Exhibition Information

 

The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles from April 29–August 20, 2012. This website includes the texts and images from the catalog published by Skira Rizzoli in 2012 and documents the exhibition installation.

The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol was presented by the Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation.
Major support was provided by Bob Manoukian, Parx Casino, Maurice Marciano, Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr., and the Aishti Foundation.
Additional generous support was provided by The James and Eleanor Randall Foundation, Steven F. Roth Family Foundation, Margaret and Daniel S. Loeb, and Kelly Wearstler.

Lenders are listed as of April 2012.

Curator: Jeffrey Deitch
Curatorial Coordinator: Ethel Seno
Editor: Nikki Columbus
Design: Tracey Shiffman and Alex Kohnke, Shiffman & Kohnke, Los Angeles, with Michael P. McHugh, DigitalFusion, Culver City for website
Exhibition Design: wHY Architecture, Kulapat Yantrassat, Principal
Additional Exhibition Design Consultation: Urs Fischer and Rudolf Stingel

This website is adapted from the book published in 2012 by

Skira Rizzoli Publications, Inc
300 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
www.rizzoliusa.com

in association with

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
250 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
www.moca.org

© 2012 The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

For further information:

CONTRIBUTORS

Walead Beshty is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles and Associate Professor in the Graduate Fine Art Department of Art Center College of Design, Pasadena.

Claude Fayette Bragdon (1886–1946) was an American architect, writer, and stage designer.

Johanna Burton is an art historian and critic and Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the New Museum, New York.

Jeffrey Deitch, formerly director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is a curator and gallerist in New York.

Francesco Garutti is a contemporary art and architecture curator and writer. He is editor of Fairland (2015, Koenig Books), creator of Misleading Innocence (CCA), Professor of Interior Design at the University of Genoa School of Architecture, and curator at TheView Studio, Genoa, Italy.

Mark Godfrey is Senior Curator, International Art (Europe and Americas) at Tate Modern, London. He was curator of Gerhard Richter: Panorama (2011) and Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 (2014). He is author of Abstraction and the Holocaust (2007, Yale University Press).

Wayne Koestenbaum has published fifteen books of poetry, criticism, and fiction, including Humiliation, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, Blue Stranger with Mosaic BackgroundBest-Selling Jewish Porn Films, and My 1980s & Other Essays (2013, Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Rosalind E. Krauss is an editor and cofounder of October and is University Professor at Columbia University, New York.

Rachel Kushner is the author of The Flamethrowers (2013) and Telex from Cuba (2008; both Scribner).

James Meyer is Curator of Art, 1945–1974, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Jessica Morgan is Director of the Dia Art Foundation, New York.

Scott Rothkopf is Deputy Director of Programs and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

CREDITS FOR REPRINTED TEXTS

“The Madness of the Day,” by Rosalind E. Krauss, was first published in Andy Warhol: Diamond Dust Shadow Paintings. New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2000.
© Rosalind Krauss. Reprinted with permission of the author.

“Paintings of Painting for Paintings: The Kairology and Kronology of Rudolf Stingel,” by Francesco Bonami, was first published in Francesco Bonami, ed., Rudolf Stingel. Exh. cat. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Reprinted with slight revisions with permission of the author.

“Stain Resistance,” by Mark Godfrey, was first published in Artforum, Summer 2011. © Artforum and reprinted with slight revisions with permission of the author.

“Figure,” by Wayne Koestenbaum, was first published in Wayne Koestenbaum and Glenn Ligon, Figure, Paris: Yvon Lambert, 2008, and is included in Wayne Koestenbaum, My 1980s & Other Essays, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.  Reprinted with permission of the author.

“Ruinaphilia,” by Jessica Morgan, was first published in Parkett 89, 2011. Reprinted with slight revisions with permission of the author and Parkett Publishers, Zurich/New York.

“The Fourth Dimension: The Indispensable Analogy,” by Claude Fayette Bragdon, is excerpted from Claude Bragdon, A Primer of Higher Space (The Fourth Dimension). Rochester, New York: Manas Press, 1913; (reprint) New York: Cosimo Classics, 2005.

The original version of “The Whiteness of the Whale,” by Walead Beshty, was titled “THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE: KELLEY WAL KER, UNTITLED, 2011(four-color process silkscreen with acrylic ink on canvas, Domus, October 2011, 96 x 9 in.)” and written on the occasion of the exhibition “Kelley Walker: Untitled, 2011,” at Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles (2011).

