EXHIBITION GUIDE WINTER/SPRING 2020 1 FOURTH FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR GALLERY ENTRANCE

OFFICES (GALLERY STAFF ONLY)

EXHIBITIONS LEGEND

THE ALLURE OF MATTER RESTROOM

WATER FOUNTAIN BHUTAN: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY ELEVATOR

COAT/BAG CHECK

CATALOG PICK-UP

1 FOURTH FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR

Liu Jianhua, Black Flame, 2017, Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA. ON VIEW: FIRST FLOOR GALLERY ENTRANCE

OFFICES at Wrightwood 659 (GALLERY STAFF ONLY) February 7–May 2, 2020 and EXHIBITIONS LEGEND at Smart Museum of Art The University of Chicago THE ALLURE OF MATTER RESTROOM 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue | Chicago, IL 60637 WATER FOUNTAIN BHUTAN: February 7–May 3, 2020 A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY ELEVATOR

COAT/BAG CHECK

CATALOG PICK-UP

2 Everyday Materials, Radically Reinvented.

Gu Dexin, Untitled, 1989, Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA. NATIONAL TOUR Los Angeles County Museum of Art June 2, 2019–January 5, 2020 Smart Museum of Art and Wrightwood 659 February 7–May 3, 2020 Seattle Art Museum June 25–September 13, 2020 Peabody Essex Museum November 14, 2020–February 21, 2021 The national tour of this exhibition is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The Allure of Matter is co-organized by the Smart Museum of Art with Wrightwood 659 and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum.

The exhibition is curated by Wu Hung, Smart Museum Adjunct Curator, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, and Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago, with Orianna Cacchione, Smart Museum Curator of Global Contemporary Art. This presentation of The Allure of Matter is made possible by support from Alphawood Foundation Chicago. Support for the exhibition and its catalogue has been provided by principal sponsors the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and by Lorna Ferguson and Terry Clark. Additional support has been provided by the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation and the Smart Museum’s SmartPartners.

3 ince the 1980s, artists working in China have THE ALLURE OF MATTER S ARTISTS: experimented with various materials, transforming 艾未未 Ai Weiwei seemingly everyday objects 蔡国强 into large-scale artworks. These Cai Guo-Qiang artists have exploded fireworks 陈箴 Chen Zhen into paintings, felted hair into 顾德新 Gu Dexin gleaming flags, stretched 谷文达 gu wenda pantyhose into monochromatic artworks, deconstructed old 何翔宇 He Xiangyu doors and windows to make 胡晓媛 Hu Xiaoyuan sculptures, and even skillfully 黄永砯 Huang Yong Ping molded porcelain into gleaming black flames. 靳山 Jin Shan 梁绍基 Liang Shaoji Artists continue to explore and 林天苗 Lin Tianmiao develop this creative mode, 刘建华 with some devoting decades of Liu Jianhua their practice to experiments 刘韡 Liu Wei with a single material. For the 马秋莎 Ma Qiusha first time, The Allure of Matter: 彭禹 Material Art from China brings Peng Yu together works in which 施慧 Shi Hui conscious material choice has 宋冬 Song Dong become a means of the artists’ 隋建国 Sui Jianguo expression, representing this trend throughout recent history. 孙原 Sun Yuan and 彭禹 Peng Yu In Chicago, the exhibition is 王晋 Wang Jin divided into two unique halves, 徐冰 taking up the entire gallery footprints of the Smart Museum 尹秀珍 Yin Xiuzhen of Art on the South Side and 展望 Zhan Wang Wrightwood 659 on the North 張洹 Zhang Huan Side. To fully experience the 張羽 exhibition, guests are encouraged Zhang Yu to visit both locations. 朱金石 Zhu Jinshi

4 MATERIAL ART FROM CHINA BY WU HUNG Adapted from the introductory essay to the exhibition catalogue.

Zhu Jinshi, Wave of Materials, 2007, Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.

