HRImIjB!

OF THE

Museui

II

The Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown at Federal Reserve Plaza, is

funded by a partnership of Park Tower Realty and IBM, the developers of
Federal Reserve Plaza.

This exhibition was organized by the

following Helena Rubinstein Fellows in

the Whitney

Museum Independent

Study Program: Timothy Landers,

Jackie McAllister, Catsou Roberts,

Benjamin Weil, and Marek Wieczorek.

Front cover:
Installation views of the

Whitney Museum of American

Art,

Downtown
Back cover:
Scratch

at

Federal Reserve Plaza

made by
1988

Liz Larner's Wall

Scralcher,

1989 Whitney
York,

Museum

of American Art

945 Madison Avenue

New

New York

10021

7 ^4
The Desire of the Museum
Introduction
CATSOU ROBERTS AND TIMOTHY LANDERS

1 he museum
collection, preservation, interpretation,

of art

is

devoted to the

and exhibition of
Conceived

objects

whose value

and

status as art

it

largely determines.

in the

humanist and en-

cyclopedic spirit of the Enlightenment, the

museum

was created from the transIt

formation of private, often royal, treasuries into national resources.

in

developed

the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, along with parks and other

spaces for leisure, as part of the emergent public sphere. By providing access to
art objects for the cultural

enlightenment of the general public, the

its

museum

has

assumed

a stance of disinterested altruism since

inception.

But the
historically,

museum
it

does not

strictly

serve the needs of the general public;

has advanced the special interests of specific social groups. For

late

example, during the

great

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,

many

of the

American museums were formed from the

collections of wealthy indus-

trialists,

whose values these museums often upheld and whose names they
recently, in response to the

sometimes bore. More

postwar period, the

consumer economy of the

museum

has evolved, in part, into a recreational center

art

cum

department store offering blockbuster spectacles and

to bolster

souvenirs all in order

attendance and revenue.

Finally,

museums

today can serve as public

relations vehicles for corporate supporters or as sites of public amenities for

which urban developers can obtain zoning variances.

M
Market

aD

ST*
humanist ideals upon which
its
it

I
was

forces, corporate sponsorship, the

founded, the personal histories and objectives of

these play a role in the construction of the

curators, artists,

and

stall all

museum. But

the

title

of this show,

"The Desire
intentions;
it

of the

Museum," suggests more than

and contradictory

special interests
it

and conscious
as a site

imputes an unconscious to the

museum conceives
desires, beliefs,

where

different, often disruptive

into play.

and needs come and

This

is

to suggest that the

museum

not only offers a historically

that
it

culturally specific

way of producing knowledge, hut also

its

is

not entirely
as a

aware of its own

interests,

own

desires.

Anthropomorphizing the museum

desiring subject shifts the princ ipal focus of examination from the
to the

museum-goer
"What do
you

museum. However,

the

museum-goer must
it

also be asked,

want from the

museum?"

For

is

the plav

ol

desires between the viewer

ol art.

and the
essays

museum which determines

examine the desires
that

the institutional experience

These
ol

motivate the primary functions

the

mu.is

seum-collection, preservation, and display; and they consider the

place of sublimation, a place

museum

where

libidinal energies are directed into the socially

acceptable activity of "art appreciation."

This "psychoanalysis" of the

museum

is

inspired by different critiques pre-

sented by

artists.

Such

a critical
his

examination of the

museum

must he traced

to

Marcel

Duchamp and

readymades.

Duchamp
its

suggested that the

is

museum

absorbs the individual work of art so that

meaning
(
l

constructed only within

often influenced by
art
is

an

institutional context. In the 1960s

first

and

.)7()s,

artists,

Duchamp, focused
then on the greater
is

on the physical environment

economic and
,

in

which
in

viewed, and

social,

political

network

which the

museum
also at-

located.

More

recently, artists

have employed psychoanalysis as a way to compli-

cate this critique of the institution,

and "The Desire of the Museum"

tempts to reflect and engage

the

this theoretical position.

As curators working within

museum, we hope
itself

to highlight

our role

in

the institutional process.

Through

both the work

and exhibition design, we explore museological components

by Julia V),

such as the security system (Julia Scher, Security

docent instruction

(Andrea Fraser and Louise Lawler, The

Public Life of Act: The Museum), gallery

atmosphere (with dramatic lighting and the proliferation of gallery sounds), and
spatial organization.