“Realism and Abstraction,” by Josh Smith, is excerpted from “1000 Words,” first published in Artforum, February 2009. © Artforum and reprinted with permission of the author.

“Abstract Anxiety: DAS INST ITUT in conversation with Francesco Garutti” was first published in Abitare 520, March 2012. © Abitare, RCS Periodici, and reprinted with revisions with permission of the author.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The concept of an exhibition about Andy Warhol’s influence on new abstract painting began with my conversations with Christopher Wool in 1991 while we were selecting his work for my exhibition “Strange Abstraction” in Tokyo. I was intrigued by Wool’s interest in the abstract qualities of Warhol’s misregistered silk screens and his blots of silk-screen ink. In addition to my conversations with Christopher, I kept thinking about my visits with Rudolf Stingel, who was sharing a loft with friends of mine when he moved to New York in the mid-1980s. I was amazed by his “mechanical” reinvention of how to make a painting.

During the past ten years, it has been fascinating to watch how Warhol, Stingel, and Wool have influenced a new generation of painters who have been able to fuse the gesture of the Abstract Expressionists, the Pop sensibility of Warhol, and the conceptual rigor of the Minimalists. This exhibition focuses on this new generation of artists who have redefined abstract painting for our time. Several of them have created new bodies of work for this project, and all of them have been involved in the selection of images and texts for their sections in the book. I have enjoyed fascinating conversations over the past several years with Tauba Auerbach, Mark Bradford, Urs Fischer, Julie Mehretu, Sterling Ruby, and Josh Smith that have informed the development of this project.

I am very grateful to the lenders to the exhibition who have been so supportive of this project: The Museum of Modern Art, New York: Ann Temkin, chief curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Cora Rosevear, associate curator; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh: Eric C. Shiner, director, Heather Kowalski, Greg Burchard; Aishti Foundation: Tony Salame; The Brant Foundation: Peter M. Brant, Allison Brant, director, The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Jean M. Bickley; The Broad Art Foundation: Eli and Edythe Broad, Joanne Heyler, director, Vicki Gambill; François Pinault Foundation: François Pinault, Caroline Bourgeois, Odile de Labouchère, Morgane Mauger; Mugrabi Collection: Jose, Alberto, and David Mugrabi, Elizabeth Gerard, Esty Neuman, Tomasz Nazarko; Ovitz Family Collection: Michael Ovitz, Viet-Nu Nguyen, curator, Wilson Chang; Matthew Aberle, Isabel de la Cruz Ernst and Ricardo Ernst, Michael and Joyce Ostin, Dallas Price-Van Breda and Bob Van Breda, Shaun Caley Regen, Steven F. Roth, and several collectors who have lent anonymously.

We are also indebted to the artists’ galleries and to their studio staffs for their tremendous support: Luhring Augustine: Roland Augustine, Lawrence Luhring, Lisa Varghese, Natalia Sacasa, Caroline Burghardt; Gavin Brown’s enterprise: Gavin Brown, Bridget Donahue, Kim Lane; Paula Cooper Gallery: Paula Cooper, Steven Henry, Alexis Johnson, Lia Lowenthal, Joelle Te Paske; Marian Goodman Gallery: Lissa McClure; Balice Hertling: Alexander Hertling; Sikkema Jenkins & Co.: Brent Sikkema, Michael Jenkins, Scott Briscoe, Matthew Droege; Giò Marconi Gallery: Giò Marconi, Teresa Bovi; Friedrich Petzel Gallery: Friedrich Petzel, Kat Parker, Sam Tsao; Regen Projects: Shaun Caley Regen, Jennifer Loh; Standard (Oslo): Eivind Furnesvik, Silvia Essl; Urs Fischer Studio: Priya Bhatnagar; Wade Guyton Studio: James Campbell, Virginia Overton, Dirk Weber; Julie Mehretu Studio: Sarah Rentz, Robert Vinas; Sterling Ruby Studio: Sarah Conaway, Natasha Garcia-Lomas, and Devon Oder; Rudolf Stingel Studio: Elena Tavecchia. In addition, many thanks to GianCarlo Montebello for creating the metal display structure for DAS INSTITUT’s installation.

