Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture

Sleek modern houses that float on icebergs, nestle into idealized painted landscapes, or become the backdrop for surreal emotional dramas are some of the images to be seen in a sixteen-artist group exhibition that invites viewers to reconsider modern architecture and what it has come to represent for a new generation.

Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture—curated by Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut—will be presented by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum with the Yale School of Architecture Gallery. It will open at Yale on February 11, 2008, and at The Aldrich on March 9, 2008.

Modern architecture is generally identified with buildings by Le Corbusier, Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright, which represent a period driven by developments in technology, engineering, and the introduction of industrial materials such as iron, steel, concrete, and glass. Architects at this time engaged in a practice that not only incorporated structural innovations, but also encouraged social change.

The artists featured in the exhibition are interested not only in the potential of utopian ideas, but also the sense of a passing idealism that modern architecture now embodies. Hough comments, "The artists are less interested in the built structures themselves and what it might feel like to be inside one, and more interested in the philosophy and idealism they represent. The way in which the buildings signal a possibility of utopia is essential—a future that could have been. Sentimentality runs through much of the work."

Ramírez-Montagut adds, "This melancholic remembrance comes at a time when great works of modern architecture are at risk due to neglect, deterioration, and demolition. Underlying all the artworks is a feeling of deep admiration for the architects who sought to elevate culture and bring it to the broad masses, yet their sense of failure is also prevalent; the artists’ knowledge of modern architecture’s crisis and demise tints their works with some kind of nostalgia."

Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture brings together two-dimensional works of various media (including video) that explore an interest among emerging artists in architecture of the modern period. The exhibition includes work by Alexander Apóstol, Daniel Arsham, Gordon Cheung, David Claerbout, Angela Dufresne, Mark Dziewulski, Christine Erhard, Cyprien Gaillard, Terence Gower, Angelina Gualdoni, Natasha Kissell, Luisa Lambri, Dorit Margreiter, Russell Nachman, Enoc Perez, and Lucy Williams.

Both The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Yale School of Architecture Gallery will present a portion of the exhibition in their galleries. In order to fully appreciate the project, viewers will be encouraged to visit both venues.

The Aldrich will host an Exhibition Reception on Sunday, March 9, 2008, from 3 to 5 pm. Prior to the opening there will be a 2 pm Panel Discussion: Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture, with curators Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, along with artists Daniel Arsham, Angela Dufresne, and Terence Gower. The reception is FREE for members. Refreshments will be served. Round-trip transportation from New York City is available; please call the Museum at 203.438.4519 for reservations. Please note that the bus will not arrive in time for the panel discussion. The reception and panel will take place at the Museum located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield.

Yale will debut their component of the exhibition on Monday, February 11, 2008, with a 6:30 pm Panel Discussion: Painting toward Architecture, Architecture toward Painting. This will feature moderator Joan Ockman along with Peter Halley, Robert Storr, and Anthony Vidler. The discussion will be held at McNeil Lecture Hall at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven (entrance on High Street). This will be followed by the opening reception, at the Architecture Gallery, 32 Edgewood Avenue, New Haven. Both the panel and reception are FREE. The installation at Yale is designed by Dean Sakamoto, director of exhibitions.

Additionally, a book related to the exhibition is being co-published by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Mills College Art Museum, and Yale University Press, and is scheduled for a fall 2008 release.