Amid the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, social change and art became inextricably intertwined in a movement fueled by a handful of artists that will be the subject of a new exhibition opening this September at David Nolan Gallery. “Radical Artists of the 1960s/1970s: Between Geometry and Gesture” will include works by some pioneering and thought-provoking artists who were active during that era, including stanley brouwn (b. 1935, Suriname), Barry Le Va (b. 1941, Long Beach, CA), Bruce Nauman (b. 1941, Fort Wayne, IN), Richard Serra (b. 1938, San Francisco) and Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montreal). With their art, those artists reacted, confronted and responded to the uneasy atmosphere of that time, between the political unrest, economic uncertainty, racial tension and anti-war demonstrations. They often pushed the boundaries, bearing witness to this feeling of precarity, and embraced more impermanent actions or intersected their artistic practices with politics and activism to unveil dynamics of power and control within the new mediated history reported by mass media. Capturing the feeling of a historical moment, the exhibition feels quite timely in unveiling alarming parallels with current global conditions.
September 3, 2024
