3 April – 13 June 2010
Gallery 1
Modern Times
responding to chaos
drawings and films
Selected by Lutz Becker
Kurt Schwitters, Big Fight, 1947, collage
17.8 x 11.5 cm, Victoria & Albert Museum
©DACS2010
The De La Warr Pavilion presents Modern Times, a major exhibition in which creatively involved people are invited to trace a personal path through the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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This exhibition is being selected by film-maker, painter and curator Lutz Becker. His exhibition will comprise drawings, prints and experimental films, and will explore the recurring tension between figuration and abstraction throughout the 20th century and the ways by which ideas and concepts evolve. Presented non-chronologically, it will encompass movements such as Russian Constructivism, Futurism and Vorticism, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, and comprise works by key artists, as well as works of artists who have been sidelined in the mainstream of art history. From Malevich and Lissitzky to Flavin and Judd, from Pollock to Michaux anticipates two major strands of drawing emerging – the geometric and the gestural. The exhibition will also include films by Hans Richter, Fernand Léger and Viking Eggeling.
Philip Guston, Hooded, 1968, charcoal on paper
40.5 x 58.6 cm, Trustees of the British Museum
Lutz Becker writes: It is the awareness of time as the measure of the distance between thought and realisation, of the value of the transient and sense of the fragility of the inspirational moment, that made me decide to show predominantly works on paper: drawing, no longer about the recording of appearances, but as a language reflecting its own becoming, often daring and experimental. The inclusion of film will extend the idea that mental and physical motion are key experiences common to artists and audience.
This show is in partnership with Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge and is showing there from 16 January – 14 March.
Lutz Becker biography
Lutz Becker is currently Curatorial Fellow at Kettle’s Yard. He was born in 1941, brought up in East and West Berlin, and studied at the Slade, becoming a distinguished director of political and art documentaries such as ‘Art in Revolution’ 1971, ‘Double Headed Eagle’ 1972, ‘Lion of Judah’ 1981 and ‘Vita Futurista’ 1987.
A practicing painter, he is also an experienced curator of exhibitions. He collaborated with the Hayward Gallery on ‘The Romantic Spirit in German Art’ 1994, ‘Art and Power’ 1995 and Tate Modern on ‘Century City’ 2001. He curated the SouthBank Centre touring exhibition ‘Avant-Garde Graphics’ and the recent exhibition at the Estorick Foundation, ‘Cut and Paste – European photomontage 1920-45’. Becker is currently reconstructing Sergei Eisenstein’s film ‘Que viva Mexico’, and an updated version of ‘Vita Futurista’ accompanied the recent Futurist exhibition at Tate Modern.
Click here to read the exhibitions notes by Lutz Becker
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To accompany the exhibition, we have the following catalogue available from the De La Warr Pavilion Shop. Call 01424 229 111 to mail order.
Modern Times
responding to chaos
120 pages,
230mm x 210mm
112 illustrations (17 B&W)
£12.95 Plus P&P
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Late Night Opening
From 8th May to coincide with our Antony Gormley exhibition – the Galleries will open late (until 8pm) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
(The Shop, Box Office and Cafe will also be open until 8pm on these days)