WINTER/SPRING 2016 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE EXHIBITIONS As you may have heard, we’ve had a tremendous fall here Leap Before You Look: at the Hammer. In October, we announced that the museum secured a 99-year lease and an additional 40,000 square Black Mountain College feet of exhibition and support space. The much-needed space will allow us to upgrade and expand existing galleries, create 1933–1957 dedicated galleries for our collections, and build a new study February 21–May 15, 2016 center for the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts. There could not be a more ideal situation than to share our Catherine Opie: Portraits building with UCLA, our new landlord, with whom we have January 30–May 22, 2016 had such a long affiliation. News about our building followed fast on the heels of our Still Life with Fish 13th Gala in the Garden, honoring Diane Keaton and Paul Photography from the UCLA Grunwald Center for the McCarthy. Once again, Los Angeles’s cultural and civic Graphic Arts and the Hammer Contemporary Collection leaders as well as artists, collectors, and arts patrons turned out to raise $2.5 million to support the Hammer. February 13–May 15, 2016 And what an exciting moment to join HAMMER CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION the Hammer community—we are pleased to welcome to our Board of David Lamelas: Overseers Jennifer Simchowitz, an The Desert People art collector and longtime arts patron. January 30–June 5, 2016 Jennifer’s insight and passion for the arts will be a great asset as we gear Jennifer Simchowitz up for a significant phase of growth Sculpture from the Hammer and transformation. Contemporary Collection Looking ahead to 2016, the Hammer’s exhibition schedule January 23–May 22, 2016 remains as full as ever. We kick off the year with a special ticketed film series, MoMA’s The Contenders, followed by HAMMER PROJECTS NANCY NEWHALL, BUCKMINSTER FULLER, BLACK MOUNTAIN a compelling season of exhibitions. Leap Before You Look: 1 1 Kenny Scharf COLLEGE, 1948/1990. GELATIN SILVER PRINT. 7 ⁄2 × 9 ⁄2 IN. Black Mountain College 1933–1957 and a selection of (19.1 × 24.1 CM). SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART. December 3, 2015–May 22, 2016 ©1948, NANCY NEWHALL, ©2014, THE ESTATE OF BEAUMONT new works by Catherine Opie will be on view, along with AND NANCY NEWHALL. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE COURTESY three collection-based exhibitions and Hammer Projects OF SCHEINBAUM AND RUSSEK LTD., SANTA FE, NM. HAMMER PROJECTS by Kenny Scharf and Oscar Tuazon. Oscar Tuazon I am sure you will join us in celebrating as we prepare to February 6–May 15, 2016 LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK: expand and enhance the Hammer to better serve all our visitors. The possibilities are truly endless, and I look forward to sharing more about our plans in the coming BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE 1933–1957 months. We are so grateful for your support as we usher ART + PRACTICE ANNI & JOSEF ALBERS RAY JOHNSON in this new chapter for the museum. 4339 Leimert Blvd., Los Angeles, 90008 RUTH ASAWA GWENDOLYN & JACOB LAWRENCE artandpractice.org Ann Philbin JOHN CAGE CHARLES OLSON Director John Outterbridge ROBERT CREELEY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG December 12, 2015–February 27, 2016 MERCE CUNNINGHAM M. C. RICHARDS ELAINE & WILLEM DE KOONING PETER VOULKOS A Shape That Stands Up BUCKMINSTER FULLER SUSAN WEIL March 5–May 28, 2016 JESS AMONG MANY OTHERS 2 WINTER/SPRING 2016 WINTER/SPRING 2016 3 IN-GALLERY PERFORMANCES HAMMER WORKSHOPS HAMMER PANELS EXPLORATIONS IN THE CRAFTED AT BLACK MOUNTAIN: Merce Cunningham’s newly GEOMETRY OF THINKING SKILL, DE-SKILL, AND reconstructed work Changeling is THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 7:30PM CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE performed by Silas Riener, along with Buckminster Fuller—the visionary, THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 7:30PM excerpts from other early Cunningham architect, author, mathematician, and This panel considers emergent practices works performed by dancers from L.A. inventor of geodesic domes—sought against the backdrop of Black Mountain Dance Project. Music by Christian to discover nature’s building principles. College’s legacy of highly skilled work- Wolff and John Cage is performed by This workshop introduces synergetics, manship. The panel—organized and pianist Aron Kallay. a comprehensive energetic geometry moderated by Jenni Sorkin, assistant Dancer and choreographer Polly system developed by Fuller, through professor, UC Santa Barbara—includes Motley performs Glyph, a whimsical demonstrations and hands-on model Wendy Kaplan, head of decorative arts, work choreographed by dancer and building. Materials provided. Los Angeles County Museum of Art; teacher Katherine Litz at Black Helen Molesworth, chief curator, Mountain College in 1951 with music HAMMER PANELS Museum of Contemporary Art, Los by Lou Harrison. TEACHING ART / Angeles; Jenelle Porter, independent ART SCHOOL TEACHING curator; and Andrew Perchuk, deputy DATES AND TIMES AT HAMMER.UCLA.EDU TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 7:30PM director, Getty Research Institute. How is art taught today? What do we EXHIBITION WALK-THROUGHS mean by experimental teaching? This HAMMER PANELS panel addresses what