The fruit of a multiyear research and “adopted” by artists, given project, this exhibition coins agency, and become their the concept “Material Art,” private means of making art or caizhi yishu in Chinese,[1] to over a significant period of time. define a crucial component Used in painting, sculpture, of contemporary Chinese installation, and performance, art that has remained largely such material substances unexamined. This type of art transcend codified art forms to entails an artist’s consistent function as “super-agents” in use of unconventional their works. materials to produce works in which material, rather than Material Art emerged in China image or style, is paramount in the 1980s and triumphed in manifesting the artist’s in the 1990s and early 2000s. aesthetic judgement or social At the beginning, young critique. Whether intimate or artists chose unconventional generic, natural or artificial, materials for themselves that special materials are selected simultaneously declared their

5 self-identity as alternative contemporary art. These artists artists in the domestic context have thus made an important and as members of global contribution in opening up contemporary art in the a space that overlaps and international sphere. Derived reconfigures local and global from the physical world, these contemporary art. Conversely, materials also allowed them the desire to expand this space to bypass the East-West has sustained these artists’ dichotomy to make works that continuous engagement with were both culture-specific special materials that speak and globally relevant. It is to audiences in both local and no coincidence that several global arenas. pioneers of Material Art, such as Huang Yong Ping (1954-2019), The Allure of Matter Cai Guo-Qiang (born 1957), presents the world’s first and gu wenda (born 1955), also systematic introduction to the belonged to the first group of phenomenon. The works by contemporary Chinese artists to the twenty-six artists in the gain international recognition in exhibition encapsulate the entire the 1980s and 1990s. course of this artistic trend, from its emergence in the late 1980s During the past thirty years, and early 1990s to its current Material Art has produced manifestations. Many artists several generations of artists in the exhibition are familiar whose works have appeared in to observers of contemporary major international exhibitions . Some of them, and impressed audiences such as Ai Weiwei (born 1957), with their visual ingenuity and Xu Bing (born 1955), Huang semantic complexity. Gradually, Yong Ping, and Cai Guo-Qiang, the distinct languages and are among the best-known aesthetics of this art have contemporary artists in the become shared properties of world. Although their use of contemporary Chinese artists unconventional materials has not and have continued to influence gone unnoticed, their “material younger generations. Rejecting works” have been treated as hard-and-fast categorization, isolated cases occasioned by artists making Material Art their individual creativity, and represent a thoroughly have been vaguely—and often cosmopolitan approach within inaccurately—labeled as contemporary Chinese art Conceptual Art, assemblage, and a culturally informed readymades, or object-based regional approach within global art.

6 In examining these artists phenomenon. The fundamental and their works through the tactic of Material Art, that each lens of Material Art, this artist claims ownership of one exhibition and the related or more special materials as catalogue aim to achieve three his or her own, emphasizes

Ai Weiwei, Tables at Right Angles, 1998, Stockamp Tsai Collection, New York. interrelated goals. The first personal choices and makes is to establish the historical this art a conglomerate of position of Material Art by highly individualized projects. reconstructing its origin, A study of Material Art thus development, and context, cannot stop at the level of and exploring its stimuli and a macro narrative but must essential characteristics. This uncover the particular contexts investigation brings a vital and inspirations of specific but previously ignored aspect projects as well as their of contemporary Chinese art interrelationships. into scholarly focus, adding an important dimension The third goal is to connect to existing narratives of Material Art from China with contemporary Chinese art. the scholarship on materiality The second goal is to analyze in contemporary art that has individual artists and their emerged mainly since 2000. works within this wide-ranging This vibrant scholarship takes and multifaceted artistic the material as both focus

7 and frame of historical and theoretical inquiries, and VISIT THE analyzes particular material categories and/or theorizes ALLURE OF materiality in art. Simply put, MATTER in the words of art historian Petra Lange-Berndt, the WEBSITE general methodology of this type of research is “to follow the material and to theallureofmatter.org act with the material.”[2] The current exhibition and catalogue adopt this basic The companion website methodology, but at the same features exclusive time embrace a contextual, art-historical approach through content, including reconstructing the development original video interviews, of Material Art within a clearly photos revealing each delineated historical framework. The hope is to enrich the artist’s working process, existing scholarship on and a complete calendar materiality by discovering and interpreting an important non- of related programs. Western artistic phenomenon.

Wu Hung is the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and the College, Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, Adjunct Curator at the Smart Museum of Art, and Special Advisor to the Provost for the Arts in Asia at the University of Chicago. As a scholar, he has published widely on both traditional and contemporary Chinese art and has experimented with different ways to integrate these conventionally separate phases into new kinds of art historical narratives.

He is also a renowned international curator and has curated more than 50 exhibitions in the United States, China, and other countries. The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China is the latest in a series of contemporary Chinese projects he has organized as a consulting curator at the Smart Museum, including Transience (1999), ‘Canceled’ (2000), The Art of Mu Xin: Landscape Paintings and Prison Notes (2002), Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China (2004), Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art (2008), and Inspired by the Opera: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video (2014). He received the College Art Association’s 2018 Distinguished Scholar award and, in spring 2019, he delivered the 68th Annual A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He holds a PhD in art history and anthropology from Harvard University and an MA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, .

