Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
212-708-9400
New York
Contemporary Galleries,
second floor
Multiplex:
Directions in Art,
1970 to Now
November 21, 2007-
July 28, 2008

During the 1970s, there was a shift in critical thinking about art when a range of divergent approaches and multiple mediums became the subject of attention, rather than one dominant trend or movement. This was the moment when a restrictive view of modernism gave way to broader interpretive models and the idea of one “ism” following another was replaced by the concept of “pluralism,” a term that took firm hold at that time. Such an open view remains relevant to the contemporary scene today as we witness the lively interchange of a wide variety of artistic practices.

This installation, part of an on-going series devoted to the Museum’s contemporary art collection, examines three distinctive paths for art and includes painting, sculpture, prints, drawings, photography, and media works. One section is devoted to formal and conceptual ideas of abstraction, while another deals with thematic issues of memory and mutability. A third segment brings together art that provokes — from the outrageous to the humorous to the politically challenging. While these constellations of works do not define strict categories, they demonstrate the vitality of art in the contemporary period, and the broad sense of possibility and potential it embraces.

The exhibition is organized by Deborah Wye, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art, where she has worked since 1979. Ms. Wye has curated more than 25 exhibitions for MoMA on a range of subjects. Among these are the first sculpture retrospective of Louise Bourgeois in 1982 and that artist’s first print retrospective in 1994. Other exhibitions include Eye on Europe: Prints, Books & Multiples, 1960 to Now (2006); Artists & Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art (2004-05); The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934 (2002); Collaborations with Parkett: 1984 to Now (2001); Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Print Collecting (1999); Joan Miró’s Red and Black Series (1998); Pollock and Printmaking (1998); Chuck Close Editioned Work (1998); Thinking Print: Books to Billboards (1996); Joan Miró: Prints and Books (1993); Antoni Tàpies in Print (1992); and Committed to Print: Social and Political Themes in Recent American Printed Art (1988).