David Zwirner is pleased to present work by American artist Sherrie Levine at the gallery’s Hong Kong location. The exhibition will showcase several bodies of work that are central to Levine’s practice, and that distinctly engage the artist’s ongoing inquiry into notions of authorship, originality, and authenticity.
Levine rose to prominence as a member of the Pictures Generation, a group of artists based in New York in the late 1970s and 1980s whose work examined the structures of signification underlying mass-circulated images, and, in many cases, directly appropriated these images in order to imbue them with new, critically inflected meaning. Since then, Levine has created a singular and complex body of work in a variety of media that often explicitly reproduces artworks and motifs from the Western art-historical canon as well as non-Western cultures.
On view for the first time will be Hong Kong Dominoes: 1–12 (2017), a suite of twelve paintings on mahogany that replicate the surface of a group of dominoes that Levine purchased on a trip to Hong Kong in 2012. In the mid-1980s, the artist began painting “generic abstractions”—composed of stripes, checks, or chevrons—by applying paint on wood; these works are evocative of minimalist painting and sculpture from the 1960s and 1970s as well as the surfaces of game boards such as chess or backgammon. Here, she extends the logic of this seminal body of work by playing on the object quality of the original dominoes.
A number of works in the exhibition make reference to modernist masterworks, questioning the stereotypical construct of the heroic male artist. In a group of twenty-two never-before-seen After Henri Matisse drawings from 1985 from the artist’s own collection, Levine re-presents a sequence of floating, masklike faces in Matisse’s characteristic style. Likewise, in Monochromes After Renoir Nudes (2016), Levine has created abstract restatements of twenty of the impressionist painter’s celebrated nudes, making use of pixelation to consolidate the range of tones in each painting into a single, truly monochromatic value. These works revisit a technique first employed by Levine in her 1989 group of woodcut prints Meltdown, in which an averaging algorithm was used to create a checkerboard composition based on modernist artists’ iconic paintings.
After Feininger: 1–11 (2021) makes use of the work of Bauhaus-trained photographer Andreas Feininger (1906–1999)—son of painter Lyonel Feininger—and relates to Levine’s ongoing practice of photographing reproductions of artworks, begun in the early 1980s. Though most known as a LIFE magazine photographer, Feininger was employed by the American Office of War Information, created as a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, and traveled across the United States in 1942 documenting wartime industries. Here, a series of vividly colored images depict mining and construction efforts set against vast and unassuming landscapes.
Brazilian Ex Voto Figure: 1 (2019) is part of an ongoing group of sculptures cast from wooden originals once used for ritualistic purposes. By appropriating an object from outside the Western art-historical canon, Levine indirectly references one of the primary influences of modernist artists in the early twentieth century, who were drawn to so-called exotic art for its formal, aesthetic qualities. Her choice of bronze reinforces the contrasting function that her copies embody vis-à-vis the originals, which are effectively transformed from artifacts to works of art. It is presented alongside the cast-bronze sculpture Hobby Horse (2014), a literal translation of the French “Dada,” in which Levine wryly conflates this lay meaning with the iconic art movement.
This will be the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with David Zwirner, and her first at the gallery’s Hong Kong location. On the occasion of the exhibition, a new publication on the artist’s work is forthcoming from David Zwirner Books and will be available in both English-only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions.
Born in 1947 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Sherrie Levine studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she received her MFA in 1973. Early solo exhibitions were held at 3 Mercer Street, New York (1977); Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo (1978); and The Kitchen, New York (1979). In 2015, the artist joined David Zwirner. Her inaugural solo exhibition at the gallery in New York was on view the following year. Sherrie Levine: After Reinhardt, on view in 2019 at the gallery’s 34 East 69th Street location in New York, marked the artist’s third solo exhibition with David Zwirner.
In 2011, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York presented MAYHEM, a major exhibition of Levine’s work spanning three decades. The show included one of her most acclaimed series from 1981—a group of twenty-two photographs of reproductions of Walker Evans’s photographs from his Farm Security Administration–commissioned project to document the rural South during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Referencing the loss of uniqueness as a result of mechanical (and digital) reproduction, and ironically using a medium generally held responsible for diminishing the value of the artist’s hand, After Walker Evans: 1–22 emphasizes a description of the pictures in contextual rather than formal terms.
Levine’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide, including at Neues Museum, State Museum for Art and Design, Nuremberg (2016); Portland Art Museum, Oregon (2013); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (2010); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009 and 1991); and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2007). Other venues include Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany (1998); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1995); The Menil Collection, Houston (1995); Portikus, Frankfurt (1994); Philadelphia Museum of Art (1993); Kunsthalle Zürich (1991); High Museum of Art, Atlanta (1988); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (1988); and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut (1987).