Footnotes: [1] While yishu means “art,” the two characters in the compound term caizhi ( ) means “material, stuff” (cai) and “quality” (zhi), respectively. The term thus pertains not only to a physical material but also the cultural and aesthetic qualities it provides.

[2] Petra Lange-Berndt, ed., Materiality (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2015), 13.

8 EXHIBITION CHECKLIST WRIGHTWOOD 659

HU XIAOYUAN LIANG SHAOJI LIU WEI Chinese, born 1977 Chinese, born 1945 Chinese, born 1972

Ant Bone IV | 2015 Chains: The Unbearable Exotic Lands No. 15 Chinese catalpa wood, Lightness of Being, 2013 ink, raw silk (xiao), paint, Nature Series, No. 79 Wood and stainless steel and iron nails 2002–7 The Chu Collection Courtesy of the artist Polyurethane, and Beijing Commune colophony, iron powder, silk, and cocoons Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery

LIU JIANHUA Chinese, born 1962 Exotic Lands No. 21 2013 Ant Bone V | 2015 Wood and stainless steel Chinese catalpa wood, The Chu Collection ink, raw silk (xiao), paint, and iron nails Courtesy of the artist and Beijing Commune Black Flame 2017 JIN SHAN Porcelain Chinese, born 1977 Collection of the artist, Mistaken | 2015 courtesy of Pace Gallery Merely a Mistake II No. 7 20 09–11 Doors and door frames, wooden beams, acrylic board, stainless steel, and iron The Chu Collection

Wood and plastic Collection of the artist, courtesy of Bank Gallery

9 ON VIEW @ WRIGHTWOOD 659 PENG YU WANG JIN WANG JIN Chinese, born 1974 Chinese, born 1962 (continued)

Exile | 2000 The Dream of China: Chinese Dream Betacam SP video, 3:12 Dragon Robe | 1997 2006 minutes running time Polyvinyl chloride and Polyvinyl chloride, Collection M HKA / vinyl filament vinyl filament, iron chain, Museum of The Farber Collection and hook Contemporary Art, Pizzuti Collection Antwerp

YIN XIUZHEN SHI HUI Chinese, born 1955

Dream of China No. 2 | 1998 Black and white photograph Transformation Copyright Wang Jin. 1997 Float Photo courtesy Black and white 2001/2007/2013 of Pékin Fine Arts photographs Wire mesh and xuan mounted on tiles paper pulp Collection of the artist, Collection of the artist, courtesy of Pace Gallery Hangzhou

ZHANG HUAN SUI JIANGUO Chinese, born 1965 Chinese, born 1956 A Chinese Dream 2006 PVC with embroidered fishing thread Private collection, New York Ash Painting No. 5 Kill | 1996 2006 Rubber and iron nails Incense ashes and Collection of the artist, adhesive courtesy of Pace Gallery Pearl Lam Private Collection

ON VIEW @ WRIGHTWOOD 659 10 ZHAN WANG ZHU JINSHI Chinese, born 1962 Chinese, born 1954

Wave of Materials 2007/2020 Xuan paper, cotton Ornamental Rock thread, bamboo, and 1996 stones Stainless steel Gift of Zhu Jinshi and Smart Museum of Art, Pearl Lam Gallery in The University honor of Wu Hung, of Chicago, Gift of Carl jointly acquired by the Rungius, by exchange Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago

WU HUNG and ORIANNA CACCHIONE with CHRISTINE MEHRING and TREVOR SMITH Wu Hung Cacchione

THE ALLURE

Beyond 12 Nautical ALLURE Miles—Floating Rock Drifts on the Open Sea

2000 OF OF

Single-channel MATTER video, 8:36 minutes THE running time Collection of the artist ISBN 9780935573602

9 780935 573602 Material Art from China ZHANG YU MATTER Chinese, born 1959

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE A limited number of exhibition

Fingerprints | 2008 catalogs are available for purchase. Longjing water on xuan The 265-page hard cover catalog paper Collection of the artist, features essays, artist profiles, and Beijing an exhibition checklist.

