New Acquisitions by the AIC
Art Institute of Chicago's New Contemporary Works in Its Collection
One day after Director James Cuno's New York press conference about upcoming events at the Art Institute of Chicago, the museum revealed on January 24, 2008 a list of new acquisitions by its Department of Contemporary Art.
Blue Tilt
Blue Tilt (2004) by Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) is composed of six 16-foot double-sided vertical LED signs that relentlessly stream sometimes divergent texts from five of the artist's most important series: Truisms (1977-79), Inflammatory Essays (1979-82), Living (1980-82), Survival (1983-85) and Under a Rock (1986).Together the expressions reflect the relative nature of truth in modern society.
Hinoki
Charles Ray (b. 1953) took 10 years to create Hinoki (2007), a 38-foot-long and 2100-pound representation of a fallen oak tree made from Japanese cypress. Its six tubular sections are hundreds of rectangular blocks carved by six master woodcarvers in Osaka, Japan. Hinoki challenges the viewer to contemplate man's intervention in the natural world.
Video Works from the Stone Collection
Donna and Howard Stone possess one of the United States' most important collections of revolutionary time-based media. Their gift of nearly 20 works to the AIC will greatly enhance the museum's holdings of video art.
- Les Grandes Ensembles (1994/2001) by Pierre Huyghe (b. 1962) features two bleak French housing projects from the 1970s and the subtle dramas that evolve within them.
- monsoon (1995) by Doug Aitken (b. 1968) describes Jonestown, Guyana, where the mass suicide of more than 900 of Reverend Jim Jones' disciples occurred in 1978.
- the moment (2005), also by Aitken, is an 11-channel video installation. Screens suspended from the ceiling in an S-pattern display distinct images of people whose identities become unified through repeat camera motions and framing.
- Ubu Tells the Truth (1997) by William Kentridge (b. 1955) is based on the satirical play Ubu Roi (1896) by Alfred Jarry (1873-1907). The artist uses animation to describe aspects of daily life, including murder, and suggest the effects of collective trauma under the rule of Ubu, the fictional dictator who represents the most heinous aspects of man.
- Rapture (1999) by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) is a black and white two-channel installation. It projects men in an architectural setting and women in a natural landscape on two opposing walls. Both sections were filmed in Morocco in 1998. The work explores stereotypes of man's relation to culture and woman's involvement with nature.
Mr. and Mrs. Stone have also pledged a significant sum of money to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for the scholarship needs of its graduate students.
