Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Members’ Magazine Winter/Spring 2016 The value of art is impossible to quantify or measure. And yet, FACTS AND FIGURES WINTER/ THE MCA as a museum director, I must be able to evaluate the impact our exhibitions and programs have on our audiences. I must, for SPRING 2016 BY THE example, track our membership renewal rate, the number of The MCA’s newly redesigned website has many NUMBERS free tours we provide to Chicago public school students, the rave new features, including a series of graphs that use 01 Director’s Letter reviews we receive from visitors, and the complaints as well. In short, I need to use numbers to determine what we are doing numbers to tell the story of our exhibitions, 02 On View right and where we could improve. programs, events, and community. Steve Johnson, 04 By the Numbers ° Three is a Fortunately, since I accepted my position as Pritzker Director in of the Chicago Tribune, was particularly taken Magic Number 2008, I have had the pleasure of watching our standards of with one of the charts, which we’ve reproduced success rise steadily. And I have come to appreciate the beauty ° Making our and clarity of numbers—the way they demystify the work here. Describing it as “a delight among delights, Messaging Count that goes into sharing art with the world and help us maintain the key lime of pie charts,” he went on to write that ° A Decade of transparency and accountability throughout the museum. Forced Entertainment viewers who stumble upon it at the bottom of our ° MCAChicago.org In this spirit, I am delighted to announce that this issue of our new website are in for a treat: “What began as an Top Ten Reasons members’ magazine will be dedicated to numbers. Within these ° pages, you will see articles that address the theme quite informational transaction, a search, say, for current to Carry your MCA literally, through top ten lists and facts and figures. You will also exhibitions, has turned into one of discovery. That’s a Member Card see features that explore the topic more tangentially, say, 12 MCA Screen: Phil Collins by examining Kerry James Marshall’s interest in reimagining the pretty tough thing to criticize in a website.” 13 Kerry James Marshall: paint-by-number kits popularized in the 1950s. And I couldn’t Painting by the Numbers resist sharing a few of this season’s highlights in the form of a Many more graphs can be seen at: 20 Kyle Abraham numerical index: mcachicago.org /About/Facts-And-Figures. + Abraham.In.Motion = Big Numbers 118,220 weight, in pounds, of Alexandre da Cunha’s 22 Playing Koi 35-foot-tall cement sculpture, Figurehead WORKS THAT ARE TITLED 23 Surrealism: 2,191 collection pages on the MCA’s new website UNTITLED The Conjured Life the day it launched Lack of a title shouldn't be 27 Meet Omar Kholeif 400 online bids made over the course of our seen as a failure of creativity 28 Thirty Years in Three Acts 2015 Benefit Art Auction on the part of an artist: many 29 Enter through the 156 days Kerry James Marshall: Mastry will be on 21% Gift Shop Madeleine Grynsztejn Untitled artists title their works view at the MCA Untitled to encourage viewers 30 MCA Store 100 the number of damaged luxury cars former to draw their own 32 Mark Your Calendar MCA curator Beryl Wright helped secure for a conclusions. 33 MCA Seen work in her 1993 exhibition Art at the Armory: Occupied Territory—Wright was posthumously Museum Hours immortalized by artist Kerry James Marshall Mon Closed in the portrait on the cover of this magazine Tue 10 am–8 pm Wed–Sun 10 am–5 pm 7 years we have held our annual Dialogue, Admission is free for Illinois residents presenting speakers like W. Kamau Bell every Tuesday. 6 ensemble members in eighth blackbird, The Museum of Contemporary Art EXHIBITION Information 312–280–2660 the MCA’s 2015–16 artists in residence Chicago is honored to present a major Box Office 312–397–4010 CATALOGUE survey of one of America’s greatest Member Services 312–397–4040 6 duration, in hours, of Speak Bitterness, living painters: Kerry James Marshall. a performance presented at the Edlis Neeson Marshall recognized early in his life MCA Chicago is a triannual publication produced for MCA Members and donors of the MCA by the Design, Theater on February 20 that the history of Western art is, with Publishing, and New Media department, with the KERRY JAMES MARSHALL few exceptions, a history of white assistance of the Rights and Images, Membership, and 1 ranking of The Freedom Principle: Experiments Development teams. Mastry artists and white subjects. And, for the in Art and Music, 1965 to Now in the Guardian’s last four decades, he has been Typeface created by Karl Nawrot, all rights reserved. review of best American art exhibitions of 2015 challenging this biased