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Sound Vision: Contemporary Art from the Collection

From the Collection

March 06 – August 03, 2014
Deborah Grant, In the Land of the Blind the Blue Eye Man is King from the series By the Skin of Our Teeth, 2007. Oil, archival ink, paper, Flashe paint, and enamel on five birch panels; 72 × 180 × 2 inches (182.9 × 457.2 × 5.1 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by JoAnn and Ronald Busuttil. © Deborah Grant. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

The Nasher Museum presented an exhibition of recent acquisitions of contemporary art and other highlights from the collection. Sound Vision: Contemporary Art from the Collection includes paintings, works on paper, photography, video, installation and sculpture.

“We are thrilled to present an exhibition of some of the most exciting art of our time,” said Sarah Schroth, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. “Visitors will enjoy one dazzling work after another, and the conversations between them. A story emerges in this exhibition–of our dedication to our curator’s vision and our sound strategy for building a collection.”

Sound Vision featured 37 works by artists including Radcliffe Bailey, Sanford Biggers, william cordova, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Noah Davis, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Charles Gaines, Deborah Grant, Barkley L. Hendricks, Taiyo Kimura, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Zanele Muholi, Odili Donald Odita, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Robert Pruitt, Dario Robleto, Gary Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, Burk Uzzle, Nari Ward, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

The exhibition reflected a collecting strategy with a focus on artists who are living and working today, and may be emerging or unexpected. The work of these younger artists, often connected to the museum through exhibitions, was juxtaposed with established artists who have greatly influenced art of the 21st century.

Sound Vision: Contemporary Art from the Collection was supported by Nancy A. Nasher and David S. Haemisegger. Sound Vision was organized by Trevor Schoonmaker, Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum.

  • The long vessel seen here is based on a fishing boat the artist first encountered when visiting Senegal. The object appears to float in front of the tarp, similar to the way a magician makes an assistant levitate. The black glitter that covers the boat recurs in Bailey’s works and is suggestive of the shimmering quality of Haitian Voodoo flags, which are covered in reflective sequins. The tarp in the background is marked with symbols that are derived from visual languages as diverse as Haitian veve, Yoruba and Kongo cosmology, and African American Carolina metalwork. Together these markings form a mystical navigational language of the artist’s creation, and the boat becomes a transcendent vessel that can carry one to another realm.

    Radcliffe Bailey, Levitate, 2012. Mixed media, 120 x 114 x 6 in.ches (304.8 x 289.6 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase made possible by the Nasher Museum Board of Advisors in honor of Chairman Blake Byrne, T'57, with funds provided by Nancy Nasher and David Haemisegger, Trent Carmichael, Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (T’84, P’16, P’19, P’19), Derek and Christen Wilson (T'86, B'90, P'15), Cynthia and Richard Brodhead, Paula Cooper, Patricia and Thruston Morton, Jack and Margaret Neely, Andrew and Barbra Rothschild, Brenda and Howard Johnson, Paula and James Crown, Richard Powell and C.T. Woods-Powell, Kimerly Rorschach and John Hart, Jason Rubell and Michelle Simkins-Rubell, Monica and Richard Segal, Frank Konhaus and Ellen Cassilly, Peter Lange and Lori Leachman, Trevor Schoonmaker and Teka Selman, Sarah Schroth, Michael and Leslie Marsicano, Jock Reynolds and Suzanne Hellmuth, Ann and Rhodes Craver, Katharine and Bryan Reid, and Kristine Stiles.

  • Sanford Biggers, Quilt #15, Harmonics 2

    Sanford Biggers, Quilt #15, Harmonics 2, 2012. Fabric-treated acrylic, spray paint, and cotton on repurposed quilt; 79 1/2 x 80 3/4 inches (201.9 x 205.1 cm). Promised gift of Paula Cooper in honor of Patsy and Raymond Nasher. © Sanford Biggers. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

  • Deborah Grant, In the Land of the Blind the Blue Eye Man is King from the series By the Skin of Our Teeth, 2007.

