Robert Gober the Heart Is Not a Metaphor
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How in the fuck are you supposed to hit that shit? —Mickey Mantle ROBERT GOBER THE HEART IS NOT A METAPHOR Edited by Ann Temkin Essay by Hilton Als With a Chronology by Claudia Carson, Robert Gober, and Paulina Pobocha And an Afterword by Christian Scheidemann The Museum of Modern Art, New York CONTENTS 9 Foreword Glenn D. Lowry 10 Published by The Museum of Robert Gober: An Invitation Modern Art, Ann Temkin 11 West 53 Street New York, NY 10019-5497 Published on the occasion of www.moma.org 20 the exhibition Robert Gober: The I Don’t Remember Heart Is Not a Metaphor, at The Distributed in the United States Hilton Als Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Canada by ARTBOOK | October 4, 2014–January 18, D.A.P., New York 2015, organized by Ann Temkin, 155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd floor 92 The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis New York, NY 10013 Chronology Chief Curator of Painting and www.artbook.com Claudia Carson and Paulina Pobocha with Robert Gober Sculpture, and Paulina Pobocha, © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art Assistant Curator, Department of Distributed outside the United Painting and Sculpture Hilton Als’s essay “I Don’t States and Canada by Thames & 246 Remember” is © 2014 Hilton Als. Hudson ltd Robert Gober’s Painted Sculpture 181A High Holborn Christian Scheidemann Thom Gunn’s poem “Still Life,” London WC1V 7QX The exhibition is made possible by from his Collected Poems, is www.thamesandhudson.com Hyundai Card. © 1994 Thom Gunn. Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Front cover: Robert Gober 256 List of Works Illustrated Major support is provided by the Ltd and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, working on Untitled, 1995–97, in 262 Exhibition History Henry Luce Foundation, Maja Oeri LLC. Maine, 1996 and Hans Bodenmann, and 264 Selected Bibliography Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis. The exhibition title Robert Gober: Back cover: Robert Gober. Slides 266 Acknowledgments The Heart Is Not a Metaphor of a Changing Painting. 1982–83. 271 Lenders to the Exhibition Additional funding is provided quotes Elizabeth Hardwick’s 1979 3 parts, of 23 slides, 42 slides, 272 Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art by The Junior Associates of The novel Sleepless Nights: “Alas, the and 24 slides respectively. 15 Museum of Modern Art, Ann and heart is not a metaphor—or not minutes running time. Slide 34 Mel Schaffer, and the MoMA only a metaphor.” of 42 Annual Exhibition Fund. Copyright credits for certain Pp. 6–7, 16–19, 30–31, 42–43, Produced by the Department illustrations and texts are cited 54–55, 66–67, 76–77, 86–91, of Publications, The Museum of on p. 270. All rights reserved. 106–7, 122–23, 140–41, 156– Modern Art, New York No part of this publication may 57, 172–73, 186–87, 212–13, be reproduced or transmitted 226–27, 240–45, 260–61: Slides Edited by David Frankel and in any form or by any means, of a Changing Painting. 1982–83. Deborah Treisman electronic or mechanical, including 3 parts, of 23 slides, 42 slides, Designed by Joseph Logan, photocopying, recording, or any and 24 slides respectively. assisted by Rachel Hudson other information storage and 15 minutes running time. In Production by Marc Sapir retrieval system, or otherwise sequence: slides 3, 21, and 23 of Printed and bound by Brizzoli, without written permission from 23; slides 11, 12, 5, 8, 30, 35, 37, S.A., Madrid the publisher. and 40 of 42; slides 1–3, 5, 9, 7, 11, 16, 19, 21, and 23 of 24; and This book is typeset in Akzidenz- ISBN: 978-0-87070-946-3 slide 20 of 42 (details) Grotesk and Janson. The paper is Library of Congress Control 135 gsm Fat Matt. Number: 2014943939 Printed in Spain 6 7 FOREWORD Hyundai Card is proud to be the lead sponsor of the exhibition This book accompanies the exhibition Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor at The Museum of a Metaphor, presented at The Museum of Modern Art during the Modern Art—the first large-scale survey of Robert Gober’s career autumn of 2014. The narrative of this retrospective survey spans the to take place in the United States. Gober’s sculptures have made full breadth of the thirty-five years of Robert Gober's career to date. him one of the outstanding artists of his generation. From his early Such an overview demonstrates the remarkable development of a sinks and other domestic objects to his recent large-scale installa- highly focused and powerfully uncanny array of themes and forms. tions, Gober’s work is characterized by an extraordinary commit- Upon their emergence, Gober’s works almost instantly declared ment to precision of