Honey, I rearranged the collection… by artist
Posters from the Lempert Collection (chapter 1 / part 1)
Until March 15, 2015
Culturgest
Rua Arco do Cego, 50
1000-300 Lisbon
Portugal
T +351 21 790 51 55
With posters by Jean Dubuffet, Claes Oldenburg, Ben Vautier, Allan Kaprow, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, Dieter Roth, Ellsworth Kelly, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Marcel Broodthaers, Hanne Darboven, Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Weiner, James Lee Byars and Gino de Dominicis
Unveiled here is part of an extraordinary collection of artist’s and exhibition posters begun in the 1960s and now comprising roughly 15,000 items. The collection will be displayed in a series of five exhibitions interspersed in the course of the Culturgest programme until late 2018. The project is divided into three chapters, and, as the title suggests (a title borrowed from a group of works by the artist Allen Ruppersberg), these objects are selected and arranged according to different perspectives. In the first chapter, which will be completed with a second exhibition held immediately after this one, various artists who have devoted special attention to this medium are highlighted. In the second, which will also be divided into two consecutive exhibitions, the posters are selected and arranged by topics. In the last one, the selected posters will be displayed in chronological order.
Why did so many artists—especially from the 1960s onwards—produce so many posters, mainly to advertise their own exhibitions, while refusing to let this means of communication fall into the hands of others (designers, galleries, institutions)? Why have so many artists continued to produce posters in the age of electronic communication, when the poster has been superseded and rendered obsolete by media that offer a faster, cheaper and more effective way of promoting exhibitions?
In their posters, these artists bring to the fore the concerns, ideas, languages and attitudes that characterise their work at a given moment. Yet it is not a simple game of reflections. For many of them, posters are not solely governed by their artistic practice; instead they form an integral part of their oeuvre, they are valued in themselves and for themselves, besides (and frequently in detriment to) their promotional function, and often in defiance of the criteria of communicational effectiveness. Accordingly, when seen as a whole, the posters offer us a surprising and fascinating voyage through the work (and career) of these artists. As we make our way through the exhibition, we are taken on an equally adventurous journey through the history of art in the last 50 years.
Curator: Miguel Wandschneider
