Bad at Sports Episode 214: Constellations: Paintings from the MCA Collection - a podcast by Bad at Sports

This week: Duncan
leads a panel discussion on the the state of painting and current MCA
exhibition Constellations: Paintings from the MCA Collection(which closes
October 18th!) the panel consists of Artists Vera Klement and Wesley Kimler,
Artletter.com's Paul Klein and exhibition curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm!

Stolen liberally
from the MCA website:

This exhibition
explores various approaches to painting and how it communicates
ideas about life and art from the 1940s to the present. Arranged in a series of
constellations, or groupings, the exhibition highlights for the first time the
MCA Collection's particular strengths in this medium. Augmented by major works
from important private collections to fill gaps in the MCA Collection and to
provide examples of recent works made during the last few years, the exhibition
includes work by approximately 75 of the most important artists of the last
sixty years including Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Jasper Johns,
Lari Pittman, Rudolf Stingel, Clare Rojas, Laura Owens, Josef Albers, Rene
Magritte, Francis Bacon, Brice Marden, Caroll Dunham, Thomas Scheibitz, Jean
Dubuffet, Sherrie Levine, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, Sigmar Polke, Rebecca
Morris, Roberto Matta, and Yves Tanguy, among others. Featured Chicago artists
include Angel Otero, Wesley Kimler, Kerry James Marshall,
Judy Ledgerwood, Scott Reeder, Michelle Grabner, Marie Krane Bergman, and Vera
Klement.

This exhibition
explores questions about the current state and future of painting by
creating a dialogue with works from the past. These conversations within each
section stimulate ideas about painting that are not limited to chronology or
specific art historical narratives, but follow lines of thought. Within the
exhibition, the constellations aim to make connections through the various
interests, positions, styles, and histories that artists address within their
approach to painting. For example, Constellations explores approaches to the landscape
and figure, so-called "bad" painting, appropriation and collage in
painting, the critique of illusion in painting, form and color, and paintings
that exist in-between representation and abstraction.

All of the works
in this exhibition are united by the use of paint, a brush, and a support to
emphasize the complex and varied manner in which artists use similar materials.
This exhibition does not seek to redefine what can be considered a painting,
but rather examines how it endures as a vibrant art form, more than 100 years
after it was proclaimed "dead" at the advent of photography. Clearly
there is no correct way, which is why painting continues to be a source of
stimulating conversation and debate. From the perspective of the artist and
viewer, painting is a subjective experience.

This exhibition
is organized by Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Pamela Alper Associate
Curator.

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