“A Specific Eye: Seven Collections” Exhibition
Demisch Danant
This event has ended.
Isn’t the real significance of a work, not the meaning we think we give it, but the meaning it is likely to take in relation to what surrounds it?
- André Breton
Demisch Danant presents A Specific Eye: Seven Collections, an exhibition of seven personal collections of aesthetic objects on loan from celebrated New York connoisseurs who are members of the gallery’s extended circle: artists Robert Gober and Donald Moffett; photographer François Halard; Frank Maresca, noted expert in the fields of Self-Taught Art and Outsider Art; artists Huma Bhabha and Jason Fox; gallerist Jason Jacques, preeminent purveyor of 19th and early 20th century European Ceramics; artist Ugo Rondinone; and the late photographer Saul Leiter. Objects on view range from Art Nouveau ceramics and anonymous wooden masks from the late 19th century, to contemporary photographs and paintings.
These collections will be set within an environment of exceptional French furniture and lighting of the 1970s, in juxtapositions that evoke the decade when classic and modern tastes famously merged in French interior design. The vibrant eclecticism that emerged in the Seventies in Paris, continues to exert enormous influence in the world of design today. A Specific Eye will explore the ways in which such juxtapositions provoke the senses and the intellect alike, bringing meaning to the spaces objects inhabit.
On view from March 4 through April 6, 2019, A Specific Eye is a continuation of gallery’s year-long exhibition program devoted to collecting – a series of shows, publications, and talks that have explored connoisseurship, the aesthetic experience that transforms a ‘buyer’ into a ‘collector’, and the impact that obsession, research, taste, and personal stories have upon the process of collecting.
The Seven Collections
Huma Bhabha and Jason Fox: Ancient objects from Bhaba’s family home in Karachi, Pakistan.
Robert Gober and Donald Moffett: A selection of Americana, including historical artifacts, ephemera, books, illustrations, and natural specimens.
François Halard: A group of enlarged prints from 8 x10 Polaroids of the personal collection in the photographer’s home in Arles, France.
Jason Jacques: Art Nouveau ceramics by Galileo Chini (1873-1956), early 20th century copper boxes by Alfred- Louis-Achille Daguet, and Dutch carpets circa 1930.
Saul Leiter: A group of anonymous primitive paintings, along with paintings by both Leiter (1923-2013) and his longtime friend, muse, and lover Soames Bantry. Religious icons and found objects are also included.
Frank Maresca: A group of seven 19th and early 20th century American heads and busts. Ugo Rondinone: A group of Chinese and Japanese gongshi (scholar’s rocks).
Ugo Rondinone: A group of Chinese and Japanese gongshi (scholar’s rocks).
Media
Schedule
from March 04, 2019 to April 06, 2019