Certain Traces: Dialogue Los Angeles / Prague 2004
August 31 - October 10, 2004

Maura Bendett, Stars, 2003, 36 x 13 x 5 inches.

This is the 15-year commemoration of the historic Dialogue: Prague / Los Angeles show of 1989-1990 that defied Communist sanctions and presaged the final dissolution of communist Czechoslovakia. Certain Traces celebrates the achievement of the original project, as it extends the original concept to explore the meaning of creative discourse for a diverse group of artists from Los Angeles and Prague in a newly defined open society. In 1989 12 Czech artists risked official sanction to take part in an artist exchange with 12 Los Angeles counterparts. Dialogue opened just three months prior to the massive public demonstrations in Prague that set off the final collapse of communism. The exhibition attracted hundreds of visitors daily and was later proclaimed a harbinger of change and a “miracle of free expression.”

Fifteen years have brought significant change to the political and cultural landscape in both countries, yet the basic notion that inspired the first exhibition–that a creative discourse in the arts might rise above national borders to promote artistic innovation, mutual understanding and amity–remains unchanged. This is the point of departure for Certain Traces: Dialogue Los Angeles / Prague 2004.

	Ivan Kafka, Two Lines of Freedom (and Limpness), 1975-2001, Outdoor installation, 100 wind socks, 100 metal poles, 180 cm high, approx. 1200 sq. meters. Photo credit: Ivan Kafka.

The artists include, at Pomona College: S. E. Barnet (USA), Maura Bendett (USA), Martin Durazo (USA), Jitka Havliková (CZ), Eva Jelinková (CZ), Ivan Kafka (CZ), Vladimir Kokolia (CZ), Daniel Joseph Martinez (USA), and Tyler Stallings (USA); and at other venues: Kim Abeles (USA), Lynn Aldrich (USA), Deborah Aschheim (USA), Barbara Benish (USA/CZ), Erika Bornová (CZ), JiY Cernicky (CZ), Tomas Cisarovsky (CZ), Habib Kheradyar (USA), Jan Kotik (USA/CZ), Alena Kotzmannova (CZ), Karl Matson (USA +), Leland Means (USA), Jan Merta (CZ), Vladimir Merta (CZ), Christian Mounger (USA), Petr Nikl (CZ), Tomas Ruller (CZ), Štpánka Šimlová (CZ), Margita Titlova (CZ), Marnie Weber (USA), Alexis Weidig (USA), and Liz Young (USA). Other venues in the Los Angeles area include: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Post Gallery; Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School; Czech Front Gallery; the Shed, Newport Beach; and SPACE Gallery, Corona del Mar. Organized by Barbara Benish with curator Sarah Brock in Prague, the show will open in August 2004 in Los Angeles and November 2004 in Prague.

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 3-5 p.m.



Project 23: Allan DeSouza: The Lost Pictures
August 31-October 10, 2004

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 3-5 p.m.

Allan deSouza, Fountain, 2004, Digital C-Print, 40 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Talwar Gallery, NY.

The Shock of Modernity:
Criminal Photography from the Casasola Archive
October 23 – December 19, 2004

Crime Reconstruction, ca. 1920s-1930s, Modern gelatin silver print from negatives in the Archivo Casasola; Courtesy of the Fototeca Nacional of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico

“The Shock of Modernity” examines photography’s historical role as a tool for social control and highlights the dark side of Mexican modernity. Drawn from the Casasola Archive, a vast collection of over half a million photographs and negatives in the Fototeca of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the exhibition presents contemporary prints from negatives in the judicales section of the archive. The judicales photographs document crime scene evidence, reconstructions of crimes, and police procedures. The Casasola Archive is based on the work of Augustin Casasola (1874-1938), the first photo-journalist in Mexico and founder of the photo agency which bears his name, and his relatives and employees. The Archive provides an unparalleled visual record of Mexican political life, social environments, and public concerns in the first half of the twentieth century.

The exhibition is curated by Jesse Lerner, Professor of Media Studies at Pitzer College, and supported by Contacto Cultural: Fideicomiso para la Cultura México/EUA (Cultural Contact: The Fund for Mexico/USA Culture). A symposium will be held in conjunction with the exhibition.


 

Francisco Goya, Havoc of War, Plate 30 from The Disasters of War, etching, 1810, Collection Pomona College Museum of Art

Two series of prints by Francisco Goya—Los Caprichos and The Disasters of War—constitute one of the most sustained and bleak assessments of human frailty in Western art. Goya etched Los Caprichos at the end of the eighteenth century and began The Disasters of War in the early nineteenth century as the Spanish Peninsular War, with its mounting civilian casualties, inspired a spiral of brutal reprisals. As the twentieth century drew to a close, Bay-area artist Enrique Chagoya turned to Goya’s images and created two suites of prints, Return to Goya’s Caprichos (1999) and Disasters of War (2003). This exhibition unites model and response—Goya’s reaction to the dilemmas of his time and Chagoya’s imaginative recreation of how Goya might respond to the present. The exhibition is drawn from the Museum’s superb collection of Goya prints and incorporates new acquisitions, the two related print portfolios by Enrique Chagoya.

Enrique Chagoya - Artist’s Talk, November 30, 2004



Morality and Mass Media:
Ben Shahn and the Art of Journalism
October 23 - December 19, 2004

Ben Shahn, TV Antennae, 1955, serigraph © Estate of Ben Shahn\License by VAGA, New York

“Morality and Mass Media” focuses on preliminary drawings and proofs by the American artist Ben Shahn for illustrations, ads, and magazine covers from the late 1940s and 1950s. In commissions for Harpers’ Weekly, The New Republic, The Nation, and Time, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and in particular for Edward R. Murrow’s weekly news program, “See It Now,” Shahn produced forceful graphic work. The subject matter—the hazards of nuclear testing, racial and political intolerance, the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee under Joe McCarthy—reflected his continued belief in the social responsibilities of the artist. Shahn’s commercial work for mass media was a vehicle for engaging with a broad audience about the most pressing concerns facing people in the middle of the twentieth century. He enthusiastically illustrated articles for writers whom he respected and produced compelling advertising images for television producers whose programs responsibly educated their viewers. This exhibition traces the trajectory of the artist’s drawings to their ultimate presentation imbedded in the text of a magazine story or as the banner for an advertising brochure for CBS.

The exhibition presents recent gifts to the Permanent Collection and promised gifts from the Shahn Estate. It is organized by Pomona College Senior Gretchen Suding and Professor of Art Frances Pohl.



Project 24: Amy Myers
October 23 – December 19, 2004

Amy Myers, The Opera Inside of the Atom, 2004, 132 x 120 inches, graphite, gouache, and conte on paper, Collection of Amy Myers

Amy Myers creates intricate, monumental drawings that merge the microcosmic with the macrocosmic in a visionary blending of art, mathematics, and physics. Myers links sensuous materiality with an intellectual rigor, exploring through evocative drawings the illusive terrain of the most profound scientific explorations.   More...