Unquiet Territories: Art by Cheryl Goldsleger, Organized by the Morris Museum of Art and Held December 10, 2016–March 12, 2017
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Essays by Fran Kaufman, J. D. Talasek, and Lilly Wei orris useum of rt Augusta, Georgia 2017 CONTENTS Foreword and Acknowledgments vii KEVIN GROGAN Artist’s Acknowledgments xi This volume has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Artist’s Statement xiii Unquiet Territories: Art by Cheryl Goldsleger, organized by the Morris Museum of Art and held December 10, 2016–March 12, 2017. Cheryl Goldsleger: Amidst the Chaos 1 ©2017, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia. All rights reserved. FRAN KAUFMAN Essay by Fran Kaufman, ©2017, Fran Kaufman. Essay by J. D. Talasek, ©2017, J. D. Talasek. Mapping the Imagination and the Structure of Thought 5 J. D. TALASEK Essay by Lilly Wei, ©2017, Lilly Wei. Point to Line to Space 13 Published by: Morris Museum of Art LILLY WEI Edited by: Kevin Grogan, Cary Wilkins Designed by: Todd Beasley The Exhibition 17 Printed by: Strother’s Printing, Augusta, Georgia Artist’s Biography 36 No part of this book shall be reproduced or utilized in any form Selected Exhibitions 38 or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia, Selected Awards 44 with the exception of “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Selected Collections 45 ISBN: 978-1-890021-34-4 Selected Bibliography 47 Morris Museum of Art Exhibition Checklist 55 One 10th Street • Augusta, Georgia 30901 • 706-724-7501 • www.themorris.org CHERYL GOLDSLEGER CHERYL GOLDSLEGER FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS native of Philadelphia, Cheryl Goldsleger the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Greenville Aholds a bachelor of fine arts degree from County Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gal- the Philadelphia College of Art (now the lery, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cor- University of the Arts) and a master of fine arts nell University, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Israel Museum, to cite just a few. Missouri. As an undergraduate, she attended a Goldsleger’s work has been featured in exhibi- summer semester at Temple University’s Tyler tions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the American School of Art in Rome, Italy, and has returned to Academy of Arts and Letters, the Albright-Knox Italy many times as an artist-in-residence. She has Art Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, the National taught at Western Carolina University, Piedmont Museum of Women in the Arts, the Virginia Museum College in Georgia, and Georgia State University, of Fine Arts, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the where she served as the director of the Ernest G. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Israel Museum. Welch School of Art & Design. In 2015 she was Her 2003 Museum of Contemporary Art of Geor- named the fifth William S. Morris Eminent Scholar gia (MOCA GA) exhibition, utopia, traveled to the in Art at Augusta University. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Her work has been exhibited throughout and to the Morris Museum of Art. Goldsleger was the United States and internationally, and it is one of the artists included in the Georgia Coun- included in important museum collections, most cil for the Arts book Georgia Masterpieces: Selected notably those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Works from Georgia’s Museums and the MOCA High Museum of Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, GA exhibition, Georgia, Georgia, that it inspired. the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the New Cheryl Goldsleger’s paintings and drawings Orleans Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, weave clearly delineated geometry with abstract, INDETERMINATE (2016) vi UNQUIET TERRITORIES UNQUIET TERRITORIES vii CHERYL GOLDSLEGER CHERYL GOLDSLEGER painterly marks to express something akin to our interpretations of maps and architectural plans contemporary sensibility. She employs isometric are carefully observed, richly detailed depictions drawing, painting, and encaustic to create layered, of the full range of possibilities that these maps architectural spaces to explore time, perception, and plans suggest. It is as if she has viewed them and the process of comprehension. A psychologi- from the curving arc of heaven and then captured cal edge has been present in Goldsleger’s work them to share with us. In the act of painting, she since the early 1980s, when she had her first sig- has freed herself from the formal conventions nificant solo exhibitions at Heath Gallery in Atlanta of her source material, liberating herself and the and at Bertha Urdang Gallery in New York City. viewer simultaneously. What we are seeing here Critic Patricia C. Phillips, writing in Artforum (Janu- is something wholly original and wholly new. And ary 1985), noted that “Goldsleger is not interested we should revel in that experience. in melodrama, but she does suggest that