CCA News
Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts Presents the Exhibition: Painting Between the Lines
Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2011, by Allison Byers
See also: Wattis exhibition More American Photographs
San Francisco, Calif., September 8, 2011--The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts will present the exhibition Painting Between the Lines from October 4 through December 17, 2011, in the Logan Galleries of California College of the Arts, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco. The exhibition is curated by Jens Hoffmann, director of the Wattis Institute. It is free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Tuesday, October 4, from 6-8 p.m.
With Painting Between the Lines, the Wattis Institute continues its investigation into the relationship between literature and art. Fourteen contemporary artists have been commissioned to create paintings based on written descriptions of artworks in historical and contemporary novels. Even though writing and painting have been connected throughout history, literature has of late become a diminished subject in the medium of painting, which has looked more to history, society, and politics (and to itself) for inspiration. By reintroducing literature as a viable subject for painting, this exhibition examines the relationship between these two artistic fields, their different modes of representation, the various ways texts can be translated into images, and how both media, in unique ways, elicit responses from the viewer/reader.
Through an examination of how contemporary artists look at storytelling, literature, and writing as expressions of individual thought, Painting Between the Lines provides a look into the state of painting today and attests to the vitality of the medium, presenting some of its most innovative practitioners. The featured artists work across a number of different forms and styles and are primarily based in Europe and the United States. The selection of the novels was central to the commissioning process. Many of these new paintings have been envisaged in exhaustive detail. Many reflect the texture of the novels, details of the text, or pivotal characters or plot elements. Even the most vivid text descriptions may still remain open to interpretation, as the works in this show demonstrate.
The exhibition space for Painting Between the Lines features a unique architecture that is designed to evoke the shape of an open book. Each painting will be displayed with the text passage that inspired it and a copy of the first edition of the book the text is drawn from. This will allow the visitor to have an intimate experience, much like the act of reading itself; he or she can observe the painting while reading the writer's description of the artwork and see an actual copy of the book the text was first published in.
The exhibition catalogue will feature images of all the newly commissioned paintings, the relevant text passages, installation images, and an essay by the curator, Jens Hoffmann, on the relationship between painting and literature.
THE ARTISTS AND AUTHORS
Laylah Ali
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain (1924)
Michaël Borremans
Günter Grass, The Tin Drum (1959)
Marcel Dzama
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (2002)
Cecilia Edefalk
August Strindberg, The Red Room (1879)
Jordan Kantor
Albert Camus, Exile and the Kingdom (1957)
Laura Owens
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1953)
Clare Rojas
Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 1: Swann’s Way (1913)
Wilhelm Sasnal
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1982)
Maaike Schoorel
Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (1938)
Norbert Schwontkowski
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
Raqib Shaw
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
Fred Tomaselli
Samuel Beckett, Watt (1953)
Michael van Ofen
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (1984)
Jakub Julian Ziolkowski
Sándor Márai, Embers (1942)
About the CCA Wattis Institute
The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts was established in 1998 in San Francisco at California College of the Arts. It serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary art and curatorial practice. Through groundbreaking exhibitions, the Capp Street Project residency program, lectures, symposia, and publications, the Wattis Institute has become one of the leading art institutions in the United States and an active site for contemporary culture in the Bay Area. For more information about the Wattis Institute, visit wattis.org.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 21 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,850 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit cca.edu.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Brenda Tucker 415.703.9548 btucker@cca.edu
Allison Byers 415.703.9541 abyers@cca.edu
PUBLIC CONTACT: cca.edu/calendar, wattis.org