ROY LICHTENSTEIN: INTIMATE SCULPTURES
Exhibition Dates: June 26, 2014 – January 31, 2015
10th Floor Gallery
Roy Lichtenstein: Intimate Sculptures presents a selection of the artist’s sculptures and maquettes, works that playfully and pointedly blur the boundaries of drawing, sculpture, and painting. Comprised of everyday and mass-produced objects – a mirror, water glass, and coffee cup – as well as the artist’s signature brushstrokes, the works highlight Lichtenstein’s ability to elevate the everyday to the iconic. Presented in a gallery space populated with furniture, the exhibition encourages engagement, inviting audiences to view historic works in an intimate setting. Maquette for House I (1996) inspired the domestic context for this environment, a later work wherein Lichtenstein reduces the structure of a cookie cutter suburban house to black outlines and primary colors – yellow siding, a blue roof, and red to accent the shutters and chimney.
Often overlooked but routinely used, commercial subjects become monuments in the artist’s hand, wherein shadow, contour, and highlight are rendered in patinated bronze. In Mirror II (1977), Lichtenstein transforms a vanity mirror into a static, unchanging reflection – focusing on the form of the object while negating its intended function. Mobile III (1990) directly references Alexander Calder’s archetypal mobiles, “freezing” [1] an item whose sole purpose is to respond to movement. Rather than condense volume and function into a linear still life, these sculptures become intimate metaphors for the disposable society in which they exist.
Nodding to the physicality of the Abstract Expressionist movement and its influence on Western art, Lichtenstein’s brushstroke sculptures democratize mark-making and painterly authority through isolation and reproduction. Lichtenstein describes his desire to separate the brushstroke from the canvas and distill it to its purist form: “…my latest interest is probably in some way a reaction to the turn of contemporary painting back toward an expressionist path, toward the revealing of the brushstroke in the surface of the painting. Still, I am doing it my own way.” [2]
Lichtenstein’s modern approach to the brushstroke continued to incorporate his signature Ben-Day dots in new and substantial forms, most evident in the figurative works Maquette for Brushstroke Head Red and Yellow (1992) and Maquette for Brushstroke Nude (1992). Lichtenstein’s brushstroke sculptures are emblematic of his lifelong exploration of representation and abstraction, form and function, and high and low culture, and continue to pose the question “what constitutes art?”
Concurrent with the exhibition at FLAG, Lichtenstein’s monumental sculpture, Tokyo Brushstroke I & II (1994) is on view as a long term loan by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, made possible by the Fuhrman Family Foundation. For more information click here.
EAST SIDE TO THE WEST SIDE
Exhibition Dates: June 26 – August 15, 2014
9th Floor Gallery
Just three miles southeast of Chelsea, the Lower East Side is recognized, both in the cultural landscape of New York and internationally, as an important epicenter for contemporary art. Offering an altogether different perspective and tenor than FLAG’s immediate neighborhood of Chelsea, the LES has become renowned for supporting emerging artists and mounting experimental exhibitions. Carving out its own voice, the galleries in the LES occupy former tenements, industrial spaces, and storefronts, adding significant content and context to the discourse surrounding contemporary art. East Side to the West Side offers an opportunity to bridge the physical distance between these two distinct districts, celebrating the diversity inherent to New York’s artistic community.
East Side to the West Side highlights artists from the rosters of three distinctive and influential LES programs – Brennan & Griffin, James Fuentes, and Rachel Uffner – providing each gallery with its own show within a show. The artists in this exhibition represent a variety of backgrounds and creative practices. Brennan & Griffin presents Heather Guertin, Naotaka Hiro, and Dave McDermott, artists whose work examines figuration and the body, each engaging with art history while evincing a singular artistic position. James Fuentes presents a new series of paintings by Benjamin Senior and Michele Tocca that are collaborative in spirit, exploring the artists’ interest in nineteenth and twentieth century French landscape painting, perception and representation, and the materiality of paint. Rachel Uffner presents a selection of gallery artists including the work of Bianca Beck, Joanne Greenbaum, Hilary Harnischfeger, Anya Kielar, Sam Moyer, and Sara Greenberger Rafferty, showcasing a myriad of formal approaches to painting and sculpture.
The FLAG Art Foundation
is an exhibition space for contemporary art. The program includes four to six professionally-curated shows per year featuring works by established and emerging international artists. We are on the 9th and 10th floors of the Chelsea Arts Tower, located in the heart of New York’s art district on 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.
Our objective is to encourage the appreciation of contemporary art among a diverse audience. FLAG provides a unique educational environment in which visitors can view, contemplate, and engage in active dialogue with the artworks. Curators select and borrow from a variety of sources to include a wide range of work in each exhibition. FLAG is also a resource that facilitates loans of contemporary artworks to museums around the world. An extensive database of available works is maintained and made available to curators via [email protected].
[1] Cowart, Jack. “Pop Up [Art]: Lichtenstein Sculpture.” Roy Lichtenstein: Three Decades of Sculpture. East Hampton, NY: Guild Hall Museum, 1992.
[2] Cullen, Arthur Barrett. Roy Lichtenstein. November 1984. P. 49.
Image Top: Roy Lichtenstein, Maquette for House I, 1996, painted and patinated bronze, 13 5/8 x 22 1/2 x 5 3/16 inches. ©Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Image Bottom (clockwise from bottom left): Bianca Beck, Untitled, 2012, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches. Joanne Greenbaum, Untitled, 2013, oil, acrylic and ink on canvas, 60 x 50 inches. Bianca Beck, Untitled, 2012, oil on wood, 11 x 14 inches. Benjamin Senior, Dogtooth III, 2014, oil on line, 20 1/8 x 24 inches. Naotaka Hiro, Four-Legged (Toe to Heel), 2014, aluminum, wood, 18 x 20 x 65 inches. Anya Kielar, Accessories, 2013, fabric dye and fabric, 72 x 45 inches. Benjamin Senior, The Yellow Studio, 2014, egg tempera on cotton on plywood, 19 5/8 x 15 3/4 inches. Michele Tocca, Ladle Hill, 2014, oil on linen, 32 1/4 x 24 inches. Heather Guertin, Untitled (KAS), 2013, oil on canvas with inkjet prints on wood frame, 30 x 24 inches. Hilary Harnischfeger, Eagle Mound, 2013, porcelain, plaster, paper, pigment, wood, mica, quartz, 12 x 17 x 10 inches.
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