By

this intervention,

we mean

to offer a provocative setting

lor the critical

and

artistic

work

that has

informed "The Desire of the Museum"

and

to signal the diversity of interests

and desires including our own operating

in the

process of organizing the exhibition.

LAURIE SIMMONS,

Untitled

(Women Looking at

Art),

1984

&

Paradox and Perversion:

The Unconscious of the Museum

I I

MO

II

Y I.ANDl kS

1 he
tion:
it

museum

is
is

normalizing
it

institu-

determines what

is

culturally worthy and what

not;

allows particular
it

forms of knowledge,
"truth," "reality,"
collection,

specific kinds of pleasures,

its

and disallows others;

produces
display,

and "value" through

primary functions of the

and preservation of artworks.

a desire that has

Paradoxically, these normalizing funcis

tions

depend on

been rechanneled, reconfigured, and

ex-

pressed through what Freud called "perversions" exhibitionism, voyeurism,

and

fetishism. In the

museum,

these functions, these manifestations of desire,

in

comprise a methodology of looking which

Indeed, the epistemological value of the
structure
itself

turn constitutes a way of knowing.

its

museum depends on
It is

ability to

around the supremacy

of

sight the privileged sense through

at this site

which knowledge has been formed since the Renaissance.

of
in

knowledge the nexus of desire and

this exhibition

vision, subject

and space that the works

can be located.

Aimee

Rankin's boxes from the series Renaissance (1983-84) have grid-

covered windows through which one sees postcard reproductions of Renaissance

paintings as well as miniature versions of scientific apparatuses such as a tele-

scope or a microscope. By creating a microcosm of the museum, one

act of looking
eyes, adjust

in

which

tfie

cannot be taken for granted (we must look into the box, squint our
this

our focus, distinguish figure and ground),

work both

solicits

and

scrutinizes

our gaze. The process thus plays upon the voyeurism of the viewer

even as

it

simultaneously declares the exhibitionism of the museum-its function

of these

as a house of display. As Rankin suggests, the conjunction

rise to cataloguing, collecting,

two

states gives
scientific

and observation, the hallmarks of the

method and the

In Rankin's

principal activities of the

(

museum.
is

box Fear

1987),

from the

series Ecstasy, the pleasure of looking

is

indulged and then disrupted.

The

viewer

shocked out of voyeuristic pleasure

at

by the discovery of daggerlike nails aimed

anticipated

the eyeballs our gaze has been

and

is

now

threatened.

The

stark minimalism of the box's exterior

does not prepare us for the lush, textured, curio-cabinet interior that offers a

carnivalesque catalogue of objects of mass culture and representations from

museum

culture.

Julia Seller's installation Security by Julia

V (1989)

consists of eight video

gallery;

cameras placed opposite one another along the length of the

positioned at eye
level,

some are

others above. The images produced by the typical security

art

camera, which guards the

and records the museum-goer, are played back on

and displacing
this

ten monitors, disrupting the centered position of the viewers gaze

the narrative

and perspectival elements of the viewing experience. In

work,

the desire of the

museum-goer to look at art (in

borders, to protect
at the

this case

an

installation of security

images of that museum-goer) coincides with the desire of the

its

museum to monitor museum and

spaces, to police

its

its

possessions. Both the

the

museum-goer are looking

museum-goer and

the desires of the two

become mutually dependent.

In Enlarged from the Catalogue, "The United States of America" (1989), Silvia

Kolbowski imposes the plan of the American wing of The Metropolitan

of Art into the space of the Whitney
Federal Reserve Plaza. This

Museum
at

Museum
is

of American Art,

Downtown

mapping

effected through the configuration of a

bench, nine display cases with silkscreened images, and catalogues in a wall
display. All these

elements are positioned

in

such a way as to locate certain

significant sites in the Metropolitans

American Wing within the Whitney Mu-

seum

galleries.

