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SELF-MEDICATED
A group show about
drugs, alcohol and
highly altered states of mind
With works by
JOHN BALDESSARI, BRUCE CONNER, DAMIEN HIRST,
DENNIS HOPPER, HENRI MICHAUX, ED RUSCHA,
TOM SACHS, FRED TOMASELLI, ANDY WARHOL
Organized by Michael Kohn and Deborah Mannis
Friday, January 11, 2002
Exhibition will continue until December 22
The Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition of works
that uses as a theme or subject matter, drugs, alcohol and/ or a highly
altered state of mind. As subject matter, alcohol and drugs have been part
of art history since Greek Vase Painting, where figures have been depicted
drinking wine from calyx craters: Or think of Caravaggio’s drunken Bacchus,
or Picasso’s Absinthe Drinkers.
In contemporary art this theme has been expressed in a variety of ways.
"Self-Medicated" starts with drawings by Henri Michaux done under the
influence of mescaline in the late 1950s. Bruce Conner, the influencial
artist and film maker, contributes a 1962 drawing of psilocybin mushrooms,
and photographs of a punk club from the late 70s. Ed Ruscha’s
Anti-Depressants,1972, depicts small pills floating in the air, while Andy
Warhol’s After the Party drawing shows a table populated by empty bottles and
glasses, and filled ashtrays. Dennis Hopper’s work, Life After Death, c.
1980, documents a performance by Hopper where he placed himself within a ring
of dynamite and ignited the TNT. More currently, Fred Tomaselli’s paintings
are known for his inclusion of pharmaceutical drugs in his paintings, and
similarly, Damien Hirst has used drugs as a subject matter in many of his
pieces.
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