Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art announces Darren Waterston: Uncertain Beauty

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art presents Darren Waterston: Uncertain Beauty on March 8, 2014–February 1, 2015.

In his first major museum exhibition on the East Coast, painter Darren Waterston’s installation Filthy Lucre—the centerpiece of his exhibition Uncertain Beauty—reimagines James McNeill Whistler’s decorative masterpiece Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room (1876–77). Fascinated with The Peacock Room both for its lyrical union of painting and architecture and for its dramatic story of patronage and artistic ego, Waterston created an installation that hints at parallels between the excesses and inequities of the Gilded Age (and the European society it mimicked) and the social and economic disparities of our own time. At the same time, the work raises questions about patronage and the relationships between artists, collectors, and institutions. Filthy Lucre is a reminder of the complexities and contradictions of the artist-patron relationship, as well as a reference to the relationship between art and money.

The original Peacock Room—the dining room of the London home of shipping magnate Frederick Leyland—was designed to showcase Leyland’s collection of Asian ceramics, with Whistler’s painting La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine (1863–64) prominently displayed. Asked to consult on the color scheme for the room, Whistler took bold liberties while Leyland and his architect were away, and painted the entire room—executing his now-famous peacocks over the expensive Italian leather wall panels. The collector refused to pay Whistler’s bill and banned him from the house; in response Whistler painted an unflattering caricature of his patron titled The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor).

At MASS MoCA, Waterston reconstructs the historical room as an extravagant ruin. Visitors will find a crumbling structure with re-interpretations of Whistler’s work in Waterston’s distinct style, as well as 250 hand-painted ceramic vessels inspired by the collections of both Leyland and the American industrialist, Charles Freer, who acquired The Peacock Room after Leyland’s death.

Describing Filthy Lucre, Waterston comments, “I set out to recreate Whistler’s fabled Peacock Room in a state of decadent demolition—a space collapsing in on itself, heavy with its own excess and tumultuous history. The once-extravagant interior is warped, ruptured, and in the process of being overtaken by natural phenomena: stalactites hang from the mantelpiece, light fixtures morph into crystal-like formations, and moss and barnacles cover the walls. Painted vessels sit broken and scattered, or drip florescent glazes down the latticed shelves. The shimmering central mural melts down the wall onto the floor in a puddle of gold. The painting of the reigning ‘Porcelain Princess’—depicted in fantastical deformity—oversees the unsettling scene.”

The installation is accompanied by two galleries filled with nearly thirty of Waterston’s paintings and works on paper. A selection of studies for Filthy Lucre and related works will also be on view.

Filthy Lucre will travel to Washington, DC, to the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (adjacent to the Freer Gallery of Art where The Peacock Room is housed) in summer 2015.

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247
www.massmoca.org