New Museum

New Museum 

오늘은 목요일, 7시 이후 무료입장이 있는 뉴뮤지엄에 갔다.

5월인가, 혜지언니와 뮤지엄 무료입장에 간적이 있었는데 역대 내가 본 전시중에 가장 좋았던 기억이 있기 때문에 능현이한테 적극추천하며 데리고 갔다.

저번 전시는 여러 작가들의 작품이 다양하게 있었는데 이번에는 두, 세 작가의 작품만 있었다. 

Llyn Foulkes 라는 작가와 Ellen Gallagher.

솔직히 Ellen Gallagher라는 작가의 작품은.. 두껍게 유화를 여러색으로 바르고 그위에 검은 물감을 두껍게 바른 후 긁어내서 밑의 화려한색이 보이게 만드는 작품이 대부분이였고

이해를 못해서... 그리고 와닿지 않아서 패스.

그에 반해 Llyn Foukes.

작품들이 다 특색이 뚜렷했다. 각자 개성있는 액자속의 사람에 뭔가 하나씩 씌워져 있고 피같은 것을 흘리며, 어떤 것에는 팝업이 되서 넥타이나 손이 튀어나와있기도 했다.

어떤 메세지를 전하고 싶어하는지 그림마다 비교적 뚜렷하게 나타났고 그러한 개성이 마음에 들었다.

예술가란 자신의 생각을 표현하기 위해 어떠한 창작물을 내보이는 것인데 요즘 계속해서 느끼는 것은 예술가는 자기만의 표현의 특성과 개성을 지녀야 한다는 것이다.

자신만의 개성없이 비슷비슷한 창작물을 내놓는 사람은 곧 잊혀지고 특별한 감동을 주지도 못한다. 나쁘다는 것이 아니라 조금 부족하다는 느낌이다.

유명한 화가들의 작품들은 한눈에 아! 그의 작품이구나, 라고 바로 말할 수 있을 정도로 특정한 개성을 지니고 있다. 그리고 그 각각의 작품은 어떤 연결고리가 있는 듯 하면서도 또 각각의 특징을 뚜렷하게 지니고 있다.

유명해지고 사람들에 의해 가치있다고 평가되는 예술가들은 모두 자신의 뚜렷한 특색을 가지고 있는 듯 하다.

Llyn Foulkes의 작품에서도 그런 느낌을 받았다. 자신만의 색이 있고 무엇을 말하고자 하는지 뚜렷한.

저번 전시보다 덜 감동받았지만 그래도 충분히 좋았다.

작은 규모의 전시가 좋다. 흡수 할 수 없을만큼의 양보다는 적은 양의 좋은 질의 작품을

하나하나 곱씹으며 여유있게 흡수할 수 있는 시간이 좋다.

The New Museum will present the long-overdue career retrospective of Llyn Foulkes, which will also mark the first New York museum exhibition of works by the artist.

Cover Image: 

“LLYN FOULKES,” 2013. Exhibition view: New Museum. Photo: Benoit Pailley

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An influential yet under-recognized artist of his generation, Foulkes makes work that stands out for its raw, immediate, and visceral qualities. Coming from a tradition of West Coast artists working in assemblage in the ’60s, such as Ed Kienholz and Bruce Conner, Foulkes has consistently challenged audiences and expanded his work into new territories. His presentation at the New Museum will feature nearly one hundred works from the scope of his fifty-year career. These range from the emotionally charged constructions of the early 1960s and his impeccably painted landscapes of the American West, to his deeply disturbing portraits from the late 1970s and his remarkable recent narrative tableaux, which seamlessly blend painting with found materials to create an extraordinary illusion of depth. His diverse body of work resists categorization and defies expectations, distinguishing Foulkes as a truly unique and significant artistic voice.

Llyn Foulkes (b. 1934 Yakima, Washington) studied music and art at Central Washington College of Education until he was drafted into the US Army in 1954. After two years of service in postwar Germany, he studied at the University of Washington before moving to Los Angeles in 1957 to attend the Chouinard Art Institute. In 1959, he was included in a group exhibition at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, where he later had his first solo exhibition in 1961. Shortly after, his first solo museum exhibition was held at the Pasadena Museum of Art in 1962. Foulkes has been included in many important group exhibitions including “Whitney Museum Annual of American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art (1967); the Ninth São Paulo Biennial (1967); and the Paris Biennale (1967). He formed his own band, Llyn Foulkes and The Rubber Band, in 1973, which performed at various venues including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1974, and in 1979 he began building his epic music Machine, which he continues to perform on today. Foulkes received a Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977 and had his first survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1978). His first retrospective was held in 1995 at the Laguna Art Museum (traveled to Cincinnati, Oakland, and Palm Springs), and he was featured in “Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1992). In 2008, he was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and in 2009, he received the Artists’ Legacy Foundation Award. In 2011, he was featured in seven “Pacific Standard Time” exhibitions at institutions in Southern California and the Venice Biennale, and in 2012 his paintings were included in Documenta 13, where he also performed.

“LLYN FOULKES” is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and is curated by Ali Subotnick, Curator. The New Museum’s presentation is organized in conjunction with Subotnick by Margot Norton, Assistant Curator.

After its presentation at the New Museum, the exhibition will travel to the Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany. The exhibition is first on view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, from February 3–May 19, 2013. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue including essays by novelist and art critic Jim Lewis, writer Jason Weiss, and curator Ali Subotnick.