    Deborah Grant, In the Land of the Blind the Blue Eye Man is King from the series By the Skin of Our Teeth, 2007. Oil, archival ink, paper, Flashe paint, and enamel on five birch panels; 72 × 180 inches (182.9 × 457.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by JoAnn and Ronald Busuttil, 2013.13.1. © Deborah Grant. Courtesy of the artist and Steve Turner, Los Angeles.

  • LaToya Ruby Frazier, Grandma Ruby and me, 2005. Gelatin silver print mounted on museum board, 20 × 24 inches (50.8 × 61 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie and Michael Levine (T'84, P’15). © LaToya Ruby Frazier.

  • A woman wearing underpaints, striped knee socks and a pink feather boa reclines on an olive green sofa with one hand on the floor near pairs of platform shoes on a red patterned rug. This painting by Barkley L. Hendricks is called Take All the Time You Need (Adrienne Hawkins)

    Barkley L. Hendricks, Take All the Time You Need (Adrienne Hawkins), 1975. Oil on linen canvas, 72 × 72 inches (182.9 × 182.9 cm). Gift of Kelsey and David Lamond. 2014.6.1. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

  • Odili Donald Odita, Over Here, Over There, 2001. Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 104 inches (213.4 x 264.2 cm). Promised gift of Marjorie and Michael Levine (T'84, P’15); L.1.2011.1. ©Odili Donald Odita. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

    Odili Donald Odita, Over Here, Over There, 2001. Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 104 inches (213.4 x 264.2 cm). Promised gift of Marjorie and Michael Levine (T'84, P’15); L.1.2011.1. ©Odili Donald Odita. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

  • Screenprint of a red rose in a vase on polished mirror stainless steel

    Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Rose (La Rosa), 1981. Screenprint on polished mirror stainless steel, 47 1/4 × 39 5/8 × 1 inches (120 × 100.6 × 2.5 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Gift of Mrs. Stanley Levy. © Michelangelo Pistoletto. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

  • Work on paper

    Robert Pruitt, Mama, 2011. Conté, gold leaf, charcoal on hand-dyed paper; 72 3/8 x 60 inches (183.8 x 152.4 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Gift of Blake Byrne, T'57, in honor of Kimerly Rorschach. © Robert Pruitt. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

  • Screenprint of Marilyn Monroe in pink, silver, blue and orange.

    Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, 1967. Screenprint on paper, 36 × 36 1/16 inches (91.4 × 91.6 cm). Extra, out of the edition. Designated for research and educational purposes only. Collection of the Nasher Museum. Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. © 2013 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

  • Carrie Mae Weems, I Looked and Looked to See What so Terrified You from the Louisiana Project, 2003. Chromogenic prints, 35 ¾ x 23 ¾ inches (90.8 × 60.3 cm) each. Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase. © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

  • Artist Carrie Mae Weems (left) poses in front of her work with Nasher Museum Director Sarah Schroth and Chief Curator Trevor Schoonmaker. Photo by J Caldwell.

    Artist Carrie Mae Weems (left) poses in front of her work with Nasher Museum Director Sarah Schroth and Chief Curator Trevor Schoonmaker. Photo by J Caldwell.

  • Chief Curator Trevor Schoonmaker gives a talk in a gallery of Sound Vision, in front of a painting by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Photo by J Caldwell.

    Chief Curator Trevor Schoonmaker gives a talk in a gallery of Sound Vision, in front of a painting by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Photo by J Caldwell.

  • Duke students sit on a bench to enjoy Sound Vision. Photo by J Caldwell.

    Duke students sit on a bench to enjoy Sound Vision. Photo by J Caldwell.

Podcast

American artist Carrie Mae Weems, a star in the contemporary art world known for her powerful and provocative photographs and videos, delivered the Annual Rothschild Lecture.
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