A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920 – 2020
24 February – 5 June 2022
Ticketed; Galleries 1, 3, 8 & 9 and the Zilkha Auditorium #TheArtistsStudio
#ThisSpaceOfMine
Whether it be an abandoned factory, an attic or kitchen table, it is the artist’s studio where the great art of our time is conceived and created. In this multi- media exhibition, the wide-ranging possibilities and significance of these crucibles of creativity take center-stage and new art histories around the modern studio emerge through striking juxtapositions of under-recognised artists with celebrated figures in Western art history.
A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920-2020 brings together more than 100 works by over 80 artists and collectives from Africa, Australasia, South Asia, China, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America. They range from modern icons such as Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele and Andy Warhol, to contemporary figures such as Walead Beshty, Lisa Brice, Cindy Sherman and Kerry James Marshall.
The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, installations and films depicting the studio as work of art, and presents documentation of artists’ studios by world-renowned photographers and filmmakers. A series of ‘studio corners’ also evoke the actual environments where great art has been produced.
Standing as the frontispiece to the exhibition, Louise Bourgeois’ (1911-2010) monumental sculpture, Cell IX (1999), imagines the studio as prison and portal. The exhibition then unfolds according to two central themes: ‘The Public Studio’ examines how artists have embraced the studio as a factory, exhibition space, arena, a collective workspace, or classroom; and ‘The Private Studio’ explores how the studio can be a home, refuge, laboratory, or site of political resistance.
A Century of the Artist’s Studio follows three years of research led by former Whitechapel Gallery Director Iwona Blazwick in collaboration with a curatorial panel comprising Dawn Ades, Richard Dyer and Hammad Nasar. It joins Whitechapel Gallery’s large-scale thematic exhibitions such as Faces in the Crowd: Picturing Modern Life from Manet to Today (2005) and Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society (2015), which were instrumental in developing new research and ideas around these art historical themes.
Full alphabetical list of featured artists: Felicia Abban, Mequitta Ahuja, Ai Weiwei, Darren Almond, Holly Antrum, Arpilleras workshops, Arte Madí, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Mirosław Bałka, Phyllida Barlow, Wilhelmina Barns- Graham, Manisha Gera Baswani, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Guy Ben-Ner, Bruce Bernard, Walead Beshty, Leonardo Bezzola, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brancusi, Geta Brătescu, Lisa Brice, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Roberto Chabet, Nikhil Chopra, Denise Colomb, David Dawson, Robert Doisneau, Marcel Duchamp, Inji Efflatoun, Tracey Emin, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Helen Frankenthaler, Lucian Freud, Gisèle Freund, Shadi Ghadirian, Alberto Giacometti, Antony Gormley, Rodney Graham, Andrew Grassie, Ha Bik Chuen, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian, Florence Henri, Barbara Hepworth, Lucien Hervé, Harry Holtzman, Tehching Hsieh, Franz Hubmann, Mathias Johansson, Jasper Johns, William Kentridge, Edward Krasinński, Laboratoire Agit’Art, Maria Lassnig, Maud Lewis, Li Yuan- chia, Kim Lim, Maria Loizidou, Mateo López, Kerry James Marshall, Henri Matisse, John Mawurndjul, Paul McCarthy, Lisa Milroy, Henry Moore, Reinhard Mucha, Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg, Bruce Nauman, Perry Ogden, Gordon Parks, Pablo Picasso, Annie Ratti, Robert Rauschenberg, Wilhelm Redemann, Armando Reverón, Martha Rosler, Dieter Roth / Björn Roth, Egon Schiele, Carolee Schneemann, Gregor Schneider, Kurt Schwitters, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hassan Sharif, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Frances Stark, Varvara Stepanova, Josef Sudek, Vivan Sundaram, El Hadji Sy, Alina Szapocznikow, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jean Tinguely, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Suha Traboulsi, Cy Twombly, Raoul Ubac, Ian Wallace, Andy Warhol, Sabine Weiss, Paul Winstanley, Francesca Woodman.
Notes to editors:
– A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920-2020 runs from 24 February – 5 June 2022
– The idea for the exhibition originated from a proposal by art historians Giles Waterfield (1949-2016) and Dawn Ades. Led by Iwona Blazwick OBE, former Director, Whitechapel Gallery, the research and themes of the exhibition have been developed over the past three years by a curatorial committee made up of Dawn Ades, Inês Costa, Richard Dyer, Hammad Nasar and Candy Stobbs.
– A fully illustrated catalogue with newly commissioned essays by writers including the Curatorial Committee will accompany the exhibition.
– The exhibition is supported by Cockayne, Grants for the Arts, The London Community Foundation, Max Mara, Collezione Maramotti, Tavolozza Foundation and Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan). Studio Visit: Thoughts and practices surrounding ten artists’ studios is on display with Whitechapel Gallery’s longstanding partners at the Collezione Maramotti until 20 February 2022.
About Whitechapel Gallery
For over a century the Whitechapel Gallery has premiered world-class artists from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Frida Kahlo, Eduardo Paolozzi and Hannah Höch to contemporaries such as Zarina Bhimji, Sophie Calle, William Kentridge and Michael Rakowitz. Its historic campus houses exhibitions, artist commissions, collection displays, historic archives, education resources, inspiring art courses, talks and film screenings, the Townsend dining room and the Koenig Bookshop. It is a touchstone for contemporary art internationally, plays a central role in London’s cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of the world’s most vibrant contemporary art quarter.
Visitor Information
Gallery Admission: Free
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