This ordering

shifts the epistemological prerequisites for display

onto new, unfamiliar terrain by substituting the logic of museum display for the
logic of the installation, revealing both as

hermetic systems that permit knowlin

edge only once certain precepts have been given. The catalogue
installation

Kolbowskis
in

reproduces excerpts from the Metropolitan's catalogue of works

the

American Wing. These excerpts are seen through

a thin sheet of tracing

paper.
ing,

On

this tracing

paper are

Kolbowskis own

text, subjective

and question-

and other

texts omitted

from the Metropolitan's

history of

American
girl

culture such as selections from an autobiographical account of a slave

taken

from a recent anthology

texts, in

titled

The Classic Slave Narratives. This juxtaposition of

which the histories glossed over by the

museum

speak out, reveals the

desire of the

museum

to

present American culture and

history as only that of the

dominant

class.

The

Guerrilla Girls use a different

method

to address the diversity of

cultural production

and the

multiplicity of voices that the

museum

denies in

its

representation of culture and history. Their posters, usually pasted around

SoHo, take the form of an explicit/acnw. "What's fashionable,

tax-deductible?" asks one poster. "Discriminating against

prestigious,

and

women and

non-white

(K
artists"
is

i m
statistics

ill

the reply, followed by

which

list

the large percentages of

men

and whites who have shown work

in recent exhibitions
is

sponsored by major

corporations and foundations. This information

racism and sexism that
is

powerful comment on the

a matter of course

in the art world.

Like Kolbowski and the Guerrilla Girls, Andrea Fraser and Louise Lawler

explore the precariousness of the normalizing operations of the museum. Their

videotape The Public
Life of Art:

The

Museum (1988-89)

takes the

form
It

of a

PBS

documentary of

a docent's tour

through an unnamed museum.

begins like

most docent tours, but gradually the

distractions, slips of the tongue,

and

free

associations of the docent reveal her desires

and how they both support and

a

subvert those of the

museum. Her stream-of-consciousness ramblings imply

and the consequent recognition of the

desire that cannot be normalized,

subjectivities" of the

"split

museum and the docent

to the public

suggests points of critical resistance

its

and

possible change. Fraser's installation Amuse(um) (1989), with

,"

tape-re-

corded announcements ("Open

"No spitting," "Have a nice day!"),

smiley-face disks

marks the point of entry

into the

museum. Her aluminum,

whimsically trace a path throughout the exhibition installation, calling attention

AIMEE rankin, De

Pictum, from the series Renaissance, 1983

to various idiosyncratic aspects of the gallery space, as if locating points of interest

within a hypothetical docent tour.

Laurie Simmons' 1984 Tourism photographs focus on the involvement of the

museum

in

non-art activities and environments. Simmons' two photographs,

Tourism: Parthenon

and Tourism:

Eiffel Tower,

suggest the extension of

museum
in

culture across the globe

and equate tourism with consumption. The figures

in front

her photos are plastic dolls awkwardly positioned

of stock photos of

famous
the

tourist sites, creating a simulacra of culture, art,

and

history.

Where does

museum begin and where does it end?

museums
rely

In contemporary culture, the lines are

its

blurred, and the

desire spills past

borders.

The way
general
Untitled (Buy

in

which the desires of the museum, the museum-goer, and the

economy
me

on consumption
life).

is

the subject of Barbara Kruger's 1984

Til

change your

The maniacal
museum: on

look of the photographed

text, points to a
it

puppet conveys an eerie desperation which, combined with the

contradiction in the ideology of the

the one hand,

life";

clings to the
it

humanist ideal of art

as transcendental, able to

"change your

on the other,
in the

acknowledges
placelike a

art as a material

commodity

to

be bought and sold

market-

toy.

Kruger's work, like most of the works in this exhibition, points to

a conflict between the

museum's self-image as an
its

institution aloof

from the

marketplace or other external forces and

actual behavior.

Sublimating the Viewer

MAREK WIECZO.REK

/according

to

Freud, civilization desocially

pends on the channeling of sexual drives into desexualized and

activities.

valued
it

He

called this process "sublimation"

civilized behavior,
it is

and argued

that,

though

oper-

ates in

all

forms of

most

active in aesthetic creation

and

contemplation. Although sublimated activity

repression,
art
it

satisfies

unconscious drives without

tends to dissolve the original component of bodily pleasure.

as
it

The
of

museum, inasmuch
in

posits an ideal viewer a nonsexual, purely

site

contemplative mind
sublimation.

devout communion with art is an important

In modernist art, this desexualization of the viewer

is

primarily effected

through the pursuit of a "pure"

object
is

art, a

"pure"

vision.

