29 October - 26 November 2011
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| © Zhang Xiaogang
Nothing to Do with Love , 2010
oil on canvas
55-1/8" x 86-5/8" (140 cm x 220 cm) |
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BURNING, BRIGHT: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE LIGHT BULB
29 October - 26 November, 2011
The Pace Gallery is pleased to present Burning, Bright: A Short History
of the Light Bulb, a group exhibition focusing on the incandescent light
bulb as both subject and material in the art of the past century.
Burning, Bright, which is organized by Pace London, will be on view at
545 West 22nd Street, New York, from October 28 through November 26,
2011. The public is invited to attend an opening on Thursday, October
27, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The exhibition illuminates a recurring fascination with the light bulb
by some of the most important artists of the past hundred years. The
show will feature work by Arman, Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Alexander
Calder, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Brian Clarke, Jim Dine, Adrian Ghenie,
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Loris Gréaud, Philip Guston, David Hammons,
Jasper Johns, Matt Johnson, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Lee Ufan, Roy
Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Robert Morris, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Claes
Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg,
Ugo Rondinone, James Rosenquist, Jeanne Silverthorne, Keith Sonnier,
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Robert Whitman, and Zhang Xiaogang.
In 1880 Thomas Edison perfected the electric, incandescent light bulb,
revolutionizing the way that people lived around the world. After
centuries of relying on the flickering light of lamps or candles,
artists had a true alternative light source by which to work, day or
night. During the years that followed, artists progressed from using the
light bulb for its function to addressing it as a subject. The light
bulb, with all its modern implications, replaced the vanitas candle,
rays from heaven, and countless other traditional sources of
illumination, both literal and metaphorical. From the center of
Picasso’s Guernica and related works to the naked bulbs dangling in
Bacon’s iconic paintings and Man Ray’s black and white photographic
explorations, the light bulb took its place in the pantheon of modern
icons as a conflicted symbol of technology, clarity, divinity, and
progress.
In the second half of the 20th century, artists again expanded the role
of light bulbs, transforming the bulb from subject matter to medium.
Integrated into early Pop combines by Dine and Rauschenberg or used
alongside other everyday materials by the Arte Povera group, light bulbs
became a source of physical as well as existential illumination. Many
works included the concept of the material’s lifespan: Gonzalez-Torres’s
elegant strings of light bulbs are allowed to burn out during
exhibitions and Morris’s Metered Bulb displays a working light bulb
alongside an electric company meter that monotonously records its energy
expenditure. In the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster, flashing bulbs
reference the lights of signage and advertising, but spell out icons of
pop culture instead of a product.
By turns whimsical – Calder’s Cat Lamp or Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s
soft sculpture Broken Bulb – and contemplative – Johns’s solid bronze
Light Bulb or Lee Ufan’s quiet installations – the commonplace object
assumes additional meaning in the hands of the artist. Today, as
governments and regulators around the world move to phase out the
incandescent light bulb in favor of more ecologically efficient
solutions, Burning, Bright will document and celebrate the partnership
between the light bulb and the artists who distilled their own
discoveries from the simplicity of its form and the revolutionary power
of its function.
thepacegallery.com/
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