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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The Harn Museum’s collection of contemporary art encompasses international work created between 1945 and the present. The collection contains nearly 1,500 objects in all visual media, with exemplary works from major contemporary art movements and recent works by young and emerging artists from around the world. The contemporary collection gained a new exhibition space in 2005 with the opening of the Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion, which features an expansive 7,500 square-feet of gallery space and the adjacent Magoon Garden.  

The collection focuses on the dominant issues and ideas in contemporary art practice rather than representing a seamless evolution of art historical movements. Global in perspective, it links works across time, culture and media while still respecting the historical specificity of unique work. The collection also provides an opportunity to place regional work in a national and international context. Thematic currents in the collection include subjective and psychological approaches; an emphasis on social and political conditions; a concentration on materials and process; and a conceptual mode of practice. 

Several works in the contemporary collection focus on the subjective experience. A drawing by Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning is one of the earliest examples of works that concentrate on the primacy and authenticity of the artist’s intention and intuition. Work like his and other abstract artists such as Antoni Tàpies and Theodoro Stamos reflect an interest in the subconscious. Multimedia artists Louis Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama, sometimes called “eccentric abstractionists,” explore the psyche through works that reference the body, a tendency that also infuses the work of the younger Ana Mendieta, a feminist photographer and performance and conceptual artist. These artists emphasize the materiality of memory, dreams and desire. 

Many artists in the collection take a greater interest in popular culture and mass media. Robert Frank alternately examines the signs and symbols of racism and patriotism in his photographs while collection artist Andy Warhol finds the equivalent of Duchamp’s readymade in the images of everyday mass production, consumption and advertising.  Sculpture by Robert Rauschenberg uses everyday found objects to evoke the material culture of different nations. Many works comment on specific social and political conditions including a significant group of Czech and Slovac prints created under a Communist regime. American artists Larry Rivers, Hiram Williams and Arnold Mesches analyze historic moments from the Cold War to the Vietnam War Socially activist art is evident in work of artists that focus on identity politics of gender and race including Carrie Mae Weems, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and Nikki Lee. Other artists such as Allan Sekula, Catherine Opie, Sergio Vega, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Carlos Garaicoa, Massimo Vitali and Andrea Robbins and Max Becher look at global systems through the lens of history and economics. A powerful set of sculpture and prints by South African artist William Kentridge reflect on collective memory and a life under apartheid. A spectacular metallic “cloth” by El Anatsui reflects on past traditions of Ghana and filmmaker Salem Mekuria reflects on the contradictions between the real and imagined history of Ethiopia. 

Another trajectory of the collection focuses on artists who moved away from the spare and geometric dictates of minimalism to create more expressive work. These Post-minimalist artists went in various directions like process art, performance, body art, earth art and site-specific art that emphasizes materials and procedures. Artists in the collection such as John Chamberlain and Frank Stella push the boundaries between painting and sculpture and make the process and marks of their work apparent. Painter Eric Fischl examines American suburbia with his multi-canvas, neo-expressionist painting while Ross Bleckner explores phenomenology and process of perception. Charles Arnoldi and Jun Kaneko transform the cubes and circles of minimalism though a new sensibility that focuses on nature. A major sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky that graces the entrance of the Harn Museum introduces figuration in large-scale public art.

Lastly, the collection represents work by artists working in a more conceptual vein.  German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher were at the forefront of conceptual art in the mid-sixties and have maintained an interest in the archive and typologies, particularly in industrial architecture. Their serial and systematic approach to photography can also be seen in the work of their Düsseldorf students including Thomas Ruff, Candida Hofer and Thomas Struth, and is also reflected in the work of Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra. Another trajectory of conceptual art reflected in the collection concentrates on institutional critique that examines issues of art practice, display, distribution and reception including artist such as Louise Lawler, Sophie Calle, Dan Graham and Mike Kelley. Other artists in the collection that scrutinize regimes of looking and art-making include Hiroshi Sugimoto, Julio Grinblatt and Tacita Dean. 

Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art
The Harn Museum, at SW 34 th St. and Hull Rd., Gainesville, Fla., is one of the southeast’s largest university art museums with more than 6,200 works in its collection and an array of temporary exhibitions. Admission is free. The museum enhances the activities of the University and serves a culturally diverse audience through educational programming. The Harn expanded by more than 18,000 square feet in Oct. 2005 with the opening of the Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion, which includes new educational and meeting areas and the Camellia Court Cafe, the first eatery for visitors of the University of Florida Cultural Plaza. Museum Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The Camellia Court Café is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information call 352.392.9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.

Media contact :
Tami Wroath, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Harn Museum of Art
352.392.9826 x116
twroath@harn.ufl.edu