The experience of the

purpose
oi

art

detached from the other senses

to serve the

disembodied

contemplation. This

mode

of aesthetic experience governs modernist painting

Piet

from Kasimir Malevich and

Mondrian

to

Kenneth Noland and Larry Poons.

of vision:
it

The modern museum supports this essentialization

where the paradigm of "pure"
institution

is

the temple

vision

is

celebrated. All objects that enter the

is

must succumb to its desexualizing, dematei ializing gaze. The viewer

forced to

become

only a spectator "Do not

touch" and

to

deny other bodily

oi vision

sensations "No smoking, eating, or drinking." This institutionalization

not only tends to abstract vision from the body, but
desire
this
it

also obscures the effect oi

on perception. Recent

critical art practices

and theories have questioned

corporeal and

model of perception and shown

and the construction of

that vision

is

bound up with

desires

sexuality. In el led,

such work makes one see

oneself seeing.

Richard Artschwager and Liz

activity

Lamer

directly challenge the sublimative

of the

museum. Artschwager's

Blps (1989) are small, gray ovals of rub-

berized hair,
ers,

set in

the marginal areas of the exhibition space. As "dirty" intrud-

they challenge the

museums
of (he

desire to be a clean,

well-lit

place of neutral

visibility.

Larner's The Desire

Museum

Cultures (1989) consists of live agar-

filled petti

dishes to which are

added various substances chosen by the individual

curators of this exhibition. In a playful

pun on

the double

meaning of "culture,"

Larner aestheticizes these materials with

brilliant

dyes (the colors change and

fade during the course of the exhibition). These infusions reflect the desires of
the curators to address issues such as

AIDS and testing as a form of social control,

practice,

nationalism, paternity

and reproductive technology, museum

loss.

and the
is

psychic ramifications of

Another Larner
walls.

piece, Wall Scratcher (1988),

to a

a
it

machine

that cuts into the

museums

Moved

new

location each day,

produces more and more gashes, eventually leaving a scarred ring around the
gallery. Larner's clinically precise

works intrude on the museums pristine

its

walls,

controlled climate,
tion of dirt

and quiet hum. They question and the body.

typical rejection or sublima-

and

decay, desire

Aimee Rankin's dioramic boxes not only stress the carnal aspect of
also

vision, but

engage senses usually suppressed

in the

museum. One

gazes through aus-

tere exteriors into elaborate interiors via peepholes. In the boxes

Ecstasy series, light,

from the 1987

movement, and taped music

that the viewer activates by

plugging
historical

in

headphones accompany the

interior tableaux.

They contain
tissues,

art

images and gift-shop curios as well as mirrors, fake body

eyes, all

and

disembodied

arranged

to

both seduce and shock the viewer. Sound and

ALLAN McCOLLUM,

Plaster Surrogates,

1982-89

flfl

yj

movement connect

the body and the box in a way that denies any "pure" vision or

aesthetic distance. Rankin's

directly linked to the

work makes us aware that the pleasures of looking are

its

body and

unconscious desires;

it

reveals the "perverse"

side of these desires,

which are rechanneled by the museum.

Allan McCollum's Plaster Surrogates (19S2-H9) constitute an indefinite series

of almost identical

monochrome

paintings in the form of plaster casts, with the

frame, the mat, and the "picture" painted on the plaster. They metaphorically

reduce painting to a convention,

to a

simple token of exchange.

is

The

single but

repeatable image dislocates content, for there

painting,

nothing

to

"see" no original

no unique work, nothing "pure" about the work or the visual form. The
caught
in

viewer

is

the act of seeking out an emotional connection,

ol

looking for

distinctive features for contemplation, but the sheer proliferation of the surro-

gates

makes us

realize that art traditionally has

it.

meaning only
and

in relation to

the

sublimative activity controlling

Plaster Surrogates threaten to

As

substitutes lor any

all art

objects, the

exceed the control of the museum.

Larner, Rankin, and

The works of Artsch wager,

no longer possible
all

McCollum

suggest that

it

is

to essentialize vision or to posit

an ideal viewer. Although they

depend on museological,

aesthetic, or art historical conventions, they seek to

subvert the "pure" contemplation which these conventions usually support.

