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Exhibition: "As Human (for Edward Said)" Curated by Adam J. Lerner, Denver Art Museum / The Lab at Belmar, Denver, Colorado |
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The meaning and value of humanism has changed dramatically from the end of WWII to the present. Martin Heidegger's 1946 "Letter on Humanism" began a long negative relation to the concept. The philosopher's attempt to avoid elevating "the human being to the center of beings" was bolstered by later feminist and multi-cultural perspectives that drew attention to the brutality of those speaking in the name of "Man." But Edward Said's defense of humanism as the "achievement of form by human will and agency" in a posthumously published 2004 book 'Humanism and Democratic Criticism' is typical of the recent revision of the concept. For Said, humanism advances, rather than erases, the recognition of diverse human experience. Despite booms and busts in the humanist market since WWII, artists have persistently addressed old humanist concerns: mortality, transcendence, connection and alienation. In the past ten years, as if reconciling positive and negative accounts of humanism, artists have begun to weave questions of identity - our particularity - into questions of existence - our humanity. This climate allows us to acknowledge the humanist trace in the art of the last four decades that had been previously obscured by more pressing theoretical concerns. The works in this exhibition foreground the condition of the human being, in relation to the social and historical being. |
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 Mensch Joseph Beuys Gagosian Gallery, UK |
 Une Place sur la Terre 2003 New York Rei Naito D'Amelio Terras |
 Finis Terrae Anne and Patrick Poirier Sonnabend Gallery |
 The Green Ray (Edition for Parkett 62) Tacita Dean Parkett Editions, Zurich |
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 Untitled Miroslaw Balka Barbara Gladstone Gallery |
 Les Tombes (Father & Mother) Sophie Calle André Simoens Gallery |
 Fainting Couch Valeska Soares Galeria Fortes Vilaça |
 Untitled, No. 9 (Painting Series) Paul Graham Carrie Secrist Gallery |
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 Big number (Clear 0) Tatsuo Miyajima Galeria Javier Lopez |
 From Kernels of Time project Kcho (Alexis Leyva) La Casona |
 Rheinmetal Rodney Graham 303 Gallery |
 Absorption, Work in Progress Jana Sterbak Galeria Toni Tàpies |
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 Small Figure in Iron House Magdalena Abakanowicz Richard Gray Gallery |
 Untitled (four figures) Laylah Ali Miller Block Gallery |
 The Razor's Edge Robert Moskowitz Peter Blum |
 Untitled (thin) Donald Moffett Anthony Meier Fine Arts |
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Adam J. Lerner, PhD is Master Teacher at the Denver Art Museum and Executive Director of The Lab at Belmar, a new project space dedicated to the exploration of art and ideas. The Lab will open a facility in Lakewood, Colorado, in 2006. Lerner can be reached at adam@belmarlab.org. |
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