Taking Pictures
Burlington City Arts: January 25, 2013 - April 6, 2013
Using appropriation techniques and the process of picture making as points of departure, Taking Pictures examined the relevance of the work created by a group of artists included in the Pictures Generation. Presenting seminal work from the late 1970s alongside artwork made in the past few years, the exhibition was an opportunity to reinterpret these artists’ early work through the lens of their more recent production.
A retrospective reading of the work offered the opportunity to move beyond familiar questions of appropriation, authorship, and originality toward other possible points of entry for understanding the work. Specific attention was given to challenging previous apolitical interpretations of the work, and instead considering the relevance of feminism, political activism, and global connectedness.
In addition to acknowledging the contemporary pervasiveness of appropriation, the exhibition title called attention to the significant technological developments since the early 1970s that have made such a dramatic impact on the ways in which images are shared, archived, and re-purposed. The Internet and social media have opened entirely different networks for the dissemination and consumption of images; in their recent work, the artists of the Pictures Generation have turned their critical attention to these networks.
The exhibition featured the work of Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, James Casebere, Sarah Charlesworth, Nancy Dwyer, Jack Goldstein, Louise Lawler, Robert Longo, Allan McCollum, Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons.
The exhibition was presented in partnership with the University of Vermont’s Department of Art and Art History and the Mollie Ruprecht Fund for Visiting Artists and Scholars.
The exhibition was organized by DJ Hellerman, Curator and Director of Exhibitions; Ashley Jimenez, Assistant Curator; and Anthony Grudin, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Vermont.
Exhibition sponsored by Seven Days and the Todd R. Lockwood Family Fund.
Funded in part by a grant from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.