One of the fun things about being a blogger is that you get invited to some cool events, like a special “bloggers only” tour of the amazing new Elles exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. The SAM exhibit is broken into two parts: Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris and Elles: SAM—Singular Works by Seminal Women Artists. And get this…there’s a third component that involves exhibitions and events all over Seattle!
In 2009 the Centre Pompidou (one of my absolute favorite places I visited in Paris) replaced all of the artwork in their permanent collection created by men with about 500 pieces of artwork by over 200 women artists. This exhibit lasted for a whole year. Elles: Pompidou at SAM is showcasing a subset of this exhibit, 130 works of art made by 75 women artists from 1907 to 2007.
I could talk about this stuff all day, but don’t worry, I won’t. I will share some of my favorite artists and pieces from the exhibit, and give you this handy resource that has links to all of the artists that are featured in Elles: Pompidou and Elles: SAM.
Diane Arbus
Two Girls in Matching Bathing Suits, Coney Island, N.Y., 1967
Diane Arbus is one of my favorite photographers and I’ve had the opportunity to see her work on three separate occasions now, including this exhibit. I saw Revelations when it traveled to LACMA, and her work was prominently featured in the Street Credibility photography exhibit at MOCA in 2004.
Diane’s subjects in the 1950s and 60s were gathered from “carnivals and nudist camps, theaters and backstage dressing rooms, circuses and side shows, wax museums and dance halls, contests and pageants, parties and amusement parks.” Her photographs are some of the most fascinating and real I’ve ever seen.
Rineke Dijkstra
Hilton Head Island, SC USA, June 24, 1992This story behind this portrait is at least similar to the one our docent told. Sorry, I gave birth to my short-term memory along with my son. If my mom had gotten me all made up then told me to suck in my stomach, I wouldn’t be happy either.
Cindy Sherman
I’ve seen a lot of Cindy Sherman’s portraits, but this one at SAM freaked me out.
Untitled 141 by Cindy ShermanFor those of you that aren’t familiar with her work, she uses herself as the subject in all of her portraits. Here are a couple of my favorites, just so you can see the contrast from the photograph above.
Untitled 96
Sophie Calle
I can’t remember when I first learned about Sophie Calle. She mixes up storytelling with her art, wields images and text for an emotional impact, and has literally followed and spied on someone to create her work. You can see Exquisite Pain at SAM.
Douleur Exquise (Exquisite Pain), 1984-2003
Guerrilla Girls
In their own words, the Guerrilla Girls are, “…feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. We use facts, humor and outrageous visuals to expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture.”
Like this…
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer creates art with text, sometimes projected on the sides of buildings. Here’s some information about her piece in this exhibit, Inflammatory Essays.
Barbara Kruger
This amazing artist, who got her professional start in the magazine world, also uses text (mixed with layered photography) in much of her work.
Fact: If someone is doing text-based art, I’m probably going to like it.
All of the artists I’ve mentioned so far are those that I’ve admired for some time now, but I also got to know some new-to-me artists at Elles. Here are some that I’d like to learn more about.
Hannah Wilke
I learned a little about her photographic body art piece S.O.S — Starification Object Seriesat Elles: SAM.
Victoria Haven
I love the clean, graphic style of her work. LOVE. No, I mean, like I’m in freaking love with her work.
You have until January 13, 2013 to see this exhibit. I’m going to go one more time, because I know I missed some things when I was taking the tour (like Nan Goldin). Plus, I want the chance to go back and leisurely look at everything at my own pace without press tweeting or instagramming.
Here’s what press tweeting and instagramming looks like, in case you’re interested.
So, GO! You don’t want to miss this one.