ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-- The Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College will present three exhibitions of works selected from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, on permanent loan to the CCS. The exhibitions are curated by first-year graduate students in the Center's master's degree program and will be on view at the CCS Museum from Sunday, February 17, to Sunday, February 24, with an opening reception from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 17. The Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The exhibitions and reception are free and open to the public. Film screenings, curatorial discussions, and a satellite exhibition are also being organized in conjunction with the exhibitions.
The three exhibitions variously explore the contemporary relevance of the Pattern and Decoration movement, atmosphere and paranoia, and the construction of meaning within the gallery space. Visiting curators Paul Ha, the deputy director of the Yale University Art Gallery; Lilian Tone, assistant curator of the department of painting and sculpture of the Museum of Modern Art; and Pip Day, an independent curator based in New York and Mexico City, worked with and advised the curatorial teams of graduate students organizing the exhibitions.
Too Much Joy: Revisiting the Pattern and Decoration Movement is a survey of works that came to critical and commercial success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, yet frequently go without mention in recent art history. Drawing on the Marieluise Hessel Collection's exceptional representation of works from the movement, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, and other works by Brad Davis, Valerie Jaudon, Robert Kushner, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Kim MacConnel, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, Rodney Ripps, Ned Smyth, Robert Zakanitch, and Joe Zucker, as well as works on loan for the exhibition from Joyce Kozloff and Miriam Schapiro. Too Much Joy is curated by Jimena Acosta-Romero, Robert Blackson, Amaya de Miguel Sanz, and Kelly Taxter.
... curious pictures ... presents an atmosphere of uncertainty, trepidation, secrecy, even paranoia. It is an exhibition where everything is familiar, but nothing is known; a place where we move freely, yet feel watched and constrained. The artists included are Vito Acconci, Sophie Calle, Peter Campus, Donna Dennis, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Gordon Matta-Clark, Gabriel Orozco, and Cindy Sherman. The exhibition is curated by Anja Bock, Bree Edwards, Candice Hopkins, Christel Tsilibaris, and John Weeden.
Space Matters activates various dialogues between artworks and the gallery. Works by Joseph Beuys, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Joseph Kosuth, Allan McCollum, Bruce Nauman, Robert Ryman, Lawrence Weiner, and Rhonda Zwillinger critically address the loaded significance of the exhibition space. This exhibition is curated by Kazeem Adeleke, Jose Blondet, Ingrid Chu, Kate Green, and Ana Vejzovic.