historical takes
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Constructing Helen (from Helen’s Odyssey), 2007
Chromogenic print, 68 x 119 in.
(172.7 x 302.3 cm)
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HISTORICAL TAKES
ELEANOR ANTIN
Curated by
Betti-Sue Hertz
Contributions by
Eleanor Antin, Betti-Sue Hertz, Amelia Jones,
and Max Kozloff
San Diego Museum of Art
Prestelmunich · berlin · london · new york
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This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes
held at the San Diego Museum of Art, July 19–November 2, 2008.
Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes is organized by the San Diego Museum of Art and made possible by the generosity of
Pam and Jerry Cesak, Sharon and Joel Labovitz, Gordon Brodfuehrer, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, the Artists Guild and an anonymous donor.
Additional support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture,
the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.
© 2008 by San Diego Museum of Art
© 2008 by Prestel Verlag,
Munich · Berlin · London · New York
All works by Eleanor Antin © Eleanor Antin, courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Additional Photograph and Reproduction Credits: Adoc-photos/Art Resource, New York: p. 82 (left)
Bibliothèque Nationale de France: p. 84 (left) | © Christie’s Images Ltd. [2008]: p. 86
Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York: p. 96 | © The National Gallery, London: p. 87
National Media Museum, Bradford, England; Photo: Science & Society Picture Library: p. 98
Private collection: p. 84 (right) | Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris/Art Resource, New York: p. 88
Timken Museum of Art, San Diego: p. 83 | www.sonofthesouth.net: p. 82 (right)
ISBN: 978-3-7913-4055-5 (trade edition) | 978-3-7913-6182-6 (museum edition)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008925113
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library;
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek holds a record of this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografi e;
detailed bibliographical data can be found under: http://dnb.ddb.de
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
san diego museum of art
1450 El Prado, San Diego, California 92101
www.sdmart.org
Prestel books are available worldwide.
Front cover: Plaisir d’Amour (after Couture) (from Helen’s Odyssey), 2007
Editorial coordination: Chris Lyon · Edited by Michelle Piranio · Project coordination in Munich: Anja Besserer
Copyedited by Jane Michael, Munich · Design and typesetting: Mark Melnick, New York · Production: Florian Tutte
Origination: Reproline Mediateam, Munich · Printing and binding: TBB, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
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01.b_Antin_FM_rl.indd 4 14.05.2008 10:49:40 Uhr
foreword
Derrick R. Cartwright . . . 7
plates
The Last Days of Pompeii . . . 9
Roman Allegories . . . 35 Helen’s Odyssey . . . 61
Impossible Facts: Max Kozloff Interviews Eleanor Antin . . . 76
Eleanor Antin’s Transpositions: A Feminist View of Academic Painting in the
Age of Digital Photography, by Betti-Sue Hertz . . . 81
Time Traveler: Eleanor Antin as Mythographer of the Self,
by Amelia Jones . . . 93
plates
The King of Solana Beach . . . 101 Angel of Mercy . . . 109
Recollections of My Life with Diaghilev . . . 116
Exhibition Checklist . . . 123
Selected Bibliography . . . 126 Notes on the Contributors . . . 127
Acknowledgments . . . 128
contents
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7
ince moving to Southern California in 1969, Eleanor
Antin has played a role in the still-evolving sense of
San Diego’s own art history. Indisputably part of the place,
but with a message extending beyond, Antin has produced
shrewd narratives that are delivered with all the cool de-
tachment expected of conceptual artists. Many of her early
acclaimed projects utilized the photographic medium and
were set in the local landscape, as in The King of Solana Beach
(1974). However, the reverberations of these projects were
seldom localized here. 100 Boots (1971–73), for example,
consists of fi fty-one postcards showing legions of foot-
wear trudging through a variety of regionally identifi able
settings, but the ultimate destination, both fi guratively
and literally, of these wandering shoes was the Museum
of Modern Art in New York: the eponymous boots visited
the midtown Manhattan museum as part of their cross-
country march, and MoMA showed the series virtually
upon its completion. So it has been, to a large degree, with
Antin herself. While she has kept a home in this county for
four decades, her impact as an exhibiting artist has been
most passionately tracked outside of San Diego. Until now.
Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes provides both a survey and a
contextualization of her very best recent work, celebrat-
ing this world- renowned artist in her hometown.
' San Diego Museum of Art is proud of its role as the
region’s oldest, largest, and most visited art museum. Re-
cently, this identifi cation has led the institution to think
about its encyclopedic pretensions. Universal art muse-
ums must engage with a variety of cultures, media, and
programs, and it makes sense for contemporary art to have
a place among the many other projects we undertake. In
Antin’s case, her recent work engages with the history of
art in a profound manner. Whether it is through the clas-
sicizing work of Nicolas Poussin or the salon painting of
Thomas Couture, Antin’s reinterpretation of canonical
works from earlier art history benefi ts from being thought
about in the very spaces in which those works now reside.
