Tuesday 9 December 2008Damaged Romanticism

Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion, published by London-based fine-art publisher D Giles Limited in association with Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston accompanies a major travelling exhibition which opened at Blaffer Gallery in September 2008

Damaged Romanticism explores 15 internationally recognized contemporary artists whose work, in painting, sculpture, installations, and photography based media, embodies an essentially idealistic outlook formed out of traditional “romanticism”, but tempered by a strong sense of reality and stubborn optimism in the face of daily adversity and heartbreaking disappointment. Belonging neither to a style nor a traditional “school,” the artists and works of art featured in this new volume capture the existential dilemma of the human condition.

In her opening essay, Terrie Sultan offers an overview of the concept behind the exhibition and explains how the chosen works give form to contradictory feelings of disillusionment and defiance. David Pagel examines the historical and contextual aspects of the subject, and explores how contemporary artists, writers and filmmakers have adapted the idealism of traditional romanticism to suit the needs of the present day. Colin Gardner surveys similar developments in film. He identifies how the theme of renewed hope and dogged determination in the face of devastating existential setback, first seen in the writing of Ernest Hemingway, continued through the work of many French New Wave filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, before being reintroduced back into mainstream cinema in the films of David Lynch, Neil Jordan and Todd Haynes.

Each artist and their work is the focus of an individual catalogue entry. The volume also features a newly commissioned short story, a crystal formed entirely of holes, by award-winning contemporary author Nick Flynn.

The volume features works by an international roster of artists, including Richard Billingham (England), Berlinde de Bruyckere (Belgium), Edward Burtynsky (Canada), Sophie Calle (France), Petah Coyne (United States), Angelo Filomeno (Italy/United States), Jesper Just (Denmark/United States),Mary McCleary (United States), Florian Maier-Aichen (Germany/United States), Wangechi Mutu (Kenya/United States), Julia Oschatz (Germany), Anneè Olofsson (Sweden), David Schnell (Germany), and Ryan Taber/Cheyenne Weaver (United States). Each artist has an individual catalogue entry written by the contributors, examining their work and placing it in the context of the exhibition, and including full biographical and bibliographical sections.

Publication accompanies a major exhibition at Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston opening in September 2008, and travelling to Grey Art Gallery, New York University in 2009 and The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York in 2009

The Authors:
Terrie Sultan is the director of the Parrish Art Museum, former director and chief curator of Blaffer Gallery, and organizer of exhibitions including Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration, Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall, Works 1987-1997, and James Surls: The Splendora Years, 1977-1997. David Pagel is associate professor of art theory and history and chair of the art department at Claremont Graduate University, and an internationally renowned Los Angeles-based art critic and curator. Colin Gardner is professor of critical theory and integrative studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His publications include a critical study of the blacklisted film director Joseph Losey (2004) and catalogue essays on Mike Kelley for the Whitney Museum of American Art, John Baldessari for the Graphische Sammlung, Albertina in Vienna, Wallace Berman for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Amsterdam, and video artist Rachel Khedoori for the Kunsthalle in Basel. Nick Flynn is assistant professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston. His book Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004) was awarded the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. He worked as artistic collaborator on the Academy Award-nominated documentary Darwin’s Nightmare (2005). Claudia Schmuckli’s most recent project for Blaffer was Amy Sillman: Suitors & Strangers (2007). Past exhibitions include Katrina Moorhead: A Thing Called Early Blur (2007), and Urs Fischer: Mary Poppins (2006).

DAMAGED ROMANTICISM: A MIRROR OF MODERN EMOTION

136 pages, 9 ½ x 11” (280 x 240mm)
130 colour and 6 b&w illustrations, paperback
Text: Up to 47,500 words
ISBN: 978 1 904832 51 5 (13 digit)

Price: US$44.95/UK£24.95
Publication date: September, 2008
Publisher: D Giles Limited, London

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Blaffer Gallery was founded in 1973, and in 2000, the mission and vision of the museum was refined to focus on contemporary art, with an emphasis on exploration of the creative process. The museum seeks a balanced focus on regional, national, and international artists. The exhibition program addresses the cultural diversity of its audience and encompasses artists from different backgrounds, gender, age, and ethnicity with a special focus on emerging or under-recognized artists as well as bodies of work by artists of international renown. Since 2000, Blaffer has organized more than a dozen high-quality exhibitions, all of which travelled to additional venues throughout the United States, including Nancy Burson: Seeing and Believing (2002), Bob Knox: Non Fiction Paintings (2003), Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration (2003), Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall: Works 1988-2003 (2004), Populence (2005), and James Surls: The Splendora Years, 1977-1997 (2005).