Blaffer Gallery
University of Houston
120 Fine Arts Building
TX 77204-4018
Houston, TX
Texas
North America
p: 713 743 9528
m:
f: 713 743 9525
w: www.blaffergallery.org
Stubborn Optimism Counters Disappointment and Disillusion in Blaffer Gallery Exhibition
Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion on view Sept. 13 through Nov. 15, 2008
HOUSTON, Texas (Aug. 4, 2008) -- This fall, Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, is pleased to present Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion. Featuring 15 internationally recognized contemporary artists working in painting, sculpture, installations, photography and video, the exhibition explores contemporary art in which the fantasies of classic romanticism have been mitigated by the clarity of pragmatic realism. The artists are linked by their visual representations of how, in the face of the disillusionments and failures of modern life, romanticism has been replaced by defiant optimism, or "damaged romanticism." Belonging neither to a style nor to a traditional school, the featured works all embody an outlook frequently forged in heartbreaking disappointment, but never resigned to pain or failure. The exhibition will be on view at Blaffer Gallery, located in the Fine Arts Building on the University of Houston's central campus, from Sept. 13 through Nov. 15, 2008. A free opening reception is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 6 p.m.
Artists in the exhibition include Richard Billingham (England); Berlinde De Bruyckere (Belgium); Edward Burtynsky (Canada); Sophie Calle (France); Petah Coyne (United States); Angelo Filomeno (Italy/United States); Jesper Just (Denmark/United States); Mary McCleary (United States); Florian Maier-Aichen (Germany/United States); Wangechi Mutu (Kenya/United States); Julia Oschatz (Germany); Anneè Olofsson (Sweden); David Schnell (Germany); and Ryan Taber/Cheyenne Weaver (United States).
Suffering, tragedy and misunderstanding form the soil out of which the works in Damaged Romanticism spring, making a place, as they grow, for hope. This hope has nothing to do with the unattainable platitudes of idealism, but is, on the contrary, sensible in its groundedness in the harsh realities of the real world. Stubborn optimism takes the place of dreamy utopianism in Damaged Romanticism. The claim by F. Scott Fitzgerald that American lives have no second acts does not apply to the works in Damaged Romanticism, all of which are built on the knowledge that rebirth grows out of experiences of things gone horribly wrong.
Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion is being presented concurrently with Celebutants, Groupies, and Friends: A Photographic Legacy from the Andy Warhol Foundation, which is on view Sept. 13 through Oct. 18, 2008.
Following its presentation at Blaffer Gallery, Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion will travel to Grey Art Gallery at New York University and The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY.
Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion was organized for Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, by Terrie Sultan, Director, The Parrish Art Museum (former Director, Blaffer Gallery); David Pagel, Assistant Professor of Art Theory and History, Claremont Graduate University; and Colin Gardner, Professor of Critical Theory and Integrative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. The exhibition and publication are made possible, in part, by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Cecil Amelia Blaffer von Furstenberg Endowment for Exhibitions and Programs, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, Ellen and Steve Susman, Continental Airlines and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Related Programs (taking place at Blaffer Gallery):
Friday, Sept. 12, 6 - 8 p.m. Opening Reception (opens concurrently with Celebutants, Groupies, and Friends)
Saturday, Sept. 13, 11 a.m. Artists' and Curators' Roundtable Discussion and Exhibition Catalogue Book Signing
Thursday, Sept. 18, 4 - 7 p.m. Blaffer Student Association Red Block Bash and University of Houston Arts Open House
Wednesday, Oct. 1, 6 p.m. Contemporary Salon
Saturday, Oct. 11, 1 p.m. Studio Saturday
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 12 p.m. Brown Bag Gallery Tour
Programs co-presented with the UH Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts:
Thursday, Sept. 25, 8 p.m. Damaged Romanticism: Joan Tower -- Recital featuring pianist Melvin Chen Location: Dudley Recital Hall, University of Houston
Friday, Sept. 26, 8 p.m. Damaged Romanticism: Joan Tower -- Featuring AURA, the UH Moores School of Music Contemporary Ensemble Location: Moores Opera House, University of Houston
Saturday, Sept. 27, 8 p.m. Damaged Romanticism: Joan Tower -- Featuring Moores School Symphony Orchestra Location: Moores Opera House, University of Houston
Saturday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m. Da Camera of Houston presents Chopin in Paris: Epigraph for a Condemned Book Location: Cullen Theater, Wortham Center downtown
Saturday, Nov. 8, 8 p.m. Da Camera of Houston presents Damaged Romanticism Music by Karim Al-Zand, Stephen Hartke, Wolfgang Rihm, Schnittke and Schubert Location: Moores Opera House, University of Houston
Pre-concert conversation with Sarah Rothenberg and Terrie Sultan at 7 p.m.
Post-concert reception at Blaffer Gallery
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 6:30 p.m. The Foundation for Modern Music presents Music by Henryk Górecki and Osvaldo Golijov Location: Blaffer Gallery
Friday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m. Poetry and Music: A Conversation -- Featuring Sarah Rothenberg and Adam Zagajewski Location: The Rothko Chapel, 1409 Sul Ross
Blaffer Gallery to Showcase Andy Warhol Photographs Warhol Foundation’s Gift to University of Houston on view Sept. 13 through Oct. 18, 2008
HOUSTON, Texas (Aug. 5, 2008) – Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, is pleased to present Celebutants, Groupies, and Friends: A Photographic Legacy from the Andy Warhol Foundation. Showcasing a selection of Warhol’s personal photographs recently donated to the University of Houston by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the exhibition will be on view from Sept. 13 through Oct. 18, 2008. Blaffer Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Building on the University of Houston’s central campus. A free opening reception is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 6 p.m.
For the last ten years of his life, whether he was in his studio or at a party, Warhol always had a small, point-and-shoot Minox or Polaroid camera in hand. When he died on Feb. 22, 1987, he left behind over 66,000 photographs. In 2008, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the inheritor of the Warhol estate, gifted groups of photographs to institutions across the country, including approximately 150 Polaroids and black-and-white prints to the University of Houston.
A selection of the photographs given to the university will be shown for the first time at Blaffer Gallery this fall. They offer rare, intimate glimpses of Warhol’s life, from parties and vacations with friends to portraits commissioned by personalities such as Princess Caroline of Monaco and the rock star Billy Squier. The exhibition will offer a broad cross-section of Warhol’s photographic output in the 1970s and ‘80s.
“The photos are most valuable because they are a rarely seen glimpse into Warhol’s working process, especially for his famous portraits,” said Michael Guidry, curator of the UH University Art Collection. “Warhol would take many, many Polaroids of his clients, posing them, putting high contrast make-up on them. Some are very flattering and some not so flattering. Most of the Polaroids were studies for paintings and the black-and-white photos are a mix of travel and party pictures of his friends and social network.”
“No one worshipped celebrity like Andy Warhol or had such a clear understanding of myth-making and fame, and this is a wonderful opportunity to see his glamorous life through his own eyes,” stated Rachel Hooper, Blaffer Gallery curatorial fellow and organizer of the exhibition. “Blaffer Gallery is privileged to introduce Houston and the campus community to this latest addition to the university’s renowned collection, and we encourage visitors to view these rare photographs before they have to return to storage in order to protect them from light damage,” she added.
Celebutants, Groupies, and Friends: A Photographic Legacy from the Andy Warhol Foundation has been organized in partnership with the University of Houston Public Art Collection. The exhibition has been made possible by a bequest through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Don and Chris Sanders, Mixed Emotions Fine Art, Houston and Don and Shirley Rose.
Celebutants, Groupies, and Friends: A Photographic Legacy from the Andy Warhol Foundation is being presented concurrently with Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion.
