“Art is a search for two things – a search for a road and a search for freedom.”

- Alice Neel

Robischon Gallery is proud to present “DECLARATION,” an exhibition of historically-important and esteemed artists who, through their diverse and distinctive expressions, affirm their position as exceptional artists of influence. The fourteen distinguished artists Louise Bourgeois, Ruth Bernhard, Linda Fleming, Helen Frankenthaler, Ann Hamilton, Jae Ko, Yayoi Kusama, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Shirin Neshat, Judy Pfaff, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas and Kara Walker are shown in three adjacent galleries emphasizing the connections between the artists’ respective idioms and overall thematic concerns.

To begin “DECLARATION,” three Robischon Gallery artists exuberantly fill the first exhibition space with sculpture; the honored installation artist Judy Pfaff and the highly innovative sculptors Linda Fleming and Jae Ko. Noted for their large-scale, visually immersive works, the artists are masters of material abstraction as each employs a range of industrial or uncommon materials. In the second large gallery, several signature works anchor the space by artists who have come to be known as modern or contemporary giants. Acclaimed for their unique individual contributions to the dialogue and the development of their respective abstract vocabularies, ten works by four revered artists hold court: Yayoi Kusama’s early obsessive “Net” paintings; Louise Bourgeois’ abstract drawings and a sculpture stemming from her “Personages” series; large saturated Color Field work by artist Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell’s intensely animated Abstract Expressionist paintings. The culminating gallery of the exhibition shifts into an overtly different tone. Moving from the vibrant and deeply-felt abstractions and sculptural works in the previous spaces, the third gallery’s eight critically-acclaimed artists speak to the pursuit and truth of identity through the body via psychological explorations of subjects both familial and societal. The work of Louise Bourgeois carries into the third gallery as well, further punctuating the dialogue with her emotionally-charged figural vocabulary alongside singular works by the influential photographer Ruth Bernhard and the great, candid and provocative figural painter, Alice Neel. Additionally on exhibition, are early photographs by prominent Robischon Gallery installation and performance artist Ann Hamilton and a trio of contemporary sculptures by celebrated artist Mickalene Thomas in homage to her mother as both artists uniquely reference an object-oriented view of the body. In full circle mode, the cutting and compelling artworks by internationally-honored artists Kara Walker, Shirin Neshat and Lorna Simpson pivot from one to the next as they distinctively express and share the critical role of truth-sayer when addressing issues of cultural and societal prejudice. Together and tangentially throughout the gallery, the artists powerfully call for an evolved and universal acceptance toward both race and gender.

The artists in “DECLARATION” stand alone in their specific individual expressions and perspectives. They are connected through lineage, adjacent practice, bold ingenuity and vision while also being united in their considerable influence. Whether their work is firmly established as historically ground-breaking or expressive of their unquestionably unique and relevant contemporary voice, all of the artists on view speak clearly and in bold terms. As an additional declaration of their respective legacies, the select artworks, ranging from sculpture, painting, photography, drawing and prints span from 1947 to 2016. The voices of the exceptional artists represented and invited by Robischon Gallery, are further amplified by the significant artworks on generous loan from the Ginny Williams Collection. Internationally recognized, the Ginny Williams Collection is guided by a patron whose generosity and passion toward collecting reflect the true role of an art collector which is to genuinely love art, support artists and whenever possible, provide shared access to a range of audiences in the experience of the highest caliber artworks. Robischon Gallery wishes to thank Ginny Williams for her remarkable contributions to “DECLARATION.” Our sincere appreciation extends to Barbara Wathke and Mitchell Broadbent for their invaluable assistance.

First Gallery

Judy Pfaff (b. 1946)

I am a dyed-in-the-wool Abstractionist. I want the work to be exclusively experiential.”

Judy Pfaff’s exhilarating site-specific installations and sculptures incorporate both traditional and unconventional materials presented with a unique vision of abstraction and an exploration of new contexts. In the 1970s, when other artists were creating austere Minimalist work, Pfaff, along with like-minded artists Gordon Matta-Clark, Lynda Benglis, and Richard Tuttle, made gutsy vibrant and complex installations teeming with color and life. Inspired by all manner of objects and materials, Pfaff’s ongoing contribution to contemporary art and her ceaseless creative imperative defines her as a singular artistic force – ever influential and relentlessly pushing the boundaries.

