OCTOBER 19 – APRIL 29, 2023
THE ITALIANS
Everybody loves Italy, the most beautiful of all European countries. What makes Italy so interesting is the pursuit of the endearing simple pleasures of everyday life combined with a passion for excellence in design, architecture, art, and cuisine.
This exhibition grew out of the Arte Povera exhibition we featured last season at the Margulies Collection. We wanted to build on the momentum and further explore contemporary Italian art. In our exhibition this year we have assembled a grouping of nineteen Italian artists who were influenced by the activities and lives of the Arte Povera artists.
Putting this show together is what collecting is all about. That is: the love for learning, traveling, and the challenge of putting together a cohesive body of work that educates and delights our audience of students, artists, collectors, curators, critics, and writers from all over the world. We hope our audience enjoys the exhibition as much as we have enjoyed producing it.
Massimo Antonaci, Davide Balliano, Marco Bagnoli, Domenico Bianchi, Luca Campigotto, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Bertozzi & Casoni, Isabella Ducrot, Domenico Mangano & Marieke Van Rooy, Gian Marco Montesano, Mimmo Paladino, Claudio Parmiggiani, Maurizio Pellegrin, Alessandro Piangiamore, Paola Pivi, Paolo Ventura, Giuseppe Uncini
NEW EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS
Our New European and American Painters and Sculptors exhibition will focus on work by artists new to the collection. The exhibition will present much of what we have been collecting from galleries in Germany, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, France, Austria and the US over the past two years during the pandemic. This exhibition is an excellent opportunity for young collectors to gain insight to what’s happening right now.
THE BITTER YEARS PHOTOGRAPHY DOROTHEA LANGE AND WALKER EVANS
The Margulies Photography Collection includes over 100 photographs from the Farm Security Administration which have been on view to the public numerous times during the 23-year tenure of the Warehouse. These images have provided our contemporary generation with a visual record of the hardships faced by the American people during the Great Depression and are some of the finest examples of 20th century American photography. The Margulies Collection includes over 100 photographs from the FSA archive, 65 of which are shown here.
Edward Steichen, famed photography curator and photographer, was the
Head of the Department of Photography of MoMA from 1947 to 1962 and is most well-known for his groundbreaking Family of Man exhibition in 1955. The Margulies Collection pays tribute to a lesser-known exhibition by Steichen, his last project with the Museum of Modern Art in 1962 entitled The Bitter Years: 1935-1941. The exhibition comprised approximately 200 photographs from the FSA archive selected by Steichen.
In 2005, students from Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida conducted extensive research using the Library of Congress archives on the Farm Security Administration photographs from the Margulies Collection. They mounted a version of the The Bitter Years in the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery on campus of 92 photographs from the collection.
This version of The Bitter Years exhibition was first installed at the Warehouse in 2006. As part of a series of educational programs in conjunction with the exhibition, the Margulies Collection invited one of the most influential photography curators and critics of the twentieth century--John Szarkowski--to speak at the Warehouse. Szarkowski succeeded legendary curator Edward Steichen as the Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art after Steichen’s last project The Bitter Years in 1962. Unanimously acknowledged for his curatorial vision and articulate advocacy of the photographic medium, Szarkowski authored numerous books and catalogs while establishing one of the most comprehensive collections of photography for the Museum of Modern Art in the world.
The 65 photographs presented in this exhibition are by artists Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Marion Post Wolcott, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, and Jack Delano.
Accompanying the FSA photographs is a selection of 16 of Walker Evans Polaroids produced in 1973 and 1974, the last few years of the artists’ life. The photographs are a continuation of the themes found in his work including studies of signage, architecture and portraiture.
We are pleased to offer didactic materials and programming for the education and research of vintage photography to further visual literacy in our community.
Jeanie Ambrosio, M.A., Associate Curator
The Bitter Years
Image:
Gian Marco Montesano
Eppure Tra Loro Coperta di Vento, C’é una Bambina che non Può Correre, 1991
Oil on canvas
78 x 78 inches
Collection Martin Z. Margulies