Where did the title of this exhibition come from?
Localized Histories came from an essay that Donald Judd wrote in the mid-60’s called Local History. Local History was a critique about the paradigms of the Abstract Expressionism and looking at the radical transformation of sculptural work being made in the 1960s and defined the work as neither painting nor sculpture. Judd was renegotiating the idea that art could have a place beyond Modernism and still be free and expressive such as with assemblage. He said that it was ok for art to be messy and that it did not have to be linear and neat. Judd also spoke about Minimalism and its connection to found objects – the monochromatic readymade, mass produced, everyday object.
How did you choose the pieces for this exhibition?
I wanted the show to be centered around Linda Pace as both an artist and a collector. I was very interested in her use of found objects and building a monochromatic canvas, such as in Red Project and Orange Crush. The Linda Pace Foundation collection has over 500 works of art and showcases a wide range of contemporary art, but I wanted to narrow in on works, which dealt with the idea of assemblage for this exhibition. I wanted to explore artists from her collection that connected to her choices both through materials and process.
Linda Pace often collected works that were created by artists during their time as Artists-in- Residence here at Artpace, such as the pieces by Leonardo Drew (Fall 1995) and Christian Marclay (Fall 1999).
Can you tell us a bit more about Orange Crush?
My reference to how she created Orange Crush is how she created The Red Project, which she wrote about in Dreaming Red. Like The Red Project, I imagine the work was initiated with the color orange as a secondary color to red, or perhaps the color originated from a dream. As the work was built over time, she created a complex universe of plastic toys, stuff animals, shoes, necklaces, balloons, soda cans, baby angels, books, and feathers, all combined to become one thing. Orange Crush is like a map of memories, a relief of time, and a tapestry of cultural absurdities. According to Judd’s Local History, maybe Orange Crush could be categorized as a Minimalist work.
ABOUT THE LINDA PACE FOUNDATION
The Linda Pace Foundation is committed to the charitable vision of its founder. Guided by the donor’s conviction that contemporary art is essential to a dynamic society, the Linda Pace Foundation fosters the creation, presentation, and understanding of innovative expression through contemporary art. Grants support the operation of Artpace, CHRISpark, the public exhibition of Pace’s contemporary art collection, and the work of contemporary artists. The Linda Pace Foundation is open to the public by appointment, and grants tours of its collection and special exhibitions at 114 Camp Street to museum and art professionals, artists, scholars, and university, cultural, museum- affiliated, and other groups and individuals who have an interest in contemporary art. To learn more about the Linda Pace Foundation, visit www.lindapacefoundation.org.
