Exhibition
NY, Pioneers of the Downtown Scene
Trisha Brown Roof Piece, 1973 Courtesy Broadway 1602, New York © Babette Mangolte
Gordon Matta-Clark Splitting 9, 1977 Courtesy Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona Collection. Fundacio Museu d’art Contemporani de Barcelona. Long-term loan of Harold Berg © 2011 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS London.
Laurie Anderson Viophonograph, 1976 Bob Bielecki Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. © Laurie Anderson
Trisha Brown, Walking on the Wall, 1971 © Carol Goodden
Coney Island, 14 January 1973, 4-6pm from Institutional Dream series, 1972-73 Photograph: Geraldine Pontius Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York © Laurie Anderson
Trisha Brown Woman Walking Down a Ladder, 1973/2010 (diptych) Courtesy Broadway 1602, New York © Babette Mangolte
Trisha Brown Man Walking Down the Side of a Building, 80 Wooster Street, New York, 1970 © Carol Goodden
Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone View of Gordon Matta Clark’s Open House, Greene Street, New York, 1972 Courtesy Jane Crawford © Estate of Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone
Trisha Brown Floor of the Forest, 1970 Performance at documenta 12, Kassel, 2007 © Adrian Christopher Koss
Gordon Matta-Clark Splitting: Four Corners, 1974 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Purchase through a gift of Phyllis Wattis, the Art Supporting Foundation to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Shirley Ross Davis Fund, and the Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Mimi and Peter Haas, Niko and Steve Mayer, Christine and Michael Murray, Helen and Charles Schwab, Norah and Norman Stone, and Danielle and Brooks Walker, Jr. © 2011 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS London
Trisha Brown Roof Piece, 1973 Courtesy Broadway 1602, New York © Babette Mangolte
Performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown and artist Gordon Matta-Clark were friends and active participants in the New York art community, working fluidly between visual art and performance.
Here is the text written by Alexander Montague Sparey:
The word ‘Underground’ is a tricky one for curators. It rather predicts failure. Conjuring up unspoken dark secrets, it leaves one to ask certain ethical questions as a consumer, wondering around through the dark concrete tunnels of the artist’s subconscious, who can’t even chase you out and beg you to leave. And so the Barbican picks the word ‘Downtown’, which apart from adding a certain geographical truth, is a great way of dodging the dangerous word. ‘Downtown’ lets you know that it was away from the centre, where people lived in warehouses, where cleanliness didn’t predominate and where there might even be a few rats running around. This sets the scene so perfectly, because this show is one of the least inviting exhibitions I have ever been to; and herein lies its strength.
Nothing about it tries to impress. There is no bow. No desperate need for you to enjoy yourself. And in this, the curators have managed to encapsulate the whole purpose of the 70s Downtowners work. Casual, real responses to life in New York in the 70s. ‘Art’? Not necessarily. Experiences? Yes. Experiments? Definitely. Filling time, turning things on their heads. Concepts. Abstractions. Performances, drawings, photographs, sketches, films, videos. Exercises of the mind and the body. Questions – some with answers and some without.
In a dark two-level space divided into several crudely-lit rooms you will stroll downtown and to the underground, and your purpose will be to have none, and back out you will walk into the concrete 70s maze that is the Barbican, liberated. A little like Laurie, Trisha and Gordon were, 40 years ago.
Alexander Montague Sparey
Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark
Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s
Until 22 may
Barbican Art Gallery
Barbican Centre
Silk Street London
EC2Y 8DS
Links
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery
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