11 ON VIEW @ WRIGHTWOOD 659 EXHIBITION CHECKLIST SMART MUSEUM OF ART

AI WEIWEI CHEN ZHEN gu wenda Chinese, born 1957 Chinese, 1955–2000 Chinese, born 1955

Tables at Right Angles Crystal Landscape united nations: 1998 of Inner Body | 2000 american code Tables from the Qing Crystal, glass, and metal 2018–19 dynasty (1644–1911) Private collection, Paris, Human hair Stockamp Tsai Collection courtesy Galleria Commissioned by Continua, San the Smart Museum Gimignano/Beijing/Les of Art, The University CAI GUO-QIANG Moulins/Habana of Chicago; Chinese, born 1957 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; GU DEXIN Seattle Art Museum; Chinese, born 1962 and Peabody Essex Museum for the exhibition The Allure of Matter: Mountain Range | 2006 Material Art from China Gunpowder on paper, mounted on wood as a six-panel screen HE XIANGYU Collection of the artist Untitled | 1989 Chinese, born 1986 Melted and adjoined plastic Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon

A Barrel of Dregs of Coca-Cola | 2009 Coca-Cola resin, metal, and glass Rubell Family Collection, Miami

ON VIEW @ SMART MUSEUM OF ART 12 HE XIANGYU LIN TIANMIAO SONG DONG (continued) Chinese, born 1961 Chinese, born 1966

Cola, 9 Sketches Water Records | 2010 2010 Four-channel video Ink, watercolor, Day-Dreamer projection, barcodes, printed 2000 running times variable invoices, and White cotton threads, Collection of the artist, photographs on paper white fabric, and digital courtesy of Pace Gallery Rubell Family Collection, photograph Miami Collection of the artist Traceless Stele | 2016 Stele, heating device, water, and Chinese HUANG LIU JIANHUA brushes YONG PING Chinese, born 1962 Collection of the artist, Chinese, 1954–2019 courtesy of Pace Gallery

SUN YUAN AND PENG YU Chinese, born 1972; Blank Paper | 2009–12 born 1974 Porcelain Devons-nous encore Collection of the artist, construire une grande courtesy of Pace Gallery cathédrale? (Should We Construct Another Cathedral?) MA QIUSHA 1991 Chinese, born 1982 Table, stools, black and white photograph, and papier-mâché Collection Fondation Civilization Pillar Cartier pour l’art 2000/2019 contemporain, Paris Human fat and metal supports Wonderland: Black Commissioned by Square | 2016 the Smart Museum Cement, nylon of Art, The University stockings, plywood, of Chicago resin, and iron Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Purchase, The Paul and Miriam Kirkley Fund for Acquisitions

13 ON VIEW @ SMART MUSEUM OF ART XU BING XU BING ZHANG HUAN Chinese, born 1955 (continued) Chinese, born 1965

Study for Tobacco Book 1st Class | 2011 Seeds | 2007 1999 500,000 “1st Class” Incense ash, charcoal, Tobacco leaves, pencil, brand cigarettes, and resin and ink on paper adhesive, and carpet on canvas Collection of the artist Collection of the artist Faurschou Collection

ZHAN WANG Chinese, born 1962

Study for Chinese Tobacco Book | 2011 Spirit I | 1999 Tobacco leaves, paper, Pencil & collage on paper and cardboard, rubber- Collection of the artist stamped with passage Beyond 12 Nautical from A True Discourse Miles—Floating Rock on the Present State of Drifts on the Open Sea Virginia by Ralph Hamor 2000 (1615) Single-channel Collection of the artist video, 8:36 minutes running time Collection of the artist

Study for Chinese Spirit II | 1999 Pencil & collage on paper Collection of the artist

Gold Mountain | 2007 Stone and stainless steel Traveling Down the Courtesy of the artist River | 2011 and Haines Gallery Burned cigarette on a Study for Tobacco scroll in a glass case Project | 1999-2000 Collection of the artist Pencil & collage on paper Collection of the artist

ON VIEW @ SMART MUSEUM OF ART 14 BHUTANA PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

In the years spanning 1988 Last Himalayan Kingdom. At to 2002, computer scientist Wrightwood 659, the book is and former MIT professor displayed along a concrete wall Michael Hawley led a team of on the fourth floor. Folded, photographers, publishers, it measures 5 x 7 feet but, at and students through the the gallery, displayed in its full Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan unfolded length, visitors can to document daily life. The four walk along its span of 155 linear expeditions they took resulted feet and see for themselves in an archive of photographs not only the visual but also the of the country’s people, physical extent of the project. landscapes, and cultural The pages, with their super- practices which the non-profit saturated colors and life-sized Friendly Planet later published portraits, vibrantly represent in a large book entitled Bhutan: the people and geography of A Visual Odyssey Across the Bhutan.

