New works by 13 artists, all of whom graduated from Yale in the past 20 years, are featured in "Now and Later," which will open on Friday, March 27, as the second part of the current exhibition "Then and Now and Later: Art Since 1945 at Yale."
The show features works in a variety of media. It includes photographs by Dawoud Bey, Lois Conner, Gregory Crewdson and Roni Horn; sculptures by Marcus Baenzinger and Horn; paintings by Peter Wegner, Jonathan Weinberg and Lisa Yuskavage; and mixed media works by Matthew Barney, Ann Hamilton, Jessica Stockholder and Meg Webster.
This group of artists, many based in New York City, "includes some who have already made major international reputations alongside others who are just achieving wider recognition," says Thomas Crow, the Lehman Professor of the History of Art, who is co-curator of the "Now and Later" exhibit with Joachim Pissarro, the Seymour H. Knox Jr. Curator of European and Contemporary Art.
According to Pissarro: "The extraordinarily rich contribution made by graduates of the Yale School of Art, influenced initiatially by the teaching methods of Josef Albers and then by the eminent art professors who followed him, is universally recognized. But less well known at Yale is the art that Yale-trained artists of the last generation are making now. Instead of standing by, waiting for the stars to emerge, we have brought together new works by a small group of these artists to open our eyes to the freshness of their vision."
The exhibit does not attempt to give a comprehensive view of the current work of artists trained at Yale, emphasizes Pissarro. "Rather," he says, "we are interested in exploring the surprisingly varied subject matter, use of media and aesthetic sensibility shown even in this limited sampling of gifted artists who shared a similar educative experience and, having assimilated it, create their own singular and compelling art."
While Matthew Barney's "Unit Bolus" -- which was created with stainless steel rack, cast dumbell, petroleum jelly and electronic freezing devices -- is part of the Yale Art Gallery's collections, all the other works in the exhibit are on loan.
To allow visitors to the "Now and Then and Later" exhibition to see the influences that one generation of artists has had on the next, the second floor galleries have been reinstalled with paintings and sculpture from the first half of the 20th century. Most of these are from the Société Anonyme Collection of modernist art, formed by Katherine Dreier and Marchel Duchamp and given to the Yale Art Gallery in 1941. The revamped galleries are also designed to give visitors insights into Yale's collecting and teaching activities during the entire 20th century, say the curators.
To mark the opening of "Now and Later," Crow will give a free public lecture at 5:30 p.m. on March 27 in the gallery. That same evening, the public is invited to view the work of artists currently in Yale's M.F.A. program in the "Painting Open Studios" at the School of Art, 180 York St.
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