John Chamberlain, Rayvredd, 1962, Painted and chromium plated steel, 34 x 34 x 38", The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Gift of Robert H. Halff, 88.26.
Robert Rauschenberg, Inlet, 1959, Combine: oil, newspaper, paper, wood, metal, fabric, pant leg, postcard, zipper, wire hanger, paper clip, can lids, stuffed bird, toy pistol, light socket, conduit, compass, furniture wheel, and corkscrew on canvas, 84 1/2 x 48 x 5 in., The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Panza Collection © Estate of Robert Rauschenberg/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. |
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MOCA-Los Angeles
MOCA Grand Avenue
250 Grand Avenue
213-621-1749
Los Angeles
A Changing Ratio:
Painting and Sculpture from the Collection
March 1-September 28, 2009
In its latest survey exhibition, A Changing Ratio: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), keeps the spotlight on its permanent collection. A Changing Ratio takes as its premise the historical arc linking mid-20th-century nonrepresentational painting with the sculptural innovations that began in the 1960s. As the field of sculpture came into its own and began to wield considerable influence on the production of art, the boundaries between the two media became increasingly blurred. In groundbreaking works of the period, paintings emphasized their dimensionality, while sculptures incorporated fluid materials — setting the stage for the mixed-media work and large-scale installations that are common today. Curated by MOCA Assistant Curator Rebecca Morse, A Changing Ratio features iconic works by Lynda Benglis, Donald Judd, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Morris, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol, among others.
“A Changing Ratio follows closely on the heels of two important permanent collection exhibitions — the critically acclaimed Collecting Collections: Highlights from the Permanent Collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection,” said MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel. “Continuing in the vein of these thematic views of our collection, A Changing Ratio offers an engaging and insightful look at one of the most astonishing periods in 20th-century art.”
The title of the exhibition is a reference to Lucy Lippard’s As Painting Is to Sculpture: A Changing Ratio, a 1967 essay in which the noted critic offers a brief but complex examination of the interplay between painting and sculpture during a critical period in the development of Western art. Painting, no longer the dictator of production during those years, became secondary as sculpture found its long- sought independence and began to lead artistic invention. Art objects became increasingly physical, acting as vehicles for the advancement of both color and form. A Changing Ratio: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection broadly explores this fascinating dynamic, featuring more than 60 paintings, drawings, and mixed-media constructions dating from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Jackson Pollock’s large-scale abstract expressionist works of the late 1940s exemplify his interest in the objecthood of painting. With his total abandonment of the easel in exchange for working on the floor, Pollock’s painting process becomes a very physical act of laying paint upon a dimensional surface. Mark Rothko’s monumental color field paintings, dating from the 1950s onward, possess an imposing presence and an undeniable dimensionality, with their frameless, deep-set canvases and worked edges. Robert Rauschenberg’s iconic Combines, also from the 1950s, act as a bridge between painting and sculpture, incorporating three-dimensional found objects within wall-hung painted surfaces.
In sculpture, John Chamberlain’s Lo An (1966) introduces the use of urethane foam to render a soft version of his own painted and chromium-plated steel objects from the same era, such as Rayvredd (1962). Experimenting with similar materials, but to a very different end, Lynda Benglis creates poured floor works such as Night Sherbet (1969), which uses polyurethane foam and pigment to render beautiful, natural forms by way of physical action and gravity. Donald Judd’s Untitled (1966) is a painted sculpture that affixes to the wall instead of sitting on a pedestal, while Carl Andre’s 8 Blocks and Stones (1973) takes to the floor, running along the earth in an active rejection of sculpture’s traditional preoccupation with height. |
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