view of history Unless otherwise noted, all photos © MCA Chicago. by presenting an alternate version Nathan Keay, Staff Photographer; Braxton Black and Jeremy Lawson for Jeremy Lawson Photography, in which black artists are credited and and Joshua Longbrake, contract photographers. black subjects are honored. I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as our contributors The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a nonprofit, enjoyed creating it and watch the quality of our exhibitions and tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Copublished by Skira Rizzoli Alliance of Museums. The museum is generously programs continue to improve from year to year. supported by its Board of Trustees; individual and corporate members; private and corporate foundations, Available at the MCA Store in March including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and government agencies. Programming is mcachicagostore.org partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Museum capital improvements are supported by a Public Museum Capital Grant from the KERRY JAMES MARSHALL Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The MCA is a proud member of Museums in the Park and receives MASTRY major support from the Chicago Park District. Madeleine Grynsztejn Cover image: Kerry James Marshall, Portrait of a Curator a Title (In Memory of Beryl Wright), 2009. Acrylic on PVC panel; Pritzker Director Opens Apr 23, 2016 30 7/8 × 24 7/8 × 1 7/8 in. (78.4 × 63.1 × 4.76 cm). Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert Collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. © Kerry 3 DIRECTOR’S LETTER James Marshall. some ideas being considered photographs that demonstrate poignant works: el mundo no CURRENT for renovations to come. the enduring influence of escuchará (2014). The video, AND surrealism since its emergence which was filmed in Bogotá, MCA DNA: Rafael Ferrer in the first half of the features several teens crooning FUTURE Through Mar 6 twentieth century. A global to The Smiths. EXHIBITONS Puerto Rican–born artist Rafael movement that encompassed Ferrer fashions charming a variety of art forms, BMO Harris Bank Chicago and compelling objects out of surrealism continues to enthrall Works: Diane Simpson Johnston Marklee: Grid Is a Grid Is a Grid ordinary materials to explore artists and audiences to Feb 16–Jul 3 Is a Grid Is a Grid his heritage and personal this day. Chicago artist Diane Simpson experiences. presents four large-scale, MCA Plaza Project: Alexandre fashion-inspired sculptures set Pop Art Design da Cunha against a backdrop that incor- Through Mar 27 Brazilian artist Alexandre da porates the geometric patterns The spirit of pop art Cunha is a poet of found of the Art Deco period. manifested itself as much in materials. He presents several CLOSING SOON design and architecture as large-scale works that reveal it did in the works of artists like the inherent form, beauty, Andy Warhol. Pop Art Design, and mystery of often- MCA Screen: Jos de Gruyter an exhibition organized Surrealism: The Conjured Life overlooked objects for the and Harald Thys by the Vitra Design Museum, museum’s fifth MCA Chicago Closes Jan 17 Germany, pairs iconic design Plaza Project. Im Reich der Sonnenfinsternis, objects with artworks an installation by Belgian artists from this celebrated era. Jos de Gruyter and Harald ON VIEW NEXT Thys, comprises two-hundred- The Street, the Store, and the plus paintings and a twenty- Silver Screen: Pop Art five-minute video. from the MCA Collection Kerry James Marshall: Mastry Through Mar 27 Apr 23–Sep 25 BMO Harris Bank Chicago Conceived as a complement to One of America’s greatest Works: Ania Jaworska Pop Art Design Pop Art Design, this exhibition living artists, Kerry James Closes Jan 31 celebrates the MCA’s holdings Marshall interrogates the Trained architect Ania of iconic pop art. During the MCA Plaza Project: Alexandre da Cunha prevailing art historical canon Jaworska explores the history 1960s and 1970s, many artists to present a new history in of architecture through gravitated toward the brash which black artists are visible, Installation view, Johnston Marklee: Grid Is a prints, drawings, scale models, colors, simplified designs, and black subjects are honored. Grid Is a Grid Is a Grid Is a Grid, MCA Chicago and functional objects. direct salesmanship of the The MCA is proud to present a Oct 1, 2015–Jan 2, 2016 Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Jaworska’s approach is marked burgeoning commercial world major museum survey that Las Vegas Study, 1968–71. Photographs taken by humor and a use of bold, and incorporated these showcases many of Marshall’s within the framework of the “Las Vegas Study.” Courtesy of Museum im Bellpark Kriens minimalist forms.