Radical Juxtapositions 1961 – 2002

Radical Juxtapositions 1961 – 2002 is an important retrospective exhibition that reexamines the career of Yvonne Rainer, an extremely influential artist who has incorporated experimental cinema, choreography and movement, feminism, politics, writing, and visual art into her forty-year practice. Organized by Sid Sachs of Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where the exhibition first appeared in 2002, the exhibition consists of two major new video installations, a reconstruction of a set of an early performance piece, a treasure trove of vintage photographs, posters, documents, dance notations, manuscripts, etc., as well as an arrangement of video monitors running Rainer’s five feature length films and early dance documentation.

This presentation represents the West Coast premiere of the exhibition and a rare opportunity for Los Angeles audiences to experience the uncompromising work of Yvonne Rainer, a great innovator in Minimalism, an inventor in postmodern dance, a Sundance award filmmaker, and a MacArthur Fellow. Built on resistance, both political and aesthetic, Rainer’s commitment to rigorous thinking, hybrid production, and social consciousness has always been the embodiment of what is alternative.

A heavily illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Sid Sachs, Yvonne Rainer, Sally Banes, Carrie Lambert, and Noel Carroll.

About Yvonne Rainer
Rainer was born in San Francisco in 1934. Trained as a modern dancer she began to choreograph her own work in 1960 and was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater in 1962. In 1968 she began to integrate short films into her live performances, and by 1975 she had made a complete transition to filmmaking. In all she has completed seven features: FILM ABOUT A WOMAN WHO… (1974), KRISTINA TALKING PICTURES (1976), JOURNEY FROM BERLIN/1971 (1980), THE MAN WHO ENVIED WOMEN (1985), PRIVILEGE (1990), MURDER and murder (1996). Rainer’s films have been shown extensively in the U.S. and throughout the world. In the spring of 1997—to coincide with the release of MURDER and murder—complete retrospectives of the films of Yvonne Rainer were mounted at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, notably two Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellowship, a Wexner Prize, seven NEA awards, three Rockefeller Fellowships, and four honorary doctors of fine arts degrees. Her latest book, A Woman Who . . . : Essays, Interviews, Scripts, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1999. Her latest dance, “After Many a Summer Dies the Swan,” commissioned by the White Oak Dance Project, had its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in June 2000. Rainer currently teaches at the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University.

Funding
Project support for Yvonne Rainer – Radical Juxtapositions 1961 – 2002 comes from the Pasadena Art Alliance. The organizing institution is Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, which received funding for the development of this exhibition from the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, a program funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Support for Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and its programs comes from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, California Community Foundation Arts Funding Initiative, J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, The Peter Norton Family Foundation, and the members of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.

Related Public Programs

Structures and Systems: Minimal Art in the United States
Saturday 1 May 2004 at The Getty
Public lectures, including Yvonne Rainer, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm,
Museum Lecture Hall
Panel Discussion, including Carl Andre, Artist, Paula Cooper, Gallerist, and Barbara Rose, Director, American University Museum of Art. Moderated by James Meyer, 8.00 pm, Harold M. Williams Auditorium. Free admission. For more information, call the Getty information line at 310.440.7300.

Dance Performance: Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer
Two performances: Saturday 8 May, 7:30 pm and Sunday 9 May, 3 pm at The Getty, Harold M. Williams Auditorium. Tickets are $20 ($15 for students/seniors). For more information, call the Getty information line at 310.440.7300. An Evening with Yvonne Rainer
Monday 3 May 2004 at 8:00 pm at
REDCAT’s Monday Night Screenings
LA premiere of After Many A Summer Dies The Swan: Hybrid (2002, 31 min, video), followed by the legendary classic Film About A Woman Who (1974,105 min, 16 mm, b/w, sound).
General admission is $8;
Students receive a 50% discount with valid ID.
For more information, visit redcat.

Also on view in Los Angeles

A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968 will be on view at Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at California Plaza from March 14 to August 2, 2004. The exhibition is the first large-scale historical exhibition in North America to examine the emergence and foundations of “minimal art,” one of the most significant and influential movements of the 20th century. The exhibition features key selections and bodies of work from the period of 1958-1968 by 40 American artists who emerged by the early-to-mid 1960s. The exhibition is organized by MOCA Senior Curator Ann Goldstein and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. For press information, contact Katherine W. Lee, 213.621.1750, klee@moca.org or Heidi Simonian, 213.621.1749, hsimonian@moca.org.

Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-1970s will be on view at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from June 13 to October 10, 2004. The exhibition examines the role of radically simplified form and systematic strategies in the evolution of vanguard art in the decades after World War II. Including Western and Central Europe and North and South America, it is the first major museum exhibition to treat these issues art historically, providing U.S. audiences with a rare opportunity to understand central aspects of their recent art history in a broad international context. The exhibition is organized by Lynn Zelevansky, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, LACMA. For press information, contact Bo Smith at LACMA 323.857.6513, bsmith@lacma.org.