JAN FEB MAR 2020 DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG | 1 FROM THE DIRECTOR FEMINIST SPECULATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS IN ART WELCOME to a new year and Works by women are the primary focus of the a new beginning for the Des Moines Art Center’s exhibition program in early 2020. Art Center. In addition to an array of Tenacious innovators and explorers, these women stimulating exhibitions and programs planned for the year, the Art Center push the boundaries of art and stereotypical will inaugurate a new strategic plan assumptions about the roles of women. Their in 2020 to take us to 2023, our speculations and experiments, from the audacious 75th anniversary year. The staff, board, and members of the to the subtle, compel us to use our senses and community have been working imagination as much as reason and logic. The with Joe Benesh of the Ingenuity works — many of which appear to be sketches, Company to create an energetic plan that will address multiple areas models, or works-in-progress — emphasize of focus, such as overcoming the that the processes of invention or creation are psychological or cultural barriers to ultimately more important than a conclusive participation, expanding points of access, raising awareness, enhancing theory. Curated to upend preconceptions, the internal and external communication, hope is that these exhibitions are approached and creating a culture of continual with the same curiosity as that with which these development, among others. We will share the final plan with the artworks were created. community in the coming months. Our first major exhibition project of the year features the enigmatic sculptures of Karla Black. This will be [UNTITLED] followed by Justin Favela’s exhibition and celebratory community programs Drawing inspiration from the experimental approach of artists in in the summer and Black Stories these exhibitions, we’ve created an open-ended project of our own (working title) in the fall, which will called [Untitled] — because there are infinite possibilities for what highlight artwork by Black artists can take place. This public program quiets museum-speak and in the permanent collections. Each invites community members to bring their perspectives, passions, project will provide opportunities for experiments, and unique brand of energy to unfold in the museum. the community to see themselves Want to contribute? Contact Director of Education Jill Featherstone in the museum through active at [email protected]. participation and collaboration. I Programs will be offered on Thursday evenings as schedules allow. hope you will join us for these—and Keep watch on your weekly eNews and social media for updates! more—unexpected experiences to come. JEFF FLEMING 2 | JAN FEB MAR 2020 FEBRUARY 8 – MAY 17, 2020 ANNA K. MEREDITH GALLERY AND I. M. PEI GALLERIES ORGANIZED BY DIRECTOR OF CURATORIAL AFFAIRS / SENIOR CURATOR ALISON FERRIS KARLA BLACK: 20 YEARS ARTIST CONVERSATION Art created by Turner Prize-nominated Black’s work is also deeply rooted in with Alison Ferris Scottish artist Karla Black is confounding dialogues with the history of art, particularly Thursday, January 30 / 7 pm Levitt Auditorium to first-time viewers by virtue of the 20th-century American art. Approximately * Reservations required materials she uses and the color palette 15 of Black’s sculptures made in the last she employs—predominantly light blue, two decades will be installed in the Anna EXHIBITION OPENING + CELEBRATION pink, and pale yellow pastels. K. Meredith Gallery alongside paintings and Friday, February 7 / 6 – 8 pm Utilizing large pieces of inexpensive paper, sculptures selected by the artist from the Complimentary beverages powdered forms of paint and plaster, glitter Art Center’s permanent collections. Artists and hors d’oeuvres * Reservations encouraged and cellophane, hand-sanitizing gel, bath selected include Louise Bourgeois, Helen bombs, liquid foundation, eye shadow and Frankenthaler, Ellen Gallagher, Eva Hesse, Claus Presented by the Art Center’s member lipstick, her materials are ordinary. What Oldenburg, and Richard Tuttle, among others. affiliate group, Art Noir results are sculptural forms that are large, The highlight of Black’s project at the unsubstantial, and a bit clumsy—they tip Art Center will be two major sculptures she’ll and buckle and regularly shed their powder create on site specifically for the I. M. Pei patina. These unconventional materials and galleries, the space that Black was particularly formal elements are chosen and made use taken with when she visited in the fall of 2018. of by the artist to allow her to investigate Karla Black: 20 Years at the Des Moines play, tactility, and creative expression. Using Art Center will be the artist’s first major solo notions of play results in Black’s ability museum exhibition