The Grace Street Theater was packed Monday
evening for “Art, Attitudes and Trends,” a
discussion and critique of three of the world’s
top modern art exhibitions.
Three VCU professors shared photo slides
and their observations and experiences at
three different European exhibitions, which
all coincided this year for the first time in
10 years.
Richard Roth, chair of the department of
painting and printmaking, presented on the
Venice Biennale. Amy Hauft, chair of the
department of sculpture and extended media,
attended Documenta in Kassel, Germany.
Gregory Volk, critic and joint professor of
painting and printmaking and sculpture
and extended media, explored the Münster
Sculpture Project in Germany.
All three exhibitions are multi-venue,
numerous-artist and internationally renowned
shows of world leaders in contemporary art.
Many of the works were large-scale, cuttingedge
sculptures, while others were simple
black-and-white photographs.
No matter what the medium, the professors
took note of the works they found to be the
most striking but also made comments on the
pieces they felt weren’t quite up to par.
The most striking work Roth described
was a large-scale photograph and sculptural
recreation of grottoes created by German artist
Thomas Demand in 2006.
“In this case, I believe this is the first time
that they’ve actually shown all the research
it took to get to this model and photograph
. he studied grottoes – searched postcards,
scientific maps, books, and this research was
shown as part of the program,” Roth said.
Hauft described the strange presentation of
Documenta’s displays.
“The art is organized in this way where
you’re in the middle of it, as opposed to standing
away from it looking at it,” Hauft said. “They
(the curators) organized it around something
they invented called ‘radical formlessness.’ “
She said very little information was included
on the note cards identifying the pieces. The
cards said the work’s title, the medium, the
the pond artist’s name and the year it was created.
“The organizers wrote: ‘We want to dispense
with preordained categories and arrive at a
plateau where art communicates itself on its
own terms. This is an aesthetic experience
in its true sense. The exhibition becomes a
medium in its own right and can thus hope
to involve its audience in its compositional
moves.”
Hauft recalled the moving sculptures of
the Trisha Brown Dance Company and one
fabulous black-and-white photo of people
walking out of a gallery through its broken
window. Apparently, the artist had a gallery
opening and then locked the patrons in to see
how they’d react.
Every 10 years, the tiny German town
of Münster, which was nearly bombed into
oblivion in World War II, finds itself peppered
with all manner of sculptures.
“It was especially refreshing to go to that
exhibition, in comparison with the other
two, first of all because it has a different kind
of trajectory, but also it has a very different
territorial premise,” Volk said.
American sculptor Bruce Nauman designed
a piece for the 1977 show that he was told
could be created. For the 2007 show, the piece
was realized.
The piece is an 82-feet-wide concrete square
that descends toward the center. Titled “Square
Depression,” the piece is sometimes referred to
as a “negative pyramid” or “geomorphologic
depression.”
“The situation in Münster is very interesting.
Why it is such a pioneering show is that works
are made more or less directly in the city or .
in unorthodox situations, which means really
unusual encounters happen between public
and artwork,” Volk said.
Another notable piece was by Polish artist
Pawel Althamer. He simply created what
appeared to be a thin but well-worn footpath
through a little more than half a mile of the
city. The path cuts through tall fields, goes
over bridges and to the edge of the city. The
work was intended to challenge people’s
conformation to designated paths.