The histories behind the works in the Museum’s collection are often as engaging as the art itself. We don’t always get to share these stories, but through our collection-based exhibitions we have the opportunity to highlight the previous lives of works on view. One that I was able to see installed for the first time since it formally entered the collection is Gilbert & George’s The Tuileries (1974), which is currently on view in the exhibition Gilbert & George: The Early Years.

Posts by Tessa Ferreyros
Tapping the Subconscious: The Hypnotic Art of Matt Mullican

Matt Mullican. Untitled (Learning from That Person’s Work: Room 1). 2005. Installation of ink on paper collage mounted on 12 cotton sheets, wood, cable, and video component (color, sound; 14:04 min.), 12 units, each 109 x 88.5″, installation dimensions variable. Acquired through the generosity of the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art and the Friends of Contemporary Drawing. © 2014 Matt Mullican

Matt Mullican. Untitled (Learning from That Person’s Work) (detail). 2005. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia. © 2014 Matt Mullican
When I think of art created from an altered state of mind or from the subconscious, I immediately go to the automatic drawing practices of the Surrealists, or of art brut and “outsider art.” Art brut, literally “raw art,” is a term coined by artist Jean Dubuffet in the mid-1940s to describe work made outside of the established art world. Over the years it has been used to categorize art created by the mentally ill, the incarcerated, and the formally untrained.
If you are interested in reproducing images from The Museum of Modern Art web site, please visit the Image Permissions page (www.moma.org/permissions). For additional information about using content from MoMA.org, please visit About this Site (www.moma.org/site).
© Copyright 2016 The Museum of Modern Art