Art & Language, David Batchelor, Vanessa Beecroft, Christian Boltanski, Jonathan Borofsky, Mat Collishaw, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Ceal Floyer, Douglas Gordon, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, On Kawara, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Simon Linke,
Richard Long, Allan McCollum, John McCracken, Juan Muñoz, Simon Patterson, Thomas Schütte, Julian Opie, Giulio Paolini,
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Franz West, Stephen Willats, Jane & Louise Wilson
This exhibition was conceived by Nicholas Logsdail and Barry Barker, and has
been greatly assisted in the selection of works by Matthew Higgs.
Read moreAs is suggested by the image on the invitation card, this is an exhibition about
origins and continuity. It puts together work made over three decades ago with
work created within the last year or two. The composition of the exhibition has
largely been led by a choice of specific works, and in most cases the juxtaposition
of these works is intended to be thought provoking. It also concerns itself with
points of contact which emerge when distinct tendencies coincide. These
coincidences, intentional or not, emerge as a sequence of informal overlaps or
conversations between artists and artworks, illustrating the increasing plurality of
artistic concerns during this period.
We hope this exhibition will provoke consideration of what is not there, as
much as what is there. It is perhaps an allegory of the very nature and
unpredictability of nearly all our practices. At the present time, with the plethora
of emerging new artists, new galleries and new claims to significance, we have
chosen not to speculate about the future. Rather we are more concerned with
the relationship between the past and the present, expressed in an informal and
open ended way.
The fog which characterizes the late 1990s, and the strange atmosphere of
confusion and miasma surrounding our approach to the great, meaningless, self
congratulatory millennium event which appears to be rushing towards us faster
than the speed of sound is eliminating history, intelligent conversation, and
produces only a background noise of non discursive babble. In spite of
everything, we must try not to participate in this. We have no desire to hold
dominion over what should be a free and open debate about art and culture.
The purpose of this show, on a very simple level, is to establish a basis for some
kind of new debate about what has been, what is, and what might be. In a way,
‘Then and Now’ ties together some of the individual issues dealt with, and themes
which have emerged from, other large mixed exhibitions organised at the Lisson
Gallery over the last decade: ‘Real Allegories’, 1989; ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’,
1993; ‘Wonderful Life’, 1994; and ‘Ideal Standard Summertime’, 1996.
Also on exhibition by appointment only at the Lisson gallery annex are major
works by Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Anish Kapoor, Sol LeWitt, Robert
Mangold, Jason Martin and Julian Opie.
