Drum and Flag:

Art Club 2000, Leo Copers, Noah Davis, John Dogg, Nicole Eisenman, Derek Fordjour, Wade Guyton, David Hammons, Chris Johanson, Hans Namuth, Betty Parsons, Richard Prince, Henry Taylor, Rirkrit Tiravanija

Tilton Gallery is pleased to present Drum and Flag, an exhibition of works that feature the sights and sounds of celebration. They depict celebrations of life, of people, of events big and small and in images and symbols both specific and abstract. Yet in all the works, a moment of melancholy creeps in. The moment is fleeting and the contradictions inherent in a celebration appear. The celebration of something implies the absence of something else. The moment of celebration must always end.

And yet, the celebrations begin again. They recur spontaneously and annually, for the once-in-a-lifetime and for the mundane of the everyday. People continue to come together through shared sights and sounds to capture, enjoy, and prolong moments and to find new ones. As one moment ends, the next begins. This invisible inertia propels us forward. It is manifest in the motion that’s seen and heard in these works. The undertow of melancholy is overcome by the current of celebration, coming in and going out like a wave. 

This exhibition of celebratory works coincides with Tilton Gallery’s 40th anniversary. It features a mix of artists that the gallery has championed since its inception in 1983. Concurrent with the exhibition, a selection of additional works are installed in the gallery library by artists February James, David Hammons, Ed Clark, and Richard Tuttle.