Apparitions: Frottages and Rubbings from 1860 to Now is the first museum exhibition to explore both the historical roots and the contemporary impact of this technique. It will feature key examples of the technique by artists from various periods and regions, from historical figures like the Czech surrealists Jindřich Štýrský and Toyen, to post–World War II artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein, to contemporary artists of different generations, including Anna Barriball, Jennifer Bornstein, Morgan Fisher, Simryn Gill, Matt Mullican, Ruben Ochoa, Gabriel Orozco, and Jack Whitten. The presentation will shed light on artists little known outside their countries of origin, such as Geta Brǎtescu from Romania and Eva Kmentová from the Czech Republic. Acknowledging the convention of rubbing for anthropological and scientific purposes, the exhibition will also present important historical precursors, including a remarkable group of nineteenth-century rubbings of brass funerary plaques. This eclectic yet singularly focused selection will demonstrate the multifaceted ways in which frottage transcends the traditional boundaries of draftsmanship.
Curated by Allegra Pesenti, curator at large, Menil Drawing Institute, and former curator of the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Apparitions: Frottages and Rubbings from 1860 to Now will include approximately one hundred works on paper by fifty artists. It will be on view at the Hammer Museum from February 8 to May 31, 2015, and at the Menil Collection in Houston from September 11, 2015, to January 3, 2016.
April 28 – Hammer Lectures – Artist Talk: Do Ho Suh
May 6 – Lunchtime Art Talks – Do Ho Suh
http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2015/apparitions-frottages-and-rubbings-from-1860-to-now/