happens in studios WRITING HISTORY: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2PM LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK and classrooms, the parameters within CURATORIAL PRACTICE Hammer curator Anne Ellegood BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE 1933–1957 which experimental teaching takes place. AND THE ART HISTORICAL THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 6:30PM Moderator art historian Howard ARGUMENT FEBRUARY 21–MAY 15, 2016 Artist Roy Dowell Singerman is joined by independent TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 7:30PM Curated by Helen Molesworth artist Anna Craycroft, art historian Eva Taking Leap Before You Look THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 6:30PM Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain individual works by more than 90 Diaz, and artist and writer Mira Schor. as a starting place, curators Helen Artist Krysten Cunningham College 1933–1957 is the first compre- artists across disciplines—including Molesworth and Anne Ellegood hensive museum exhibition in the United Anni and Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 6:30PM HAMMER LECTURES discuss curating historical exhibitions States to examine the history of Black John Cage, Robert Creeley, Merce Curator and architect Kimberli Meyer JOSEF ALBERS, so that the exhibition itself unfolds as Mountain College. Founded in 1933 Cunningham, Elaine and Willem ARTIST AS EDUCATOR an essay in space, ultimately making ADDITIONAL LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 7:30PM a specific art historical argument. in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Moun- de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Jess, PROGRAMMING ON PAGES 5 AND 19–21. tains, near Asheville, this renowned Ray Johnson, Gwendolyn and Jacob Painter and associate professor and Take a look behind the scenes as experimental college placed the arts at Lawrence, Charles Olson, M. C. director of graduate studies of painting Molesworth and Ellegood unpack The Hammer Museum’s presentation of Leap and printmaking at Yale University, the center of a liberal arts education in Richards, Robert Rauschenberg, Before You Look: Black Mountain College curatorial methods and the role of Anoka Faruqee will speak of Josef an effort to better prepare citizens for Peter Voulkos, and Susan Weil—as 1933-1957 is made possible with support the curator in writing history. participation in a democratic society. well as student work, a detailed timeline, from Susan and Larry Marx. Albers’s “process before product” and “practice before theory” approach to Profoundly interdisciplinary—with an archival materials, two soundscapes, a Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College HAMMER WORKSHOPS emphasis on inquiry, discussion, and series of performances taking place on 1933-1957 has been made possible in part by a teaching. Using the acclaimed 1963 WIKIPEDIA EDIT-A-THON: experimentation—it gave equal attention a piano and a dance floor situated in the major grant from the National Endowment for the Interaction of Color as a focal point, BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE Humanities: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence. to painting, sculpture, drawing, weaving, galleries, and a robust series of public Faruqee will expand the conversation SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 11AM–5PM pottery, poetry, music, and dance, and programs accompanying the exhibition. to the conceptual underpinnings and Build a better record of Black Mountain numerous influential artists, poets, contemporary resonance of Albers’s College’s influential circle at the Hammer’s musicians, and performers either Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College Major support is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon approach to color, drawing, and design. first edit-a-thon. East of Borneo leads 1933–1957 is organized by The Institute of Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation. taught or were students there. This a Wikipedia workshop dedicated to the Contemporary Art, Boston, and curated by Helen This exhibition is supported by an indemnity utopian experiment came to an end Molesworth, chief curator, Museum of Contem- OPPOSITE: JOSEF ALBERS’S COLOR-THEORY CLASS WITH NANCY institution. Beginners welcome—training from the Federal Council on the Arts and the in 1957, but not before it created porary Art, Los Angeles, with Ruth Erickson, NEWHALL, RAY JOHNSON, AND HAZEL LARSEN ARCHER, N.D. sessions at noon or 2 p.m. Register at Humanities. COURTESY OF WESTERN REGIONAL ARCHIVES, STATE ARCHIVES assistant curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, the conditions for some of the 20th OF NORTH CAROLINA, ASHEVILLE, NC. hammer.ucla.edu/wikipedia-editathon, Boston. The Hammer’s presentation is organized Any views, findings, conclusions, or recom- century’s most fertile ideas, having an RIGHT: RUTH ASAWA, UNTITLED (S. 272), CA. 1955, COPPER then join anytime 11 a.m.–5 p.m. by Anne Ellegood, senior curator, with MacKenzie mendations expressed in this exhibition do not AND IRON WIRE. 108 × 15 × 15 IN. (274.3 × 38 × 38 CM). enormous impact on American postwar Stevens, curatorial assistant, and January Parkos Bring a laptop, power adapter, and any necessarily represent those of the National PRIVATE COLLECTION. © ESTATE OF RUTH ASAWA.