ART-PRESENTATION: We The People
Founded as The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy in 1862, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is the sixth-oldest public Art Museum in the United States. The Museum is recognized as having one of the world’s most important collections of Contemporary and Modern art. With more than 7,000 works in its Collection and a dynamic series of exhibitions and public programs, the museum Continues to grow and to fulfill its mission.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Albright-Knox Art Gallery Archive
The Museum’s Collection is especially rich in postwar American and European art. Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Op art, and art from the 1970s through the end of the 20th Century are well represented. “We the people” the opening words of the U.S. Constitution, serves as an U.S. slogan and a rallying cry. But who constitutes the “we” in that formative phrase? More to the point, which people and whose stories aren’t represented in the language of national unity? In the exhibition “We the People: New Art from the Collection” at Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo-New York, some of the most imaginative and dynamic artists working today are exploring what it means to be a citizen of the 21st Century. Whether creating paintings or videos, sculptures or photographs, the artists in the exhibition are interested in how we define identity, form communities, and confront the various forces that shape our lives. The exhibition takes its title from two featured works, both called “We the People”, Hank Willis Thomas’s work from 2015, appears, at first, to be a nonobjective painting, look closer, and the design resolves into text – the first words of the Constitution; closer still, and it reveals itself as a quilt made from striped, variously soiled, decommissioned prison uniforms, and Danh Võ’s full-size copper replica of the Statue of Liberty broken into several hundred pieces, one of which is included in the exhibition. Danh Võ’s work consists of more than 250 copper pieces. The goal of Danh Vo’s project was not to construct a new, whole Statue of Liberty, but rather to reconstruct its individual elements, thus enabling them to be distributed throughout the world in various museums and exhibition venues. Though the countless fragments are still associated with the iconic symbol of freedom, at the same time they also highlight the abstract nature of this concept. The work raises questions about the subject of freedom, including whether or not it is necessarily everyone’s human right. The exhibition includes more than 24 new additions to the Museum’s Collection, most of which have never before been on view at the Albright-Knox. They represent a vision of the museum as a resource for the community, offering unique opportunities for the exchange of ideas. Taken as an ensemble, the works in the exhibition encourage the visitor to think about our place in a constantly evolving world. Who are we? What are our values and how are they formed? How do we imagine our future? These questions arise from a complex and often contradictory set of experiences and circumstances, ranging from our engagement with popular culture to our political debates, physical environment, and historical narratives.
Info: Curator: Janne Sirén, Assistant Curator: Tina Rivers Ryan, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, Duration: 23/10/18-30/6/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.albrightknox.org
