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An illustrated examination of Glenn Ligon's iconic Untitled (I Am a
Man) (1988)-a quotation, an appropriated text turned into an
artifact. The iconic work Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988) by the
important contemporary American artist Glenn Ligon is a quotation,
an appropriated text turned into an artifact. The National Gallery
of Art in Washington presents the work as a "representation-a
signifier-of the actual signs carried by 1,300 striking African
American sanitation workers in Memphis, made famous by Ernest
Withers' 1968 photographs." In this illustrated study of the work,
Gregg Bordowitz takes the National Gallery's presentation as his
starting point, considering the museum's juxtaposition of Untitled
(I Am a Man) and the ca. 1935 sculpture, Schoolteacher, by William
Edmondson, and the relation of the two terms, "markers" and
"signs." After closely examining the canvas itself, its textures,
brushwork, and structure, Bordowitz presents a theoretical
framework that draws on the work of American philosopher Charles
Sanders Peirce and his theory of Firstness, Secondness, and
Thirdness. He makes a case for Thirdness as a function, operation,
or law of meaning-making, not limited by the gender, age,
ethnicity, race, class, or personal history of the viewer.
Bordowitz goes on to examine Ligon's work in terms of the
representation of self, race, and gender, focusing on three series:
Profile Series (1990-91), Narratives, and Runaways (both 1993). He
cites such historical figures as Sojourner Truth and her famous
1851 speech, "Ain't I a Woman?" as well as influences ranging from
Bo Diddley's 1955 song, "I'm a Man" to the cultural theories of
Stuart Hall.
Glenn Ligon (b1960) is one of the most significant American artists
of his generation. Much of his work relates to abstract
expressionism and minimalist painting, remixing formal
characteristics to highlight the cultural and social histories of
the time, such as the civil rights movement. The exhibition brings
together artworks and other material he references in his own work
and writings, or work with which he shares certain affinities. This
publication is both a comprehensive exhibition catalogue, which
fully illustrating all works in the exhibition from artists
including Chris Ofili, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Lorna
Simpson, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Jasper Johns, accompanied by
newly commissioned texts by Glenn Ligon, Francesco Manacorda, Alex
Farquharson, and Gregg Bordowitz; and an anthology of around 20
texts selected/excerpted by Glenn Ligon.
College Art Association's Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction
in Art Criticism, February 2006. The HIV epidemic animates this
collection of essays by a noted artist, writer, and activist. "So
total was the burden of illness--mine and others'--that the only
viable response, other than to cease making art entirely, was to
adjust to the gravity of the predicament by using the crisis as a
lens," writes Gregg Bordowitz, a film- and video-maker whose
best-known works, "Fast Trip Long Drop" (1993) and "Habit" (2001),
address AIDS globally and personally. In "The AIDS Crisis Is
Ridiculous"--the title essay is inspired by Charles Ludlam, founder
of the Ridiculous Theater Company--Bordowitz follows in the
tradition of artist-writers Robert Smithson and Yvonne Rainer by
making writing an integral part of an artistic practice. Bordowitz
has left his earliest writings for the most part unchanged--to
preserve, he says, "both the youthful exuberance and the palpable
sense of fear" created by the early days of the AIDS crisis. After
these early essays, the writing becomes more experimental,
sometimes mixing fiction and fact; included here is a selection of
Bordowitz's columns from the journal "Documents," "New York Was
Yesterday." Finally, in his newest essays he reformulates early
themes, and, in "My Postmodernism" (written for "Artforum"'s
fortieth anniversary issue) and "More Operative Assumptions"
(written especially for this book), he reexamines the underlying
ideas of his practice and sums up his theoretical concerns. In his
mature work, Bordowitz seeks to join the subjective--the experience
of having a disease--and the objective--the fact of the disease as
a global problem. He believesthat this conjunction is necessary for
understanding and fighting the crisis. "If it can be written," he
says, "then it can be realized."
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