Moreover, the works investigate the consequences of the

activity as they affect the desires

museums

sublimated
as a

of both viewer and

museum. Considered
a

group, the works

stand
its

in this exhibition offer the

its

museum

way

to begin to

under-

own

presuppositions,

own

unconscious, and the relation of its desires

and

beliefs to cultural production.

The Museum Under Analysis

JACKIE MCALLISTER AND BENJAMIN WEIL

Any
sire

contemporary analysis of the de-

of the

museum

assumes, as one of its preconditions, a varied tradition of art

as

critical

of the

museum

an institution a tradition which ranges from the works

such contemporary figures as Hans Haacke,

of Marcel

Duchamp
Two

to those of

Joseph Kosuth, Louise Lawler, Ashley Bickerton, Peter Nagy, Mark Dion, and
Jason Simon.
objectives of the

museum

are often singled out in these

10

I
critiques: the

need

to celebrate the individual

work

of

art

and the need

to

construct the perfect i.e., the most representative and completecollection.

However, these objectives can be contradictory, for once a work

of art

enters a
part of

museum

it

effectively disappears as

an entity

in

its

own

right to

become

the larger entity of the collection.

This institutional operation was

first

investigated by

Duchamp; indeed,
is

his

From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Selavy (The Box

in a Valise)

paradigmatic. As a
in a Valise
it

compilation in miniature of most of Duchamp's earlier works, The Box

(first

version, 1941) creates a

comprehensive mini-collection. In
in

effect,

doubles

and thereby questions the context

the

which the viewing of

art usually

occurs in
as

museum. As

a presentation device, the

art.

box parodies the museum

it

an

enclosed space for displaying

archival activity of the
artist is a

As

a repository of documents,

mocks the

museum.

In addition, the valise satirically suggests that the

as

traveling salesman

whose concerns are

role of curator,
its

promotional as they are

that the

aesthetic.

By thus assuming the

is

Duchamp demonstrates
in the

meaning of art

established by

institutional context.

In the late 1950s,

Duchamp's work became better known

as

United States

through such admirers

Minimalist
artists,

John Cage and Jasper Johns.

In the early 1960s,

often influenced by

Duchamp, began

to investigate the per-

ceptual conditions and physical spaces of the gallery and the

turn,

museum.

This, in

provoked

artists

such as Hans Haacke to attend to the wider

social, eco-

nomic, and

political

determinants of art. Often unseen within the confines of the

interests

art world, these

commercial

and corporate ideologies

is

constitute the

system in which the work of art, as commodity,

field

enmeshed. In

this way, a

wider

of subject matter has

opened up

for critical artistic practice.

In Seurat's "Les Poseuses" (small version),

specific case history of patronage.

18881975

(1975),

Haacke provides

This work, which consists of fourteen panels

traces the

with text

and one color photograph,

provenance of Les Poseuses by the

facts

French Neo-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat. By relating

social

about the

and economic
it,

status of

its

successive owners

and highlighting the price

each paid for

Haacke brings

to light

information usually hidden behind the

entries.

abstractions of wall labels

and catalogue
work of art

The

evidence of the painting's

journey from the

artist's

studio to the portfolio of an investment consortium

as a creation untainted by

contradicts the notion of the

commercial

concerns. Indeed, Haacke demonstrates that these concerns always govern a

work's status as art
If

and

as

commodity.

Haacke
is

is

interested in

how patronage

affects the

work of

art,

Joseph

Kosuth

concerned with how curatorial interpretation determines

its

meaning.

11


V
i

-S*

His Cathexis scries (1981-82) comprises altered black-and-white photographs,

displayed upside-down, of either an Old Master painting or a traditional Salonstyle

hanging of such paintings. These images

the conditions of viewing art in
its

.tie

juxtaposed with texts

that

comment on
and

institutional settings.

The images

texts contain

matching

colored (tosses which highlight significant points in

a specific

the structure of both

and suggest

order of reading. Kosuth thus

emphasizes how interpretative habits and institutional contexts govern the

meaning of art and challenges the viewer

to think

through these constraints.

