A Look at the Ringling Museum’s Collection of Modern & Contemporary Art
Sarasota, FL—April 16, 2008 – Ringling Retro: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing, May 10-Oct. 26, 2008, will look at some of the most important pieces from the Museum’s collection of modern and contemporary art.
“The new Searing galleries provide an ideal setting for the Museum to showcase some of its finest late modern works,” explains Dr. Stephen Borys, Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections at the Ringling Museum. “Ringling Retro looks back at the avant-garde of the post-war period, but it also looks forward, as we anticipate other exciting exhibitions of the “Art of the New” at the Ringling Museum.”
Ringling Retro brings together important modern and contemporary works from the Museum’s permanent collection, focusing primarily on painting and sculpture. The exhibition, which spans the decades of the 1960’s to the 1990’s, covers many of the pivotal moments from late modernism to post-modernism, and introduces several of the leading practitioners of the various movements. Included here are examples of minimalist art, hard-edge and geometric abstraction, color-field painting, post-painterly abstraction, neo-expressionism, as well as the interface between the figure and non-figurative art, and representational and non-representational art. Included are seminal works by Jules Olitski, Frank Stella, Trevor Bell, John Chamberlain, Robert Rauschenberg, Syd Solomon, Jackie Ferrara, David Hockney, Barbara Kruger, and other leading artists of the period.
The United States became the epicenter of the art world in post-war society. Birthing a range of art techniques and movements unlike any in preceding decades, the intersection of shape, ideas, color, materials, media, thoughts, experiences, movement, content and subject matter were reinterpreted, taking on new forms and meanings. The use of everyday materials, graphics, commercial objects and photography were introduced and combined with traditional forms of painting and sculpture to create new styles of art with a diversity of purpose.
These new styles and techniques are highlighted throughout the exhibition. For instance, Raushenberg’s Preview from the Hoarfrost series consists of large pieces of silken fabric overprinted with newsprint and photographs to create a collage effect. Kruger uses graphic motifs and one-liners to raise uneasy questions about our relationship with media and our society in Untitled (Who Will Write the History of Tears?) and Chamberlain redefines sculpture by using various sizes and shapes of metal versus the use of traditional techniques of bronze casting and molding in Added Pleasure.
Educational programs for adults will correspond to the exhibition. Educational programs are not included in the price of regular admission.
The exhibition is funded, in part, by grants from the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sarasota County Arts Council, Sarasota County Tourist Development Council, and the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners.