National Gallery of Art, Washington presents Shock of the News, an exhibition on view September 23, 2012–January 27, 2013.
Raoul Hausmann, Salomo Friedländer (Mynona), 1919. Newspaper, woodcut and journal clippings on silver Japanese paper, 25.5 x 21.2 cm (10 x 8 3/8 in.). Collection Merrill C. Berman.
Since 1909, major artists from nearly every art movement have co-opted, mimicked, defused, undermined, memorialized, and rewritten newspapers. Shock of the News will examine the myriad manifestations of the “newspaper phenomenon” through 65 collages, paintings, drawings, sculptures, artists’ newspapers, prints, and photographs by European and American artists, from F. T. Marinetti and Pablo Picasso to the Guerrilla Girls and Robert Gober. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, East Building, from September 23, 2012, through January 27, 2013, the exhibition will also include the large-scale multimedia installation To Mallarmé (2003) by Mario Merz. With two exceptions, the 60 artists in the exhibition will each be represented by one exemplary work.
“Artists pursuing various agendas have transformed the disposable daily paper into compelling works of art. Shock of the News promises to shape our understanding of modern artists’ responses to the newspaper,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. “Although a handful of recent exhibitions have explored the topic, this is the first to offer a systematic examination of the newspaper as both a material and subject in modern and contemporary art over the course of a century.”
Arranged chronologically, Shock of the News traces the development of the newspaper phenomenon from 1909 to 2009 and demonstrates its remarkable ability to adapt to and shift with the times while remaining vital to the present.
For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery’s Web site at www.nga.gov