to include both site-specific “to differently engage the viewer,” writes works and a representative selection of art historian Elyse Speaks, and sets up the sculptures made over the course of her career. work “as a series of possibilities.” A full-color catalogue including four essays will accompany the exhibition. Authors include organizing curator Alison Ferris; Elizabeth Smith, Executive Director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; Jenni Sorkin, Associate Professor of Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara; and Elyse Speaks, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Notre Dame. LEFT AND DETAIL ON THE COVER Karla Black (Scottish, born 1972) / Unlike, 2018 Glass, wood, clay, paint, Vaseline, lipstick, foundation, moisturizing gel / 54 3/4 × 37 13/16 × 12 5/8 inches Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Kyle and Sharon Krause Family Art Acquisition Fund, 2019.15 Photo Courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne Photographer: ©Jens Ziehe / ©Karla Black FOLLOWING ON PAGES 4 AND 5 Karla Black (Scottish, born 1972) Turner Prize 2011 Installation view BALTIC presents Turner Prize 2011 Photo courtesy of ©BALTIC and the artist Photo: Colin Davidson / ©Karla Black DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG | 3 4 | JAN FEB MAR 2020 DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG | 5 JANUARY 10 – APRIL 15, 2020 BLANK ONE GALLERY ORGANIZED BY ASSISTANT CURATOR JARED LEDESMA HEDDA STERNE IMAGINATION AND MACHINE MINI LECTURES + In 1961, Fortune magazine commissioned paintings she made for the commission CONVERSATION the Romanian-born, mid-20th-century depict the gritty, staid, and isolated machine Shaina Larrivee, Director, the Hedda Sterne Foundation, artist Hedda Sterne to produce paintings parts as a way to “understand not how they Inc., Nathan Augustine, that characterized her impressions of work, but how they are.” The paintings — Art Collections Manager, John Deere tractor parts. The magazine made with paint brushes, oil sticks, and a Deere & Company, and Jared Ledesma, Art Center chose Sterne based on a body of work spray gun — were illustrated in the July Assistant Curator she completed in the 1950s that focused issue of Fortune that year, and purchased by Sunday, January 12 / 1:30 pm on the anthropomorphic qualities John Deere for the company’s collection. Levitt Auditorium of machines. This exhibition features all seven Reservations required * Sterne visited the company’s factories paintings, which have never been shown in both Moline, Illinois and Waterloo, together outside Moline, Illinois. A brochure Iowa and became interested in the vital accompanying the exhibition will feature importance of valves, transmissions, and an essay by Shaina Larrivee, the director engine parts of the tractors. The seven of the Hedda Sterne Foundation. Hedda Sterne (American, born Romania, 1910–2011) RIGHT Tractor Seat, 1961 Mixed media on heavy paper 20 x 25 inches Image provided as Courtesy of John Deere OPPOSITE Six Cylinder Engine, 1961 Oil, spray paint, and oil stick on canvas 34 x 26 inches Image provided as Courtesy of John Deere 6 | JAN FEB MAR 2020 DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG | 7 JANUARY 17 – MAY 17, 2020 PAMELA BASS-BOOKEY AND HARRY BOOKEY GALLERY ORGANIZED BY DIRECTOR OF CURATORIAL AFFAIRS / SENIOR CURATOR ALISON FERRIS ANNA GASKELL JUDITH LOVES MARTHA Anna Gaskell In Anna Gaskell: Judith Loves Martha, artist Judith (American, born 1969) Judith loves Martha, 2016 16:9, HD, color, black Godwin, one of the few women Abstract Expressionist and white, sound 9:55 minutes painters in the 1950s, speculates on her creative Image and video courtesy of Galerie awakening as a young artist after meeting the modern Gisela Capitain, Cologne dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. 8 | JAN FEB MAR 2020 FEBRUARY 14 – MAY 10, 2020 JOHN BRADY PRINT GALLERY ORGANIZED BY CURATOR LAURA BURKHALTER RESEARCHERS WOMEN ARTISTS INSPIRED BY SCIENCE FILM + DISCUSSION This exhibition of drawings, photographs, Anna Gaskell, whose film Judith Loves in partnership with the and prints explores the work of women Martha is concurrently on view in the Bookey #WomenKnowStuffToo exhibition at Iowa artists from the 17th century forward who Gallery, presents a photograph based on State University use research into biology, physics, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a book that Sunday, March 22 / 1:30 pm engineering, astronomy, and other fields as not only helped establish the science fiction Chicken with Plums, 2011 fertile ground for aesthetic inspiration. genre but raised ethical questions about the 1 hour 33 minutes The histories of art and science are limits of science that are still relevant two Selected by Stacey Weber-Feve, Associate filled with women whose contributions have centuries later. Professor