This is just to say that her references to the past, both ex-
plicit and implicit, resound within the walls of the perma-
nent collection galleries, in San Diego and elsewhere.
' Photography has long been a key component of Antin’s
practice and it is an emergent focus of this museum. Using
photography fi rst as a means of documentation and now
as her favored medium, the artist treats her camera as a
device for the humorous exposure of a wide array of cul-
tural contradictions. The timing of Historical Takes has
been fortuitous, coinciding with SDMA’s eff orts to rees-
tablish its claims as a center for photographic study. To
that end, in late summer 2007, when Antin was looking for
a place to stage the large photographic tableaux that form
the basis for this exhibition, SDMA was able to off er her a
space to do so. She spent the better part of a week shoot-
ing in our auditorium, and the works she produced for
the series Helen’s Odyssey (2007) are now returning to San
Diego to receive their museum debut as part of this ex-
hibition. This catalogue similarly represents those same
works’ fi rst scholarly assessment. The opportunity to sup-
port Antin in her creative eff orts and to collaborate with
her in generating new knowledge for the fi eld is a source
of pride for this museum. I seize this opportunity, there-
fore, to express my appreciation, and my admiration, for
the artist. Her friendship has been one great reward of my
role at SDMA.
' This presentation of Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes
would not have been possible without the contributions
of a number of close friends of SDMA. I acknowledge my
personal gratitude to Gordon Brodfuehrer, Pam and Jerry
Cesak, Cam and Wanda Garner, Sharon and Joel Labovitz,
and Carlos Malamud for their generous support of this
exhibition and its accompanying publication. Addition-
ally, the support of SDMA’s Artists’ Guild has played a key
role, fi rst by enabling the acquisition of Antin’s work, and
then by their sponsorship of this publication. The entire
Board of Trustees at SDMA has my thanks for backing my
belief that an encyclopedic museum should also always
attend to the circumstances of local art history. This is the
third publication to be produced in less than a year that
considers San Diego’s unique place in a global art practice.
The San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, led by
Victoria Hamilton, has been another steadfast partner of
this institution and has supported our most recent eff orts
to meet the challenges of serving a diverse and worthy
public, for which we are grateful.
' Finally, I wish to record my respect for and apprecia-
tion of Betti-Sue Hertz, curator of contemporary art at
SDMA. Her deep commitment to challenging art and the
productivity that is joined to that impulse has resulted in
a vibrant series of exhibitions over the past seven years.
Historical Takes is but one of many demonstrations of
Betti-Sue’s curatorial skills and her diverse appetites as a
museum professional. I hope that, through both the last-
ing impact of this catalogue and the more ephemeral suc-
cess of the large exhibition that it accompanies, a broad
public will benefi t from her interest in and engagement
with Antin’s new work. Betti-Sue and the other contribu-
tors to this book have given us much to think about when
it comes to complex contemporary practices and their
eventual homes in museums. Certainly, the goal of this
eff ort has been to record and illuminate the concerns of
an artist who asks probing questions about art history and
to locate more precisely her enduring place in our com-
mon culture.
foreword
[ derrick r. cartwright · the maruja baldwin director ]
S
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01.b_Antin_FM_rl.indd 8 14.05.2008 10:49:40 Uhr
the last days of pompeii
9
Whether posterity will give us a thought, I don’t know—but surely we deserve one.
—Pliny the Younger
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02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 10 14.05.2008 11:19:51 Uhr
11
The Artist’s Studio, 2001
Chromogenic print, 46 5⁄6 x 58 ⅝ in.
(118.9 x 148.9 cm)
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02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 12 14.05.2008 11:19:54 Uhr
13
The Slave Sale, 2001
Chromogenic print, 46 ⅝ x 94 ⅝ in.
(118.4 x 240.3 cm)
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15
The Banquet, 2001
Chromogenic print, 35 ⅛ x 58 ⅝ in.
(89.2 x 148.9 cm)
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02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 16 14.05.2008 11:19:57 Uhr
A Hot Afternoon, 2001
Chromogenic print, 60 x 48 in.
(152.4 x 121.9 cm)
17
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The Death of Petronius, 2001
Chromogenic print, 46 ⅝ x 94 ⅝ in.
(118.4 x 240.3 cm)
18
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02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 19 14.05.2008 11:20:03 Uhr
02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 20 14.05.2008 11:20:07 Uhr
02.d_Antin_FINALplates_rl.indd 20 14.05.2008 11:20:07 Uhr
The Sacrifi ce, 2001
Chromogenic print, 46 ¾ x 94 9⁄16 in.
(118.7 x 240.2 cm)
21
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UNVERKÄUFLICHE LESEPROBE
San Diego Museum of Art
Eleanor AntinHistorical Takes
Gebundenes Buch, Pappband, 128 Seiten, 30,0x24,060 farbige AbbildungenISBN: 978-3-7913-4055-5
Prestel
Erscheinungstermin: Juni 2008