|
The new exhibition Past Presence: Objects Of Study at
the Getty Research Institute, on view from Feb. 23 -
April 30, 2005 at the Grolier Club, explores how time --
past, present, and future -- is represented visually in
objects that contribute to our knowledge about the history
of art. The exhibition brings together highlights drawn from
the special collections of the Research Library at the Getty
Research Institute, one of the preeminent art libraries in
the world. Past Presence offers viewers an evocative
exploration of time in rare books, photographs, sketches,
architectural drawings, engravings, woodcuts and optical
devices. The wide-ranging display looks at how artists,
writers, and architects responded to notions of time and the
urge to capture a moment, recreate the past, record the
present, or imagine the future.
Past Presence is presented in association with the Getty
Research Institute's 2004-05 research theme "Duration,"
which marks the 20th anniversary of its scholar program.
Since 1985, the Getty has supported researchers working in
residence at the Getty Center on projects related to the
annual chosen theme. Twenty-nine scholars will be at the
Getty conducting studies related to "Duration" this academic
year. After the presentation at the Getty Center, the
exhibition will travel to New York, where it will be on view
from February 23-April 30, 2005 at the Grolier Club, the
country's oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and
enthusiasts of the graphic arts.
Past Presence is divided into four areas of
exploration: Past, Presenting the Past, Present, and Future.
The first section considers how art can portray the past as
perfect or imperfect. Artists can return objects to an
imagined state of former perfection, expressing a longing
for an idealized past. In an 18th-century etching on view,
Francesco Piranesi recreates a monument from the 1st-century
B.C. In a similar way, an 1816 watercolor by English
architect Joseph Michael Gandy romantically reconstructs the
ancient city of Sparta. On the other hand, artistic
depictions of the imperfect past record the damaging effects
of time as in an engraving in an 18th-century catalogue for
the British Museum showing an encrusted skull and corroded
sword found in the Tiber River at Rome.
The show also examines how the past is preserved for the
future by the present. The practice of collecting and
displaying objects in a curiosity cabinet is an example of
capturing and cataloguing the past. The exhibition features
the earliest known copperplate engraving of a curiosity
cabinet from 1622 as well as Marcel Duchamp's Box,
produced three centuries later in 1958. Duchamp arranged
miniatures of his work in a boxed set, thus offering his
career for sale as a commentary on collecting and curating.
The ephemeral and eternal qualities of time emerge as
artists try to capture a moment by drawing, painting,
writing, printing, and taking photographs. A display of
fireworks at Versailles in 1676 is preserved for memory by
an engraving in a lavish fête-book published to
commemorate a victory of Louis XIV. In a similar fashion, a
photograph documents the Allan Kaprow performance
"Durations" (1976), which marked the passing of time by the
melting of ice blocks. Concluding the exhibition are
artists' portrayals of the future, sometimes as a place of
hope where visions will have been realized and goals
achieved.
This desire to perfect the future can be seen in one of the
earliest objects from the collections of the Getty Research
Institute-the Renaissance designs for machines and devices
drawn around 1475 by the Sienese architect Francesco di
Giorgio Martini. Similar motifs are echoed in the 1933
Architectural Fantasies of Iakov Chernikhov, where powerful
depictions of industrial might and design in Leningrad
reflect optimism for the future of the Soviet state. But for
every individual the future also holds the inevitable end.
The exhibition includes Art of Dying Well, a 1569
manual illustrated with woodcuts to instruct the good
Christian in the decorum of final moments, and a 1982
triptych that playfully populates hell, purgatory, and
paradise with stick figures of historical personalities and
contemporary celebrities.
LOCATION AND TIMES: Past Presence: The Objects of Study at
the Getty Research Institute will be on view at the Grolier
Club from February 23 - April 30, 2005. Hours:
Monday-Saturday 10 AM - 5 PM. Open to the public free of
charge. Additional information is available on the Getty
website.
|
