ART CITIES:N. York-Guggenheim Museum Storylines

Visual art has always been closely associated with storytelling. In the twentieth century, with the advent of abstraction and its radical break with the past, many artists associated with the avant-garde in the United States and Europe rejected the figurative and eliminated explicit narrative content. In the 1990s, a new generation of artists turned away from the deconstruction of representation in favor of more intimate, open-ended acts of storytelling, weaving in their own accounts of race, gender, and sexuality.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: S. R. Guggenheim Museum Archive

Bringing together over 100 works in diverse mediums by 48 international artists from the Guggenheim’s contemporary collection, “Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim” examines the ways in which artists are forging new paradigms for storytelling that expand on conventional narrative devices such as plot, character, and setting. Anchored by a number of artworks from the 1990s, the majority of works in the exhibition were created after 2005 and selected from the Guggenheim’s collection of global contemporary art. The exhibition is enhanced by the contributions of renowned novelists and poets, who were invited to reflect on individual artworks as points of departure for their own creative work. Accompanied by gallery readings, screenings, and performances. Nearly half of the works will be on view at the Guggenheim for the first time. Such stories were often embedded in otherwise abstract forms, sometimes activated by platforms for social interaction. Storylines includes key works from this influential era, such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Golden) (1995). Appearing on four of the museum’s six ramps, the luminous curtain shimmers with strings of faux-gilded beads, inviting the viewer to transform its shape simply by walking through it. A poignant example of works addressing concerns of communal and queer identity, Catherine Opie’s self-portraits, taken in the 1990s and revisited in 2004, will also be on view, offering a deeply personal perspective on narrative representation. Signature works by Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Mark Leckey, and Glenn Ligon-with their invented scenarios, literary references, and explorations of contemporary mythologies-will provide highlights from the museum’s exhibition and collection history. A number of the works in Storylines were produced as a part of commissioning programs, continuing to build upon the museum’s rich history of catalyzing the creation and exhibition of new work. Also the Guggenheim is presenting day-long screenings of all five films, of Matthew Barney’s “The CREMASTER Cycle”, which are in the Guggenheim’s collection, presented in order of the films’ production. Days & Hours: 6/6/15, 11/7/15, 8/8/15 & 5/9/15, 10:30-19:30. The program of the performances is: Gerard & Kelly: Timelining, 8/6/1 & 7/9/15, Kevin Beasley: An Evening with Kevin Beasley, Friday, June 26, Ellie Ga: Eureka, a lighthouse play and The Fortunetellers, 30/6, Agathe Snow: Stamina, 20 & 21/8. Participating artists: Paweł Althamer, Julieta Aranda, Matthew Barney, Kevin Beasley, John Bock, Carol Bove, Ernesto Caivano, Mariana Castillo Deball, Maurizio Cattelan, Trisha Donnelly, Shannon Ebner, Simon Fujiwara, Ellie Ga, Gerard & Kelly, Simryn Gill, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rachel Harrison, Camille Henrot, Juliana Huxtable, Rashid Johnson, Matt Keegan, Agnieszka Kurant, Mark Leckey, Lee Bul, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Nate Lowman, Mark Manders, Ryan McGinley, Josephine Meckseper, Zanele Muholi, Iván Navarro, Catherine Opie, Gabriel Orozco, Laura Owens, Katie Paterson, R. H. Quaytman, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Xaviera Simmons, Taryn Simon, Alexandre Singh, Agathe Snow, Ryan Trecartin, Adrián Villar Rojas, Danh Vo, Sharif Waked, Jonas Wood, and Haegue Yang.

Info: Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim, Curating: Katherine Brinson, Carmen Hermo, Nancy Spector, Jennifer & David Stockman, Nat Trotman, Joan Young, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, Duration: 5/6-9/9/15, Days & Hours: Fri & Sun-Wed: 10:00-17:45, Sat: 10:00-19:45, www.guggenheim.org