Dusseldorf Art Academy.
Knoebel’s art is resolutely abstract: containing Malevich’s notion of “pure perception” through the exploration of form, color, and material. The Margulies Collection exhibition presents a newly acquired early work by the artist, Untitled, 1982 in which he incorporates found objects of metal, board, plexiglas, and paint into his constructed wall relief.
Other new paintings include works by Federico de Francesco, Rosy Keyser, Emil Lukas, Hugo McCloud, Diana Fonseca Quinoñes, and Sue Williams.
NEW VIDEO EXHIBITION
DAVID CLAERBOUT, THE PURE NECESSITY, 2016
Each year the Collection presents new video installations especially selected for the many young students who visit. This year our new exhibition includes the first animated work by the Belgian artist David Claerbout. The Pure Necessity, 2016 uses the Disney film, The Jungle Book as a
base to develop this highly original animated appropriation work. This work came about through
the artist’s research in zoos and animal parks where he observed animals in captivity. Inspired by the song from the original Disney film, the artist created a hybrid of The Jungle Book by synthesizing images of concrete reality with the storybook animation.
PERMANENT EXHIBITION
In addition to our feature exhibitions, the Warehouse houses permanent installations of historically significant works by Pier Paolo Calzolari, John Chamberlain, Willem de Kooning, Olafur Eliasson, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Donald Judd, Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, George Segal, Richard Serra, Tony Smith and Franz West.