archi- Needless to say, we are grateful to Cheryl Gold- tecture as space offers an important resource for sleger for the gift of her work and her the investigation of perception and experience. easy agreeability to the idea of this OPPOSITE: CHERYL Her visionary worlds lack any signature of archi- exhibition. The insightful essays of Fran GOLDSLEGER AT tecture—the spaces are anonymous, and default Kaufman, J. D. Talasek, and Lilly Wei WORK IN THE STUDIO. style—yet somehow, in these characterless have significantly enriched our appre- PHOTO: ©RANDY PACE spaces, the psychological force of architecture is ciation of this work. This publication PHOTOGRAPHY keenly felt.” has benefited from the patient, thor- As she notes in her artist’s statement in this cat- ough editorial guidance of Cary Wilkins and the alog, “My work attempts to reflect and synthesize design skills of Todd Beasley. The exhibition itself the pervasive moods of unquiet and apprehen- reflects the hard work and attention to detail of sion that permeate our lives and to offer a place exhibition designer Dwayne Clark, registrar Stacey of focus, a way to still the collective shudder, and Thompson, and assistant registrar Stacey Gawel. a way to think about our own place in an increas- Kevin Grogan ingly global society.” Director, Morris Museum of Art What Goldsleger has accomplished in these new paintings is quite remarkable. While not a fantasist—these paintings could never be charac- terized as flights of fancy—she is not too tightly bound by the constraints of literal accuracy. Her viii UNQUIET TERRITORIES UNQUIET TERRITORIES ix CHERYL GOLDSLEGER CHERYL GOLDSLEGER ARTIST’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS y deepest thanks go to Kevin Grogan and for this exhibition. And my warm thanks to those Mthe Morris Museum of Art for inviting me lenders, Martha Anne Tudor, Chris and Eileen Mil- to have this exhibition, Unquiet Territories. lard, and Christine LeFrancis and Larry Woodard, This exhibition and catalog would not be possible for their generosity in loaning their pieces for an without the support and contributions of numer- extended period of time. ous individuals and other entities. The museum staff with whom I have interacted Lilly Wei, independent critic and writer for on a regular basis, including Todd Beasley, Michelle Art in America and numerous other art journals, Schulte, Cary Wilkins, Nicole McLeod, Stacey J. D. Talasek, director of cultural programs at the Thompson, Stacey Gawel, Dwayne Clark, and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, numerous other staff members working behind- D.C., and Fran Kaufman, independent curator at the-scenes have been gracious and generous with Kaufman Vardy Projects, have taken the time to their time and expertise. I am truly grateful for all of look seriously at my work and talk with me about it their efforts in the areas of design, logistics, assis- in order to write thoughtful essays on the occasion tance, and attention to detail. Their hard work has of this exhibition. I am genuinely appreciative of made this collaboration a wonderful experience. the insights they share here. My special thanks and gratitude go to William My appreciation goes to Robin Sandler and Deb- S. Morris III for endowing the Morris Eminent bie Hudson of Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, Scholar in Art Chair at Augusta University, which I Judith Costello of J. Costello Gallery in Hilton Head, now hold. I would not be here were it not for the and Molly McDowell and Mary Hull Palmer of Out- great support that I have received from Augusta side the Box Fine Art in Augusta for their support University, the Morris Fund, the Department of Art, PHOTO: ©RANDY PACE PHOTOGRAPHY of my work and their help in coordinating loans and my colleagues. I am profoundly grateful to the x UNQUIET TERRITORIES UNQUIET TERRITORIES xi CHERYL GOLDSLEGER CHERYL GOLDSLEGER university as a whole and to Stephen Lamb and ARTIST’S STATEMENT Stacy Bolin at the Augusta University Foundation office for their ongoing help and advice. Scott Thorp and Carol Cross in the Department of Art These mixed-media paintings and drawings combine the fluid topography of maps, the poetry of have also been helpful, interested, and generous lines in space, and the geometry of analytical systems. They embrace the real and the imagined while with their time. attempting to address aspects of how society is organized. Over the years different generational and It is with great awareness of my CHERYL GOLDSLEGER cultural attitudes toward space have been important factors in my work, challenging me to understand good fortune in having this exhibition IN THE STUDIO. PHOTO: diverse points of view and varied, often contradictory, cultural needs. In 2014, after completing a course at the Morris Museum that I humbly ©RANDY PACE in the use of geographic information systems (GIS) software and learning how one creates and focuses thank my family, Larry and David Mil- PHOTOGRAPHY a contemporary map, my research extended into the history of modern mapmaking with a focus on lard.