Three Major Artists Set to Curate at CSM in 2017

Artists Julian Schnabel, Mark Bradford, and Roni Horn will all curate 2017 exhibitions of Clyfford Still’s works as part of the Clyfford Still Museum’s Artists Select series. Inaugurated in 2015, the program invites artists practicing a wide range of creative disciplines to organize an exhibition drawn from the vast holdings of Still’s work housed at the Museum. In keeping with Still’s own interest in disrupting traditions and boundaries of the art world, the results offer visitors fresh interpretations of Still’s revolutionary legacy.

“The Artists Select program provides an incredible opportunity to invite contemporary artists to engage with Still’s work, and to bring with them a refreshing curatorial perspective,” said CSM director Dean Sobel. “Each of these artists is quite different, and each contributes a unique perspective to this series. Schnabel used abstract expressionism as one point of departure for his own work and almost singlehandedly brought expressionist painting back into the fore earlier in his career. Bradford has a deep interest in how and why artists use color and the ways in which painters derive meaning from their acts. Horn drew my attention as an artist who offers new approaches to abstraction, material, color, surface, memory, history, and language.”

The 2017 series, part of the Museum’s fifth anniversary celebration that begins in November 2016, will continue the Museum’s mission of shedding new light on Still’s work and creating an enduring legacy for the artist. The first exhibition will open on January 20, 2017 with an installation curated by Schnabel. On view through April 2, the exhibition will span the Museum’s nine galleries and feature 60 of Still’s mature abstract works, including a series of works that the artist made late in life. Nearly one third of Schnabel’s selections have never been on public view.

The Artists Select series launched in 2015 with an exhibition curated by Mark Mothersbaugh, who referred to his curation as akin to being “a visual DJ.” Mothersbaugh, a visual artist, composer of scores for movies and television, and frontman for the influential musical group DEVO, created musical compositions in response to Still’s works that were offered on headphones in the gallery and are currently available.

More information about the 2017 Artists Select line-up is available in the Museum’s press room.