Jesse Aron Green
Ärztliche Zimmergymnastik (Medicalized Indoor Gymnastics)
May 23–August 9, 2015
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
T +1 617 495 9400
Jesse Aron Green’s celebrated multi-component installation Ärztliche Zimmergymnastik (Medicalized Indoor Gymnastics) (2008) comprises an 80-minute projected video and associated sculptural and photographic works and drawings, all of which were recently acquired by the Harvard Art Museums. This presentation marks the first time all of the components are shown together. The installation takes as its point of departure a book of the same name by German physician Dr. Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber (1808–61). Schreber’s 1858 publication was a popular manual of exercises prescribed for “the maintenance of health and vigor of body and mind.” Green’s installation elegantly and provocatively explores cultural tropes and ideologies of the disciplined body through the lens of modernist art—its operations and its legacies.
Green’s video presents the 45 exercises explained in Schreber’s book, enacted by 16 male performers on wooden platforms arranged as a four x four grid. The camera documents their movements in a 360-degree tracking shot, which ends at the same moment the performers finish the exercises. A series of photographs that document each of the 45 exercises, drawings, three concrete sculptures, 16 wooden platforms, and a 24-hour backwards-moving clock in homage to Felix Gonzalez-Torres are also included.
His work has been celebrated with exhibitions around the world, at such institutions as the Tate Modern; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; the Bologna Museum of Modern Art; the Center for Contemporary Art, in Warsaw; Halle 14, in Leipzig; and many others. He lives and works in Boston.
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“Artists sometimes have feelings”; or, Toward an Aesthetics of Reconciliation
Artist lecture with Jesse Aron Green
Wednesday, May 27, 6pm
On the eve of Harvard commencement, alumnus Jesse Aron Green will talk about his exhibition Ärztliche Zimmergymnastik.
He will also revisit the Fogg Museum’s Edgar Degas exhibition of 1911, the first granted by the museum to a living artist. “Art is not dead,” Fogg director Edward Forbes said at the time, adding one significant drawback to the vitality of contemporary art: “Artists sometimes have feelings.” Green will expand upon Forbes’s comments in light of the history of the university, its relationship to art and artists, his personal history and artistic development, and his current artistic practice, which often attempts to reconcile historical forces with the affective conditions of contemporary life.
Free admission. This event will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway.
Following the lecture, attendees are invited to visit Ärztliche Zimmergymnastik, which will be open to attendees until 8pm.
Support for the lecture is provided by the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, which was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities. Support for this program is also provided by the Widgeon Charitable Trust.
Visit our website for more about the lecture.
About the Harvard Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums, among the world’s leading art institutions, comprise three museums (the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums) and four research centers (the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis). The Harvard Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. Integral to Harvard University and the wider community, the museums and research centers serve as resources for students, scholars, and the public.
The Harvard Art Museums’ recent renovation and expansion builds on the legacies of the three museums and unites their remarkable collections under one roof for the first time. Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s responsive design preserved the Fogg Museum’s landmark 1927 facility, while transforming the space to accommodate 21st-century needs. The new building is more functional, accessible, spacious, and above all, more transparent. The three constituent museums retain their distinct identities, yet their close proximity provides exciting opportunities to experience works of art in a broader context.