Louise Lawler's work also underscores contextual elements that determine

viewing in the gallery or museum. In her series of simulated wall
labels, a color

photograph of
areas)
is

museum

setting

(i.e,

an installation shot or

a view of storage

juxtaposed with a word that redirects our reading of the image. In

Midnight (1986), for instance, the word "midnight" refers to the viewing condition
of the photographed artwork
(1986), the
(a

sculpture seen outside,

at night),

while in Green

word

refers to the color of the

room

in

which the photographed

sculptures are being stored. In this way, Lawler focuses our attention on the

work's surroundings on

its

"frames" rather than on the work

itself.

With
at

INTERESTING
institutions.

(1985), a painted wall sign that

mimics the bank logos found

every local cash machine, Lawler poses an analogy between cultural and financial

While the word directs attention

to the

punning

associations be-

S^vV

rT

tr

Jug
MARCEL DUCHAMP,
(The Box
in a Valise), c.

From
1960

or by

Marcel Duchamp or

Rro.se Selavy

12

M[N

tween intellectual interest and monetary

interest,

it

also alludes to a

broader

range of attentions and desires aroused within the exhibition.

Ashley Bickerton,
in turn,

produces work that plays on the insatiable needs

of the art market. His wall constructions are assembled from industrially fabricated parts, with electronic

and painted

signs,

which emphasize the high-tech

aesthetic of the works. Landscape

#5

(1989) addresses the market as a driving

is

force behind the production of art. Here, the market

electronic display of the work's
topicality with

represented through the

own updated

financial value.

Confirming

its

markings such

as

"Season 88/89," Landscape

#5

directly links

cultural value with

commodity

value.

Peter

Nagy addresses the

issue of the

museum

as a

promotional device for

the corporate world in Intellectual History (1984), which consists of a black-and-

white photocopy of
the collection
Electric,
is

The Metropolitan Museum

of Art's floor plan. Each area of

overlaid with the logos of such corporations as

this relationship,

IBM, General

and Xerox. By making visual

Nagy

reveals an aspect of

the financing structure of the

museum and

suggests the kind of public image

sought by these corporations through their cultural sponsorship.

In their film Artful History:

A Restoration Comedy
work of
art in a

(1988),

Mark Dion and Jason

Simon explore the

Produced

fate of the

commercial restoration studio.

documentary, the film (here
restorer

in the style of a polite public television

transferred to video) seeks to

as a clinical technician

undermine the notion of the commercial

concerned only with the aesthetic integrity of the artwork.

To accompany the
retrieved cut

film,

Dion places on the gallery

studio.

wall strips of paintings

from a restoration

These scraps derive from damaged paintings

up

to

produce smaller works when the expense of restoring the originals was

deemed

exorbitant.

The dimensions of the uncut paintings are presented on

damage wrought, and
film

the

wall to give a sense of the that led to the cuts.

text panels relate to the events

Between the

and the

installation pieces, restorers

and

retouchers are seen to respond to the promptings of art dealers and

museum
is

curators as they alter paintings to suit format requirements and marketplace

pressures.

The

implication
desires.

is

that not even the physical aspect of a

work of art

immune

to

hidden

These varied
notion of the

critical

approaches

to the institutional contexts

of art belie the

museum as an

altruistic institution

only concerned with the desires

of the viewer.

The works expose many

determinants, from both within and complicate

its

without, which reveal the desires of the

musem and

objectives.

13

En
Works
All

in

the Exhibition

dimensions are

in inches; height

Wedding Presents, 1989

precedes width precedes depth.

Mixed-media
Collet lion
<>l

installation with text,

dimensions variable
the artist

RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER(b.
Blps,

1923)

MARCEL DL CHAMP
From
or by

(1887-1968)
or

1989
Marcel Duchamp
Valise), c.

Rubberized hair, twelve units, 18x9x leach Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

Rune

Selavy

(The Box in a
closed, 1614

I960

Mixed media with

valise, 16'/hX 14 7/xx4'/k

x60x

\7Vi

opened

Collection of Timothy

Baum and

ASHLEY BICKER TON

Landscape #5, 1989

Roland Augustine
(b.

1959)

Mixed-media construction. 3414x80^x36 Sonnabend Gallery, New York

ANDREA ERASER
Amuse(um), 1989
Installation with seven

(b.

1965)

aluminum

disks

and

MARK DION
SIMON
(b.

