Russell & Robert speak to leading artist Glenn Ligon from his studio in New York. We discuss the New Museum's current exhibition “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” and his collaboration with the late curator Okwui Enwezor. We discover Glenn's interest in artist's work such as Jean Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauscheberg, David Hammons and the lasting influence of Steve Reich’s audio work 'Come Out' (1966). We learn how his work has referenced forgotten texts from history, inspiration from literature in particular writers including Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance, James Baldwin and Alice Walker.
We discuss Andy Warhol's 'Shadows' (1978-79) painting, and hear how eclipsed light is a central theme in his own work, as well as ideas of beauty, his early interest in abstract expressionism and pottery classes he attended as a child.
Running until June 6, 2021, the New Museum presents “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” an exhibition originally conceived by Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019) for the New Museum, and presented with curatorial support from advisors Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and Mark Nash. “Grief and Grievance” an intergenerational exhibition, bringing together thirty-seven artists working in a variety of mediums who have addressed the concept of mourning, commemoration, and loss as a direct response to the national emergency of racist violence experienced by Black communities across America. The exhibition considers the intertwined phenomena of Black grief and a politically orchestrated white grievance, as each structures and defines contemporary American social and political life. “Grief and Grievance” comprises works encompassing video, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, sound, and performance made in the last decade, along with several key historical works and a series of new commissions created in response to the concept of the exhibition.
Follow @GlennLigon and @NewMuseum on Instagram. Visit www.GlennLigonStudio.com and New Museum's official website at: www.NewMuseum.org
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