both form and content. themselves an indispensable part of the landscape of late-twentieth- As Korea’s foremost issuer of credit cards, Hyundai Card is century art; since then they have continued to evolve while re- known for its innovative approach and for its attention to even maining tightly bound to the concerns outlined by the artist more the smallest and most overlooked details. We believe that our than three decades ago. The Museum of Modern Art is honored to constant effort will ultimately inspire and enrich the lives of our provide this deep look into the nature of Gober’s achievement. Since customers. A long-term sponsor of The Museum of Modern Art, our first acquisition, in 1991—a pencil drawing of a sink—the gener- Hyundai Card is delighted to make Gober’s remarkable presenta- osity of many devoted supporters, foremost among them Maja Oeri tion possible. and Hans Bodenmann and the late Elaine and Werner Dannheiser, has allowed the Museum to become a stronghold of the artist’s work. This exhibition is the product of a collaboration between Gober; Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture; and Paulina Pobocha, Assistant Curator. From early on, the role of curator has formed an important part of Gober’s activity; it has engaged the work of friends and peers as well as that of historical figures. On this occasion Gober's own body of work is the subject, and he has brought to the project his extraor- dinary ability to tell a story through the images, objects, and spaces that he creates. In tandem, this volume sets aside an art-historical approach in favor of a personal one. Together the book’s texts illu- minate the intimate roots of Gober’s work, and its power to provoke intensely individual responses. We extend our immense gratitude to the dedicated group of sponsors and lenders who have made this ambitious project possible. Most of all, we are profoundly indebted to Robert Gober, whose inspired vision has shaped this exhibition and whose forti- tude has enabled its realization. —Glenn D. Lowry Director, The Museum of Modern Art 8 9 ROBERT GOBER: AN INVITATION Ann Temkin In 1980 Robert Gober made a postcard invitation for the Johanna Boyce dance troupe. He had begun performing with the company two years earlier, not long after arriving in New York. The small card reproduced a pencil drawing he had made for the occasion: a close-up view of a foot in a flip-flop, with a hand reaching down for a Kennedy half-dollar on the ground beside the foot (p. 125). Below the drawing read a handwritten line: “Boyce Dances—Out of the Ordinary.” The title of the performance was Boyce’s, not Gober’s, but in a body of work filled with premonitory incidents and events, this is a notable one: within four years, Gober would be using ordinary materials to make sculptures of ordinary objects, with results that were decidedly out of the ordinary. Through to the present, he is an artist whose images and processes are deep- ly engaged with the everyday and at the same time profoundly disruptive of it. Gober’s drawing depicts one of the actions in Boyce’s piece, a work choreographed for untrained dancers and composed of such unremarkable movements as juggling coins or jumping up and down. The lettering on the invitation, written in the twenty-five- year-old’s hand, is equally nondescript: casual and almost childlike, it suggests the announcement for a school play more than any sort of professional performance. In the years to come, Gober’s art often would feature handwriting and lettering. There would be 1 1 Untitled. 1994. Paper, string, acrylic paint, and fabric, 3 ⁄2 x 2 ⁄2" (8.9 x 6.4 cm) 10 11 more invitation cards (now to his own shows), sculptures, multiples, objects and, soon, to produce sculptures and installations that prints, and drawings. The phrases on their surfaces imbue these would transform the familiar into something wholly otherwise. works of art with a vernacular poetry: “Extra Buttons.” Or “Cat The narrative imagery of each of Gober’s works springs from Sitter. Quality care for your pets. $5.00 per visit.” Sometimes the an intuitive decision, a concrete conviction. After the suddenness lettering is Gober’s, sometimes that of an assistant or a collaborator. of inspiration—spotting a small package of extra buttons, run over Sometimes it is freely invented, sometimes it imitates a selected by a car; envisaging an armchair pierced by a culvert pipe—what source. In all cases, for the careful observer, it bespeaks the engage- follows is the polar opposite: the slowness of deliberation and ment of a human hand. work. The thinking and discussion in the studio circulate chief- Handwriting offers a useful entry point to a consideration of ly around “how to make this,” not around what to make or its Gober’s art.