(b.

1961)

and

JASON

sound recording, dimensions variable

(

1961)

!olle<

tion of the artist

Artful History:

Restoration Comedy. 1988

of color film,

Videotape transfer
28 minutes

sound.

Collection of the artists

ANDREA ERASER LAWLER 1917)

(b.

and

LOUISE

MARK DION
Cutting Corners. 1982

of Art: The Museum. 1988-89 Produced by Terry McCoy Videotape, color, sound, 15 minutes

The Public Life

Collection of Terry

McCo)

J.G.

Mixed media with altered painting by Brown, 1860, and text, 27 x 25

Collection of the artist

GUERRILLA GIRLS
Untitled.

1987

Economic Recovery, 1984

Mixed media with

unidentified

Offset poster, 22 x 17

altered painting by an

artist, c.

1825,

and

text,

25 x 15

Collection of the artists

Cntitled.

Collection of the artist

History Bunk, 1984

1988

Offset poster.

17x22

unidentified

Mixed media with altered painting by an artist, c. 1930, and text, 21 X 29

Collection of the artists

Untitled.

1989
1 1

Collection of the artist

Bizarre Chanty. 1987

Offset poster,

x 28

Collection of the artists

Mixed media with

text,

altered painting

and

Untitled.

1989

24 X 18

Offset poster,

17x22

Collection of the artist

Collection of the artists

14

HANS HA ACRE

(b.

1936)

"Melancholia,
hair,

Mama.
1989

Utopia" (three

tears, a

Seurat's "Les Poseuses" (small version),

and a

wish),

1888-1975, 1975 Fourteen panels with text. 30x20 each, and one color photograph, 23% x 27 V\

Mixed media

in agar-filled petri

dishes

with display stand

Collection of the
Gallery.
artist;

courtesy 303

John Weber

Gallery,

New York

New

York

SILVIA KOLBOWSKI
Enlarged from
the Catalogue,

(b.

1953)

LOUISE LAWLER
JEWEL,
1982

(b.

1947)

"The United

States of America,"

1989

Color photograph and transfer type

Mixed-media
cases,

installation with nine display

bench, and catalogues in wall

on paper, 4x13 Metro Pictures,

New York

x 17 each; bench, 18 x 60 x 16; wall display, 10 x 30 Postmasters Gallery, New York

display: display cases,
17

50 x

STORAGE,

Queens Museum, Hushing Meadow-Corona Park, New York, on loan from

the Metropolitan

Museum

of Art, restored with

funds from the Chase Manhattan Bank, 1984

Black-and-white photograph and transfer

JOSEPH KOSUTH
Cathex/s 44. 1982

(b.

1945)

type on paper, 4 x 13

Metro Pictures,
Altered black-and-white photograph,
84'A>x 119'/>

New York
The

THE NORWICH FREE ACADEMY,

Slater

Memorial Museum, Norwich,

Leo

Castelli Gallery,

New York

Connecticut, 1984 Color photograph and transfer type

Cathexis 45, 1982

Altered black-and-white photograph,

84 'A- X

on paper, 4x13 Metro Pictures, New York

Arranged
by

I19'/t>

Contemporary Arts Publishing Consortium, Mineola, New York

Marvin Heiferman, 1985

Black-and-white photograph and transfer

type on paper, 4 x 13

Metro

Pictures,

New York
(reinstalled 1989)

BARBARA KRL'GER
I

(b.

1945)
life),

INTERESTING, 1985
1984

'nlitled

(Buy me

I'll

change your

Latex on wall, dimensions variable

Black-and-white photograph. 72 x 48
Private collection

Metro

Pictures,

New

York

Green, 1986

Color photograph and transfer type

LIZ

LARNER

(b.

I960)

on paper, 4 x 13 Metro Pictures,

Midnight, 1986

New York

Wall Sc catcher, 1988

Anodized aluminum, 12-volt gear motor with battery, and spring steel, 47 x 12'/i x 303 Gallery, New York

18'/l>

Black-and-white photograph and embossing on paper, 4x13 Metro Pictures, New York
Etes-Vous Heureuse?, 1987

Color photograph laminated to gold

The Desire
of the

Museum

Cultures: Timothy

Landers, "Anti-Bodies" (semen

and

blood):

engraved plexiglass, 5x14 Metro Pictures, New York

Jackie McAllister, "Scotch Mist" (whiskey

and

haggis); Catsou Roberts, "Gynecology" (semen);

Benjamin

Weil,

"Muscology" (dust from the

walls):

museum

floor

and

Marek

Wieczorek,

15

...

fcfH

w
(b.

