Assignment #4: Report on an Exhibition w/ Bibliography
Select one of the exhibitions from the list provided (see next page)
Research your exhibition in terms of:
content (which and how many artists, what works are in the show)
stated curatorial goals/argument (what does it try to accomplish?)
how was the show organized (thematic? groupings/sections? chronological?)
reception of the exhibition (what kind of critical response did the exhibition generate?)
venue/s (where is it shown?, does it travel to other venues?, is the reception different
from venue to venue?)
In addition to the catalogue of the exhibition, develop a bibliography on the chosen exhibition with a minimum of 8 entries of substantive writings. (Wikepedia entry does not count, nor does press releases.) You will likely have to review much more than 8 texts to get a full understanding of some of the artists in the show as well as the profile of the curator(s). Your bibliography, however, should be specific to the exhibition.
Read all items on your bibliography to become familiar with the exhibition and its reception.
Based on your research write a report (approx. 1200-2000 words) on your research material, which should be organized as follows:
I. Description of the exhibition (include basic facts: when, where, what, who, etc.)
II. Summary of the arguments or goals of the curators
III. Identify three of the strongest and different critical evaluations of the exhibition
among your bibliography entries and re-state the author’s views in your words.
(You can approach this like an annotated bibliography.)
IV. Considering the main points raised by various critics in response to the exhibition,
what is considered successful and what is considered a failure or a shortcoming of
the exhibition? Is there a consensus? Are there differences of opinion?
EXHIBITIONS FOR ASSIGNMENT #4
William Rubin
’Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1984
Kate Linker
Differences: On Representation and Sexuality, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1985
Brian Wallis
Damaged Goods: Desire and the Economy of the Object, New Museum of Contemporary
Art, 1986
Jean-Hubert Martin
Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1989 [you will need French skills to
study this exhibition]
Mary Jane Jacob, Ann Goldstein
Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation, Museum of Contemporary Art Los
Angeles, 1989-90
Janet Kardon
Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.
(cancelled); University Art Museum, UC Berkeley; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati,
1989-90
Elizabeth Sussman (head curator), with Lisa Phillips, Thelma Golden, and John
Handhardt
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1993
Marcia Tucker
Bad Girls, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1994
Julie Ault
Cultural Economies: Histories from the Alternative Art Movement, NYC, The Drawing
Center, New York, 1996
Amelia Jones
Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party in Feminist Art History, Hammer Museum, Los
Angeles, 1996
Norman Rosenthal
Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Art,
London; Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin; Brooklyn Museum, New York,
1997-2000
Gao Minglu
Inside Out: New Chinese Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Asia Society, and P.S.1, 1998
Kynaston McShine
The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1999
Okwui Enwezor
The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994, Museum
Villa Stuck, Munich; House of World Cultures in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; The
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and P.S.1, New York, 2001-02.
