Encounters and Collisions: Glenn Ligon looks back on history in his latest, exploratory exhibition
Two years ago, Glenn Ligon started writing letters to artists whose work had made an impression on him in his life, asking if he could borrow that particular work for an exhibition.
Some of these short letters - written simply and adoringly, almost like teenage fan letters - are published in the catalogue of the show, now open at the Nottingham Contemporary. They reveal so much about the nature of this wonderful, highly personal exhibition curated by Ligon.
While some of the letters were sent to living artists, others are letters that Ligon would have sent those of the past, as if they were still around. To Jean-Michel Basquiat, for example, he writes: 'We met once…I was shy and you were famous.' He goes on to write that he was an aspiring artist at the time (the late 70s) and didn't know any black artists. He says he knew Basquiat's paintings were important but he didn't know why.
Ligon, who was born in the Bronx in 1960, has put his search for identity as a gay, black man at the centre of his own practice. This exhibition reveals the delicate process by which he found a formal and intellectual vocabulary to explore his identity by borrowing from images and icons.
The show features work by 45 different artists from Andy Warhol to Steve McQueen, as well as Black Panther Party posters, press shots and footage from the 1963 Birmingham Riots.
Seven of Ligon's own works are present, including the 1991 painting 'I lost my voice I found my voice'. This is the message and the rhythm that drives the show. Travelling through the past 50 years of art history and 50 years of Ligon history, you begin to witness how the artist has responded and 'found' a voice to explore different trends, from his early interest in abstract painting to his discovery of conceptual art and film.
There are four rooms, each exploring a different stage in Ligon's own investigations. 'I was interested in how abstraction can be black but is not black,' the artist once said of his early interest in figures such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
In one room hangs a stark, eight-foot Franz Kline abstract in broad black and white brushstrokes; a film featuring Bruce Nauman painting himself white and then black; and 'Valentine', a phallic semi-abstract work in flesh tone and black by de Kooning which Ligon says he used to visit 'every six months or so' at MoMA in New York.
On one level, this show is a curatorial coup, tying together different themes with works from various global collections. But it's also a revealing and sophisticated study of the way in which images are used by society, and how their meaning extends far beyond their gallery contexts.
ADDRESS
Weekday Cross
Nottingham
NG1 2GB
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Maude’s Brâncuși-inspired sex toys go on display in a new Paris exhibition
Maude’s design-led vibrators are now on display at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as part of ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’. Brand founder Éva Goicochea talks to Wallpaper* about partnering with the museum and opening up cultural conversations around sex
By India Birgitta Jarvis Published
-
‘I was captivated by the idea of merging two iconic brands’: Nigo on his 1990s-inspired collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz
Unveiled at Moncler’s ‘The City of Genius’ event in Shanghai this past weekend, Japanese fashion designer Nigo unpacks his three-way collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz, which includes a play on the G-Class alongside a fashion collection in his eclectic style
By Jack Moss Published
-
Cathay Pacific’s new business class Aria Suites take flight
Cathay Pacific raises the bar for business-class travel with the launch of the much-anticipated Aria Suites
By Lauren Ho Published