ALLAN McCOLLUM
Plaster Surrogates,

1944)

oily day, 1954 Foundingfathersf

Collage,

12x20

(sight)

1982-89 Enamel on hydrostone, 96

John Weber Gallery,

Whitney
units,

Museum

of American Art,

New

York; Gift of Rita Reinhardl

/ the Artist us

76.46

dimensions variable

New York

Portend

Yhung

Mandala, 1955
Collage, 2()!/ix 13M> (sight)

PETER NAGY
Intellectual tin/on,

Whitney
(b.

1959)

Museum

of American Art,
76.45

New
Art
ill

York; Gift of Rita Reinhardt

Life oj Art, n.d.

1984

Blac k-and-white
11x8'/..
|ay

composite photocopy,

Collage, 1()x24'/j (sight)

Gorney Modern Art,

New York

Whitney

Museum
(.ilt ol

of American Art,
Rita Reinhardt

New

York;

76.48

A1MEE RANKIN
De
Pictura,

(b.

1958)

[ULIA SCHER
Security by Julia V,
12

(I).

1954)

from the

series

1989

Renaissance, 1983

Closed-circuit video surveillance

installation,

Mixed-media assemblage, 16x20x

Postmasters Gallery,
l.u

dimensions variable

New York

Equipment donated by Matthew

Maniscalco,

from the series Renaissance, 1983-84 Mixed-media assemblage,

Pittura,

NYCO

Electronics, Security

Systems, Inc., Panasonic, and Ikegami

16 x

20 x

12

Electronics (U.S.A)
(

Police

Private colle< tion

lion ol the artist

Nature Morte, from the series

198384 Mixed-media assemblage, I6x20x Collection of Catherine Holland

Renaissance,
Fear,

LAURIE SIMMONS
12

(b.

1949)

Tourism: Eiffel Tower, 19S4 Color photograph, 60 x 40

from the series Ecstasy, 1987 Mixed-media box construction with sound, lights, and motor, IS x 24 x 24 Postmasters Gallery, New York

Collection of the

artist;

courtesy

Metro

Pictures,

New

York

Tourism: Parthenon, 1984 Color photograph, 40 x 60

Possession,

from the series Ecstasy, 1987 Mixed-media box construction with sound, lights, and motor, 18 x 24 x 24 Postmasters Gallery, New York
from the series Ecstasy, 1987 Mixed-media box construction with sound, lights, and motor, 18 x 24 x 24 Postmasters Gallery, New York

Collection of the

artist;

courtesy

Metro

Pictures,

New York
at Art).

Untitled

(Women Looking

1984
10

Black-and-white photograph,
Sex,

8x

Collection of the artist

LAURIE SIMMON S LEVINE (b. 1947)

Project jor the cover of

and S

HERR

AD REIN HARD
Museum
Whitney
Collage, 9'/2x22 7/h

(1913-1967)

"New

Observations," 1984

Landscape, 1950

Six black-and-white photographs,

8x10

each, and three color photographs.

Museum

of American Art,
artist

two

8x

10,

one 10x8

New

York; Gift of the

66. 14

Collection of Laurie

Simmons
by Nathan Rabin

Photograph

of

Duchamp

16

Whitney Museum of American Art

Downtown

at

Federal Reserve Plaza

at

33 Maiden Lane

Nassau Street
10038

New

York,

New York

(212) 943-5657

Monday-Friday, 11:00-6:00
Free admission

GALLERY TALKS
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 12:30 Tours by appointment

Pamela Gruninger Perkins

Head, Branch Museums
Karl Emil Willers

Branch Director

Susan Wilharm Manager

Charles A. Wright,
Gallery Coordinator

Jr.

Design: Marc Zaref Design

Typesetting: Trufont Typographers, Inc.
Printing: Eastern Press

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN

ART,

DOWNTOWN AT FEDERAL RESERVE PLAZA

12,

JULY 12-SEPTEMBER

1989