I am also grateful to Suzanne Geiss, Alexxa Gotthardt, Timur Galen, Kimberly Chang Mathieu, Amber Noland, Sabrina Buell, Steven Press, Dagon James, and Cristian Alexa for their help with this exhibition.

Our project team, led by curatorial coordinator Ethel Seno, has been exceptional. The book that accompanies the exhibition was brilliantly edited by Nikki Columbus and coordinated for Rizzoli by Isabel Venero. I am grateful to Charles Miers, vice-president and publisher of Rizzoli, for his support. I am very appreciative of the exceptional book design by Tracey Shiffman and Alex Kohnke that so effectively communicates the aesthetic of the work in the show. A group of remarkable art historians, writers, and photographers have contributed to the book. I am grateful to Johanna Burton, James Meyer, and Scott Rothkopf for their participation in the roundtable discussion that introduces this book. I am also grateful to the writers who wrote original texts or edited existing texts for this volume: Walead Beshty, Francesco Garutti, Mark Godfrey, Rachel Kushner, and Jessica Morgan. I also want to thank Francesco Bonami, Wayne Koestenbaum, and Rosalind Krauss for allowing us to reprint previously published texts on the artists. I would like to thank Peter Sutherland for the photographs of artist studios made for this book, and to David McCabe, Billy Name, Eugene Richards, and Stephen Shore for allowing us to reproduce their photographs of artist studios.

The exhibition architecture was designed by Kupapat Yantrasast, principal of wHY Architecture, and his team: Caroline Chin, Kathleen Daly, Bob Dornberger, and Christopher McLean. I am grateful to Urs Fischer and Rudolf Stingel for their additional suggestions regarding the exhibition design.

MOCA’s exhibition production staff, led by the extraordinary Jang Park, manager of exhibition production, and assisted by Brian Boyer, expertly coordinated the challenging installation. MOCA’s exhibition team included Melissa Altman, associate registrar; Rosanna Hemerick, registrar; and Susan Jenkins, director of exhibition management. The exhibition was also made possible through the efforts of Jill Haynie and Veridiana Pontes-Ring, co-directors of development, and Lyn Winter, director of communications.

I am especially grateful to our exhibition sponsors who have made this project possible: presenting sponsors Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen, and sponsors Bob Manoukian, Parx Casino, Maurice Marciano, Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr., and the Aishti Foundation. Additional generous support has been provided by the James and Eleanor Randall Foundation, the Steven F. Roth Family Foundation, Margaret and Daniel S. Loeb, and Kelly Wearstler. I am grateful to my friend Tony Salame, whose Aishti Foundation provided the initial grant for the development of this exhibition.

I am very appreciative of the support of the MOCA board of trustees, led by co-chairs Maria Arena Bell and David Johnson. This exhibition could not have happened without them.

 

—Jeffrey Deitch, April 2012

 

 

THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES
BOARD OF TRUSTEES as of April 2012

Maria Arena Bell, Co-Chair
David G. Johnson, Co-Chair
Jeffrey Soros, President
Fred Sands, Vice Chair

Eli Broad, Founding Chairman and Life Trustee
Clifford J. Einstein, Chair Emeritus
Dallas Price-Van Breda, President Emeritus

Wallis Annenberg
John Baldessari
Peter M. Brant
Charles S. Cohen
Steven A. Cohen
Charles L. Conlan II
Kathi Cypres
Laurent Degryse
Gil Friesen
Susan Gersh
NancyJane Goldston
Richard J. Grad
Laurence Graff
Lilly Tartikoff Karatz
Lauren King
Barbara Kruger
Wonmi Kwon
Timothy J. Leiweke
Daniel S. Loeb
Eugenio Lopez
Lillian P. Lovelace
Nancy Marks
Edward J. Minskoff
Steven T. Mnuchin
Peter Morton
Catherine Opie
Victor Pinchuk
Carolyn Powers
Steven F. Roth
Ed Ruscha
Darren Star
Jamie Tisch

Ex Officio Trustees
Jeffrey Deitch
The Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa
Council President Herb Wesson

Life Trustees
Betye Monell Burton
Blake Byrne
Lenore S. Greenberg
Audrey Irmas
Frederick M. Nicholas
Tom Unterman

For listing of current MOCA trustees visit moca.org

 

Book and Website cover photo © Billy Name, © 2012 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy of Dagon James.

Book and Website cover photo © Billy Name, © 2012 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy of Dagon James.