15 ON VIEW @ WRIGHTWOOD 659 ABOUT WRIGHTWOOD 659 Wrightwood 659 is a new In a city rich with art institutions exhibition space conceived for and internationally known for the presentation of exhibitions its architecture, Wrightwood of architecture and of socially 659 is designed as a site for engaged art. It is designed contemplative experiences of art by Pritzker Prize-winning and architecture, and as a place architect Tadao Ando, who has to engage with the pressing transformed a 1920s building with social issues of our time. Located his signature concrete forms and in Chicago’s Lincoln Park poetic treatment of natural light. neighborhood, it is a private, non-commercial initiative Get early access to Wrightwood envisioned as an integral part 659 events, receptions, and of the cultural and civic fabric of exhibition previews. Subscribe Chicago, as well as a new kind of at wrightwood659.org arts space and cultural resource.

16 659 GENERAL INFORMATION

Wrightwood 659’s Visitor THROUGH MAY 2, 2020 Services Associates Last entry is one hour (VSAs) are located throughout before closing the building to answer your Thursday, 12pm - 8pm questions. Their backgrounds Friday, 12pm - 8pm in art, architecture, and social Saturday, 10am - 7pm movements provide unique insights into Wrightwood 659’s Use of public transportation exhibitions and gallery space. is encouraged. The closest VSAs are available to answer your bus stops are at Halsted & questions about The Allure of Wrightwood (#8 bus) and Clark & Matter artists and artworks, or Deming (#22 & #36 buses) and Wrightwood 659. Please let us the closest CTA station is at know how we can help you. Fullerton & Sheffield (Brown, Purple, and Red lines). Admission to Wrightwood 659 is only available during There is no public parking the public showing of exhibitions. facility at Wrightwood 659, Reservations are required and are and on-street parking is difficult. available at wrightwood659.org. If you must drive, there is paid parking located at the Ann & Wrightwood 659 is Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital committed to providing of Chicago Outpatient Center, inclusive experiences for all 2515 N. Clark Street. audiences. Please call 773.437.6601 or email [email protected] Enjoy FREE wireless Internet for access services. Service animals access at Wrightwood 659. specially trained to assist a person Look for “Wrightwood 659 Guest” with a disability are welcome at in your settings on your Wi-Fi- Wrightwood 659. enabled device.

17 659 GENERAL INFORMATION

Installation view of Ishida: Self-Portrait of Other at Wrightwood 659. 2019.

Please help us protect the n Talking on the phone is limited to artworks by respecting the non-gallery spaces throughout the following: building. n Children of all ages are welcome, n Strollers are not permitted in the however, those under 16 years galleries but may be parked in the of age must be accompanied coat check room. by an adult. Wrightwood 659 reserves the right n Do not touch the art. to not allow any bag, parcel, or other item to be brought into the building, n Do not eat or drink in the galleries. and to deal with unattended n Smoking is not permitted. objects in such a way as we consider appropriate. Wrightwood 659 also n Carry bags on your front or side. reserves the right to deny admission n Check all personal items that to or remove any person wearing are larger than 12 x 12 inches. attire that we consider inappropriate Complimentary bag and coat or that could detract from the check is available on the first floor. experience of other visitors.

18 COMING EXHIBITIONS:

SHAHIDUL ALAM: BALKRISHNA DOSHI: TRUTH TO POWER ARCHITECTURE June, 2020 FOR THE PEOPLE Shahidul Alam: Truth to Power Sept 9 – Dec 12, 2020 presents the first comprehensive U.S. museum survey of Shahidul Alam, the renowned Bangladeshi photographer, writer, activist, and institution-builder and a Time magazine Person of the Year in 2018. Coming to Wrightwood 659 from The Rubin Museum of Art.

A SPECIAL In collaboration with the Vitra Design EXHIBITION Museum of Weil am Rhein, Germany, Alphawood Exhibitions presents June, 2020 Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People, the first and only US In celebration of the first Gay Pride retrospective of the 2018 Pritzker Prize parade 50 years ago in June 1970, laureate Balkrishna Doshi (born 1927, this summer Alphawood Exhibitions Pune, India). The renowned architect opens a special, queer-themed and urban planner is one of the few exhibition. pioneers of modern architecture in his home country and the first Indian Stay tuned for more information! architect to receive the prestigious award. The exhibition will present numerous significant projects realized between 1958 and 2014, ranging in scale from entire cities and town 659 West Wrightwood Avenue planning projects to academic Chicago, IL 60614 campuses, cultural institutions, Phone: 773.437.6601 public administrative offices, private Email: [email protected] residences, and interiors.

Wrightwood659.org IMAGE CREDIT: Balkrishna Doshi, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, 1977, 1992, Follow our social feeds for exclusive content © Iwan Baan 2018 @wrightwood659