Last Exit: Pictures at BFAS Blondeau Fine Art Services

Last Exit: Pictures at BFAS Blondeau Fine Art Services

Blondeau & Cie

Jack Goldstein, Untitled, 1983.
Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 244 cm.
March 19, 2012

Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Allan McCollum, John Miller, Steven Parrino, Richard Prince, David Robbins, David Salle, Laurie Simmons, Alan Vega, James Welling

Exhibition curated by Lionel Bovier

15 March–21 April 2012

BFAS Blondeau Fine Art Services
5, rue de la Muse
CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland

T +41 22 544 95 95
F +41 22 544 95 99

www.bfasblondeau.com

Subscribe to our E-news

The title of this exhibition refers to a 1981 text by Thomas Lawson advocating for the medium of painting within the emergence of “appropriationist” practices and amidst the questions of “re-presentation” that fuelled the cultural discussion of the times. More than 30 years after Douglas Crimp’s seminal exhibition “Pictures” (Artists Space, New York 1977), the present manifestation offers a modest addition to Douglas Eklund’s survey (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2009) of what is now often called the “Pictures Generation.”

Based on the Image Division’s Collection (London), whose advisor is also the curator of this project, it intends to map out some of the problematics of representation between 1976 and 1989 and to reposition some of their articulations: The 1980s opposition between photography and painting within appropriation is thus simultaneously inversed by the respective importance given to each medium in the exhibition spaces, while it is blurred by the typology of many of the chosen works; the narrative of a single “generation” of artists involved in such “appropriationist” practices is contradicted by the visible continuity of these issues through works of older or younger artists; and the inclusion of some less-known figures adds up to the circulating “list” of “Pictures” practitioners.

What is at stake here, though, is neither historical nor medium-based: it is to circumscribe the redefinition of both role and nature that images undergo during this period. At the heart of this exhibition lies the interest to show “images” in all possible states (appropriated, displaced, painted, re-photographed, combined, etc.), to follow their migration from one support to the other, and to underline the centrality of a critical “iconology” that these artists share, despite their generational or esthetical differences, for a last time in our Western history. The 1990s and the 2000s will in fact show a completely other sensibility to images, their re-presentation and their modes of existence—within art as much as in our society.
Lionel Bovier, February 2012

Press packs and HD illustrations will be available on request: muse [​at​] bfasblondeau.com

Advertisement
RSVP
RSVP for Last Exit: Pictures at BFAS Blondeau Fine Art Services
Blondeau & Cie
March 19, 2012

Thank you for your RSVP.

Blondeau & Cie will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.