MoMA | Author: Hanna Exel

Posts by Hanna Exel

July 15, 2013 | Intern Chronicles

A Community Affair: Exploring Contemporary Art in Chicago

Posted by Hanna Exel, Louise Bourgeois 12-Month Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

When I set out for a week in Chicago I thought I would be able to leave with a comprehensive, fully formed picture of the city’s contemporary art scene. Instead, I found myself exploring only the tip of a very large iceberg.

July 2, 2013 | Artists, Events & Programs

Embodying the Archive: Xaviera Simmons on Archive as Impetus (Not on View)

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints Hanna Exel, Louise Bourgeois 12-Month Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

An Archive as Impetus performance in MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Photograph courtesy of Xaviera Simmons)

An Archive as Impetus (Not on View) performance in MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Photograph by Martin Seck

Plenty of people think of museums, libraries, and archives as stagnant and apolitical places; sites where histories are not created, but simply preserved. In her performance Archive as Impetus (Not on View)—presented several times per week during the month of June as part of MoMA’s Artists Experiment initiative—artist Xaviera Simmons asked viewers to reconsider the role of the museum.

April 18, 2013 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

Chris Burden Captures Coyotes… on Paper, at Least

Posted by Hanna Exel, Louise Bourgeois 12-Month Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Chris Burden. <em>Coyote Stories.</em> 2005. Portfolio of 10 etchings, five with aquatint, and 25 digital prints with chine collé. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Monroe Wheeler Fund. © 2013 Chris Burden

It might surprise you to hear that one of the facets of contemporary printmaking that I find most exciting is projects by artists who work predominately in other mediums. These artists often approach traditional printmaking techniques with a fresh perspective, from which they can frequently discover new ways of using the medium to serve their unique artistic goals. Chris Burden’s 2005 print portfolio Coyote Stories is an excellent example of this exploratory spirit.

January 17, 2013 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

Taking a Slice Out of Modern Art: The Artists’ Books of Noriko Ambe

Posted by Hanna Exel, Louise Bourgeois 12-Month Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Noriko Ambe. Current - A Private Atlas: Gerhard Richter. 2009. Artist’s book. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fund for the Twenty-First Century. © 2013 Noriko Ambe.

The collection of MoMA’s Department of Prints and Illustrated Books includes a much broader range of material than the term “prints” can convey: in addition to the single-sheet prints that most viewers think of and the multiples I highlighted in my last post, the collection includes a multitude of books produced or illustrated by artists.

November 15, 2012 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

Division and Multiplication: Arman’s Multiples

Posted by Hanna Exel, Louise Bourgeois 12-Month Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Comprising more than 53,000 artworks, the collection of MoMA’s Department of Prints and Illustrated Books tells the story of modern and contemporary art through editions: art objects that can exist in more than one copy. As you might guess from the name of the department, the vast majority of these are works on paper; however, the collection also represents the rich tradition of three-dimensional editions, known as multiples.