Michael Kohn Gallery
At Art Basel
Hall 2.0 Booth W7
Michael Kohn Gallery
8071 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Tel. 323.658.8088
http://www.kohngallery.com
info@kohngallery.com
Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present an overview of works by Bruce Conner. A celebrated, multidisciplinary artist who works in sculpture, assemblage, photography, printmaking, collage and film, Conner emerged in the late 1950s among the San Francisco Beat generation and quickly came to prominence for his quasi-erotic sculptures, nylon assemblages and found footage films that use images culled from a variety of sources.
Although he abruptly stopped making the assemblage paintings that brought him much acclaim in 1964, five of the assemblage pieces will be on view at Art Basel. In addition, is an important large-scale painting from 1975, TRIPTYCH, which was previously owned by the artist Sam Francis. This painting consists of three canvases and depicts the all-over, meditative abstraction for which Conner has become famous. Conner’s work on canvas is quite rare, and this piece is a tour-de-force of abstraction from the 1970s. Also from the same period is a life-size photographic work, KISS ANGEL, from his photogram series. Nearly all the works from this series is in museum collections, and we are fortunate to be able to show this stunning example.
Conner’s work on paper has been a mainstay of his artistic production from the late 1950s to the present. In Art Basel we will show some early drawings from 1961 to 1965, where the artist showed Surrealist tendencies that soon turned to semi-abstract landscapes. By 1964 the drawings had become labyrinthine and fully non-representational, and we will exhibit two of these rare works. Finally, we have a large group of Inkblot drawings created over the last ten years that will be hung salon style, and will show the best of these intricate, labor intensive and elegant works on paper.
In Art Unlimited, we will premier the digitally restored version of three-screen Ray, now titled EVE-RAY-FOREVER. This was originally shown at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in 1965 in 8mm silent film. Bruce Conner has digitally transferred the film to DVD, and is being presented as a continuous loop. The film mixes found footage from early 20th century sources, which include striptease, educational films, animated cartoons, and silent movies.
Conner is included in the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Musée Nationale de l’art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and numerous other public and private international collections. Conner’s films have been preserved in the Library of Congress along with numerous other film archives. Bruce Conner lives and works in San Francisco.
For further information or press materials please contact Lizvet Corral at 323.658.8088 or via email liz@kohngallery.com.