London-born Judy Pfaff has a BFA from Washington University, St. Louis, MO and an MFA from Yale University along with an honorary doctorate degree from Pratt Institute. She has been the recipient of some of the highest honors in her field including: a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Art Grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, International Sculpture Center Lifetime Achievement Award, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Fellowship, Nancy Graves Foundation Grant, the Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Southern Graphics Council International Conference Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a member of the American Academy of Art and Letters, NY. In 1998, she was selected as the US representative to the Bienal de São Paulo. Her work is in many public collections including: Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Whitney Museum of American Art, Albright-Knox Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Denver Art Museum, High Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Elvehjem Museum, Madison, WI, Sun Hwa Art and Culture Foundation, Seoul, Korea and the Sammlung Ludwig, in Aachen, Germany, among many others.

Linda Fleming (b.1945)

“I am inventing geometry as I go. I love the way that forms and shapes begin to combine to form an identity. It all jibes with my understanding of matter; of how there really is no space and no form. They are not different things. They are just constructed differently. I want to make work based on how I think.”

Since the 1970’s, sculptor Linda Fleming has worked in an impressive array of materials from the traditional to the progressive; chromed, powder-coated or rusted steel, wood (in altered or natural forms), as well as wall or floor works made of wool and rubber. Each dynamic wall or floor sculpture in tandem with the artist’s large-scale outdoor works, reflect an introspective investigation of the natural world by the artist and her distinctive expression of it. In particular, Fleming’s chromed works visually amplify as they merge with their environments - reflecting light and shadow along with the color of their surroundings and always operating at the fragile nexus of the mundane and cosmological.

Linda Fleming attended the San Francisco Art Institute and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She has received numerous prestigious recognitions including those from the Peter S. Reed, Adolph & Ester Gottlieb and Pollack-Krasner foundations. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Oakland Museum of California, University of Wyoming, Stanford University Museum, and Albuquerque Museum along with additional collections both public and private. Recent noteworthy exhibitions include: Fleming’s “Making Places,” exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe and her touring exhibition showcasing the artist’s extensive and intricate maquette series entitled “Linda Fleming: Modeling the Universe” originating at the Nevada Art Museum and Drawn To/Drawn From: 1967 to 2012 at Oats Park Art Center, Fallon, Nevada. Fleming recently completed a site-specific sculpture for the Oakland Museum of Art.

Jae Ko (b. 1961)

“Nature rules the creative process. As the paper absorbs the ink, it’s shape changes. It may collapse inward – expressing a depth of emotions. Or it may be domed, expressing great hope.”

In Jae Ko’s career-long affinity with paper, she has devoted herself to the creation of an entirely new, paper-based sculptural form. With each meditative coiled, ink and glue-fixed sculpture in totem-like stacks as well as with the artist’s previous paper-lined large scaled environments, Ko defies the very nature of her chosen material. Her ongoing achievement in technical and thematic resonance further establishes the artist as not only noteworthy for her unique sculptures, but also ingenious in her process of having mastered a fluid, ongoing relationship between idea and medium. Her unique art form invokes a sense of wonder as it engages both conceptually through abstraction and with the embrace of a wholly unexpected and visually compelling materiality.

Washington, D.C.-based Jae Ko is a Pollack-Krasner Foundation grant recipient and a winner of the 2012 Anonymous was a Woman award. The artist has a B.F.A. from Wako University, Tokyo, Japan and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work is in the permanent collections of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. and Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C., the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., among others, and is currently being shown at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Ko’s 80-foot wide and 14-foot tall “Force of Nature: Shiro” installation exhibition at Grounds for Sculpture’s 7,500 square-foot East Gallery used 20,000 rolls of paper and was very well-received. Her much-anticipated next museum exhibition is at Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston in the summer of 2016.