Works from Documenta IX
Kassel, Germany
June 12- September 20 1992
Jan Hoet Artistic Director
First held in 1955 in the north central German city of Kassel (population 200,000) Documenta was conceived by founder and Director of the first two editions Arnold Bode as a way for post-war (West)Germany to display their commitment to contemporary art and the principles of artistic tolerance. Also referred to as The Museum of 100 Days, (or more derisively the Avant Gard Olympics), and now held every five years, it quickly grew to become the largest, most ambitious, and most expensive contemporary art survey in the world. Every Documenta is a distinct event, and each is shaped by one artistic director who, along with a chosen team of curatorial assistants, selects artists from around the world to express a vision of what they perceive to be the important issues at large in the Art World at that time.
In 1992 the Belgian art curator Jan Hoet was selected as the Director
for Documenta IX. Famous for his 1986 Chambres D'Amis in which he invited 50 artists to install site-specific works in various apartments and residences in Ghent, Belgium Hoet has long championed a vision of art that often occurs at the intersection of the private and the public spheres. His choice of the mirror image of a black/white swan as the symbol for his show perfectly captures this duality.
For Documenta IX he selected 189 artists from around the world who then created nearly 1000 separate works that were exhibited both on the grounds of the Fridericianum, one of the first stand alone art museums in the world (1778), other numerous classical buildings on the grounds (Orangery, Neue Galerie, etc.), as well as site specific sculptures and installations throughout the gardens, hillsides, and the City itself. Like all huge art surveys Hoets' Documenta was both highly praised and criticized, at a cost of over 19 million Deutsch Marks ( @20 million US) Documenta IX was seen by more than 603,000 visitors, an increase of more than 170,000 than the previous one held in 1988.
Finally, as a side note, out of the 43 U.S. artists selected by Hoet and his team, four artists were chosen from the American Fine Arts Co. gallery alone (Cady Noland, Peter Fend, Thom Merrick, and myself).
This underscored the amazing respect accorded to the vision, and of the Gallery and its' founder, my friend and collaborator
for ten years, Colin DeLand (1955-2002).
The Fridericianum Kassel, Germany
The Orangery Kassel, Germany
The Neue Galerie Kassel, Germany
Kassel, Germany
June 12- September 20 1992
Jan Hoet Artistic Director
First held in 1955 in the north central German city of Kassel (population 200,000) Documenta was conceived by founder and Director of the first two editions Arnold Bode as a way for post-war (West)Germany to display their commitment to contemporary art and the principles of artistic tolerance. Also referred to as The Museum of 100 Days, (or more derisively the Avant Gard Olympics), and now held every five years, it quickly grew to become the largest, most ambitious, and most expensive contemporary art survey in the world. Every Documenta is a distinct event, and each is shaped by one artistic director who, along with a chosen team of curatorial assistants, selects artists from around the world to express a vision of what they perceive to be the important issues at large in the Art World at that time.
In 1992 the Belgian art curator Jan Hoet was selected as the Director
for Documenta IX. Famous for his 1986 Chambres D'Amis in which he invited 50 artists to install site-specific works in various apartments and residences in Ghent, Belgium Hoet has long championed a vision of art that often occurs at the intersection of the private and the public spheres. His choice of the mirror image of a black/white swan as the symbol for his show perfectly captures this duality.
For Documenta IX he selected 189 artists from around the world who then created nearly 1000 separate works that were exhibited both on the grounds of the Fridericianum, one of the first stand alone art museums in the world (1778), other numerous classical buildings on the grounds (Orangery, Neue Galerie, etc.), as well as site specific sculptures and installations throughout the gardens, hillsides, and the City itself. Like all huge art surveys Hoets' Documenta was both highly praised and criticized, at a cost of over 19 million Deutsch Marks ( @20 million US) Documenta IX was seen by more than 603,000 visitors, an increase of more than 170,000 than the previous one held in 1988.
Finally, as a side note, out of the 43 U.S. artists selected by Hoet and his team, four artists were chosen from the American Fine Arts Co. gallery alone (Cady Noland, Peter Fend, Thom Merrick, and myself).
This underscored the amazing respect accorded to the vision, and of the Gallery and its' founder, my friend and collaborator
for ten years, Colin DeLand (1955-2002).
The Fridericianum Kassel, Germany
The Orangery Kassel, Germany
The Neue Galerie Kassel, Germany
Having seen my 1989 exhibition at American Fine Arts Co. in
New York City, Jan Hoet was very intrigued by my use of found bed sheets and waste water as substitutes for paint and canvas. The resulting "paintings" he felt were both formally rigorous, and aesthetically sublime, capturing the strange place where the "social" meets the "conceptual". He was also
intrigued by the my use of perfume as a paint substitute in my 1991 show at the same gallery. Hoet felt that it also spoke to this "hidden dimension" where the social, political, and personal all intersect, and after several meetings with
Colin DeLand he invited me to participate in Documenta IX with the understanding that I would produce new works for the exhibition in both of these formats.
I set out to make a suite of new works that would incorporate similar techniques of substitution, but in the place of bed sheets, I chose instead to work with a new material, a synthetic irredescent fabric that was at once both sheer, and weirdly opaque, and when layed over each other created a shimmering, reflective surface, both flat, and curiously "deep". More intensly colored than the muted off-whites, and pale pink of the "bed sheet" paintings. Nearby to these works would be a new type of perfume painting that also incorporated a different material, this time a holographic foil, that layered under a sheer black fabric, would act as both mirror, and perfume "site".
Together the two groups of works occupied a wing of the Neue Galerie.
Documenta Suite
Capital Project: Covered Sites ( D1, D2, D3)
waste water and fluids with fabrics on canvas
96" x 72"
1992
Detail Covered Site (D1)
Waste water and fluids on canvas
96" x 72"
1992
Detail Covered Site (D2)
Waste water and fluids on canvas
96" x 72"
1992
Detail Covered Site (D3)
Waste water and fluids on canvas
96" x 72"
1992
Documenta Suite
Perfume Site: ( D4)
Holographic foil, fabric, and perfume on canvas (with perfume bottle)
80" x 60"
1992