Major group exhibitions include NOT I: Throwing Voices (1500 BCE–2020 CE), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2020); Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2018); Ordinary Pictures, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2016); America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015); Prima Materia, Punta della Dogana, François Pinault Foundation, Venice (2013); The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2009); Whitney Biennial (2008, 1989, and 1985); SITE Santa Fe (2004); São Paulo Biennial (1998); Carnegie International (1988); documenta VII (1982); and Pictures, Artists Space, New York (1977).
Work by the artist is held in major international museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Levine lives and works in New York.
For all press inquiries, contact:
Julia Lukacher +1 212 727 2070 jlukacher@davidzwirner.com
Tong Hu +852 9769 4819 tong@davidzwirner.com
Victoria Kung +852 9668 1092 victoriak@suttoncomms.com
Kiko Tse +852 6015 5184 kiko@davidzwirner.com
謝麗·利文
《香港多米諾》
2021年9月-10月
香港 | 中環皇后大道中80號H Queen’s 5-6樓
卓納畫廊欣然於香港空間舉辦美國藝術家謝麗·利文（Sherrie Levine）的作品展。展覽將呈現對利文的藝術實踐至關重要的幾組創作，它們展示了藝術家對創作者身份、原創性和真實性等概念的持續探究。
利文最初作為“圖像一代”（Pictures Generation）的代表人物嶄露頭角，這群藝術家活躍於1970年代末至1980年代的紐約，他們的作品檢視了大量傳播圖像中的潛在意義架構。在多數情況下，他們會直接挪用這類圖像，再賦予嶄新而批判的意義。自此之後，利文使用多種媒介形式創作了獨特而複雜的作品，它們大多都明確地復刻了西方藝術史的經典及非西方文化的藝術作品及主題。
是次展覽將首次呈現《香港多米諾：1-12》（2017），一套包括了十二幅紅木的繪畫作品，畫面復刻了利文在2012年於香港旅行時購買的多米諾骨牌。1980年代中期，藝術家通過將顏料塗繪於木板上，開始了她的“通用抽象”（generic abstractions）繪畫創作，畫面由條紋、網格或V型圖案構成，讓人想起1960和70年代的極簡主義繪畫和雕塑，以及聯想到國際象棋或西洋雙陸棋等棋盤的表面。在這件作品中，利文充分发揮了多米諾骨牌的外形特徵，從而延續了她早期創作的關鍵邏輯。
展覽中的不少作品都指涉了現代主義傑作，質疑了男性藝術家「英雄化」的刻板印象。《仿亨利·馬蒂斯》系列創作於1985年，共二十二件是從未展出過的藝術家個人珍藏。利文以馬蒂斯的特色風格再現了一系列漂浮的、面具般的面孔。與之類似，在《仿雷諾阿裸像的單色畫》（2016）系列中，利文對這位印象派畫家 20 幅著名的裸像作品進行了抽象的重述，擅用像素化的處理，將每幅原作中的色調範圍整合為單一的單色畫色值。這些作品重新審視了利文1989 年在創作木刻版畫《融化》（Meltdown）系列時首次采用的技法，當時她基於平均算法，把這位現代主義藝術家的標志畫作重塑為棋盤式構圖。
《仿費寧格：1-11》（2021）系列挪用了曾在包豪斯求學的攝影師安德烈亞斯·費寧格（Andreas Feininger，1906-1999）的作品——他也是畫家利奧尼·費寧格（Lyonel Feininger）之子。利文將其與自己在1980年代初起創作的攝影翻拍作品相結合。費寧格以《生活》雜志攝影師的身份被大眾所熟知，但也曾經於二戰前後受羅斯福新政下開設的美國戰時情報局所僱傭，在 1942 年間前往美國各地環遊，記錄戰時工業。在展覽中，一系列生動鮮活的彩色圖像描繪了當時開闊樸素風景中鑽井採礦及建築工地的場景。
