Stacks of over 300,000 drawings, assemblages of collected hair and debris, as well as meticulously hand-carved wooden figurines make up just a few of the items on display in the New Museum’s latest exhibition, 'The Keeper'. It's a show which effectively blends the boundaries between curating, creating, and collecting art.
Dedicated to the act of preserving and collecting, 'The Keeper' tells the stories of individuals through the objects they chose to safeguard. With more than 4,150 objects on display, the show marks the largest number of objects that have ever been on view for an exhibition in the museum’s 39-year history.
'This exhibition blurs the lines between artist and non-artist, professionals and amateurs,' says Massimiliano Gioni, who curated the exhibition alongside artistic director Edlis Neeson, and a curatorial team comprised of Natalie Bell, Helga Christoffersen, and Margot Norton.
'It’s an exhibition about collecting, saving and preserving artworks, artifacts, objects and images,' he continues. 'Through a series of portraits and case studies spanning the 20th century, the exhibition raises questions around notions of value and ownership.'
At the centerpiece of the exhibition is Partners (The Teddy Bear Project), a display of over 3,000 family-album photographs of teddy bears and their owners collected by Ydessa Hendeles. 'It looks at people through the trails of images that they left behind and, in doing so, I hope, invites us to engage more affectionately with the images that surround us every day,' says Gioni.
'This exhibition blurs the lines between artist and non-artist, professionals and amateurs,' says Massimiliano Gioni, who curated the exhibition. Pictured: a presentation by designer/artist Carol Bove responding to a series of Carlo Scarpa’s works from his exhibition 'Ambiente', at the 1968 Venice Biennale.
'The Keeper' tells the stories of individuals through the objects they chose to safeguard. Pictured: Levi Fisher Ames' intricate animal carvings, displayed in hinged shadow boxes that he crafted by hand.
The exhibition's showpiece is Ydessa Hendeles' Partners (The Teddy Bear Project), 2002 – an enormous trove of vernacular photographs collected according to one criterion: the presence of a teddy bear.
A series of colourful abstractions, imbued with alchemical and zodiacal symbolism, by Swedish painter Hilma af Klint. She produced over 1,000 such works over the course of her lifetime.
Another collection on display is 'The Houses of Peter Fritz', preserved by artist Oliver Croy and architecture critic Oliver Elser. The buildings were the creations of Austrian insurance clerk Peter Fritz
INFORMATION
’The Keeper’ is on view until 25 September. For more information, visit the New Museum’s website
ADDRESS
New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
-
This designer’s Shoreditch apartment is ‘part grotto, part cabinet of curiosities’The apartment serves as Hubert Zandberg’s ‘home away from home’, as well as a creative laboratory for his design practice. The result is a layered, eclectic interior infused with his personality
-
Curvilinear futurism meets subtropical beaches at Not A Hotel’s ZHA-designed Okinawa retreatZaha Hadid Architects has revealed the design for the first property in Not A Hotel’s futuristic new Vertex collection, coming soon to southern Japan
-
Gorden Wagener leaves the helm of Mercedes-Benz design after 28 years with the companyThe German designer is stepping down from the role of chief design officer at Mercedes-Benz. We look back at his influence and impact on the world of automotive and luxury design
-
Nadia Lee Cohen distils a distant American memory into an unflinching new photo book‘Holy Ohio’ documents the British photographer and filmmaker’s personal journey as she reconnects with distant family and her earliest American memories
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Ed Ruscha’s foray into chocolate is sweet, smart and very AmericanArt and chocolate combine deliciously in ‘Made in California’, a project from the artist with andSons Chocolatiers
-
Inside the work of photographer Seydou Keïta, who captured portraits across West Africa‘Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens’, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, celebrates the 20th-century photographer
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekFrom sumo wrestling to Singaporean fare, medieval manuscripts to magnetic exhibitions, the Wallpaper* team have traversed the length and breadth of culture in the capital this week
-
María Berrío creates fantastical worlds from Japanese-paper collages in New YorkNew York-based Colombian artist María Berrío explores a love of folklore and myth in delicate and colourful works on paper
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekAs we approach Frieze, our editors have been trawling the capital's galleries. Elsewhere: a 'Wineglass' marathon, a must-see film, and a visit to a science museum
-
June Leaf’s New York survey captures a life in motionJune Leaf made art in many forms for over seven decades, with an unstoppable energy and fierce appetite leading her to rationalise life in her own terms.