作品《巴西獻祭雕像：1》（2019）出自一組持續創作的雕塑系列，作品選用了曾用於宗教儀式的木質原作，再由青銅鑄塑而成。利文通過對西方藝術史經典之外的物件進行挪用，間接地指涉了20 世紀初現代主義藝術家們受到的重要影響之一——藝術家們因其形式與美學特質，被這些所謂的具有「異國情調」的藝術所吸引。利文對青銅的選擇突出了她的複製品與原作之間的反差，有效地將之從手工藝品轉化成了藝術作品。這件作品與鑄銅雕塑《木馬》（2014）一起展出。標題「木馬」是對法國達達主義一詞的直譯，而利文諷刺地將這層世俗的含義與標志性的藝術運動融合在了一起。
是次展覽為藝術家在卓納畫廊的第四次個展，也是她在香港空間的首展。值此之際，卓納圖書將推出藝術家的全新雙語出版物，包括英語及繁體中文兩個版本。
謝麗·利文（Sherrie Levine）1947年出生於賓夕凡尼亞州的黑澤爾頓，就讀威斯康辛大學麥迪遜分校，並於1973年在該校取得純藝術碩士學位。她早期曾於紐約的默瑟街3號（1977）；水牛城的Hallwalls當代藝術中心（1978）；紐約的The Kitchen機構（1979）舉辦個展。2015年，藝術家加入卓納畫廊，並在次年於畫廊的紐約空間舉辦了首次個展。2019年，《謝麗·利文：仿萊茵哈特》在畫廊位於紐約東69街34號的空間展出，這是藝術家在卓納的第三次個展。
2011年，紐約的惠特尼美國藝術博物館為藝術家橫跨三十多年的藝術創作舉行了重要展覽《大騷亂》，其中包括了她創作於1981年的重要系列：一組22張覆刻了沃克·埃文斯（Walker Evans）攝影作品的創作，埃文斯的原作出自他受美國農場安全管理局委任的項目，記錄了1930 年代美國大蕭條期間南方農村的景象。利文指涉了機械（及數碼）複製帶來了獨特性的喪失，並且諷刺地使用了通常被認為折損了藝術家「親手」創作的價值的媒介。她的《仿沃克·埃文斯：1-22》強調了圖像所處的語境，而非其形式條件。
利文已於世界各地的重要機構舉辦個展，包括：紐倫堡的新博物館-德國國家藝術與設計博物館（2016）；俄勒岡州的波特蘭藝術博物館（2013）；德國克雷費爾德的豪斯朗格博物館（2010）；三藩市現代藝術博物館（2009和1991）；新墨西哥州聖塔菲的喬治亞·歐姬芙博物館（2007）。其他為藝術家舉辦個展的機構還包括：德國勒沃庫森的莫斯布羅赫博物館（1998）；洛杉磯當代藝術博物館（1995）；休斯頓的曼尼爾收藏博物館（1995）；法蘭克福門廊藝術中心（1994）；費城藝術博物館（1993）；蘇黎世美術館（1991）；亞特蘭大的高空藝術博物館（1988）；華盛頓特區的赫尚博物館（1988）；以及康州哈特福德的沃茲沃思學會（1987）。
藝術家的重要群展包括：《非我：飛擲的聲音（公元前1500年——公元2020年）》，洛杉磯郡藝術博物館（2020）；《嶄新：1980年代的藝術與商品》，華盛頓特區的赫尚博物館（2018）；《普通圖像》，明尼蘇達州明尼阿波利斯的沃克藝術中心（2016）；《難以得見的美國》，紐約惠特尼美國藝術博物館（2015）；《首要材料》，威尼斯弗朗索瓦·皮諾基金會的海關現代博物館（2013）；《圖像一代，1974-1984》，紐約大都會藝術博物館（2009）；惠特尼雙年展（2008，1989及1985年）；聖塔菲的SITE機構（2004）；聖保羅雙年展（1998）；卡內基國際展（1988）；第七屆卡塞爾文獻展（1982）；以及《圖片》，紐約藝術家空間（1977）。
藝術家的作品已被珍藏於世界各地博物館收藏之中，包括：芝加哥藝術博物館；巴黎蓬皮杜藝術中心；華盛頓特區的赫尚博物館；波士頓當代藝術中心；丹麥胡姆勒拜克的路易斯安娜現代藝術博物館；洛杉磯郡藝術博物館；紐約大都會藝術博物館；紐約現代藝術博物館；大阪的日本國立國際美術館；洛杉磯現代藝術博物館；紐約古根海姆美術館；倫敦泰特現代美術館；及紐約的惠特尼美國藝術博物館等。利文現生活和工作於紐約。
Image: Installation view, Sherrie Levine, Hong Kong Dominoes: 1–12, 2017
媒体垂询
Julia Lukacher +1 212 727 2070 jlukacher@davidzwirner.com
Tong Hu +852 9769 4819 tong@davidzwirner.com
Victoria Kung +852 9668 1092 victoriak@suttoncomms.com
Kiko Tse +852 6015 5184 kiko@davidzwirner.com