Art Lesson: The Boston School Considered OPENS TODAY!

Madison, Wis. (January 9, 2013) – The Edgewood College Gallery is pleased to present Art Lesson: The Boston School Considered. The exhibition runs January 11 through February 24, 2013. A reception will be held Thursday, Jan. 17, from 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm with a gallery lecture from UW-Madison Professor Michael Jay McClure at 4:00 pm.  The public is cordially invited. This is the second exhibition in the BMO Harris Bank Gallery Series at the College.

Art Lesson offers occasion to contemplate the contingent nature of the term ‘Boston School’ as it is associated with three of America’s most important photographers. Following an eponymous exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 1996, art historians and critics alike have consistently identified David Armstrong, Shellburne Thurber, Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Tabboo!, Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe, and Jack Pierson as members of this group.

Of these critically acclaimed artists, Goldin, Morrisroe, and Pierson are often critiqued according to their shared interests in counter-culture, documentary narrative, gender and sexuality, and friendship. The term ‘Boston School,’ however, belies important differences among all the artists, especially Goldin, Pierson, and Morrisroe. At times, the Boston School critical lens ignores generational differences, biography, conceptual divergences, and the later activities of the artists associated with the group. Since 1996, themes and affinities that in the past seemed less relevant have emerged as primary points for investigation. This exhibition considers these emergent themes including a recognizable desire among these particular artists to interrogate the conditions of the photographic object at the dawn of the digital age.

Art Lesson: The Boston School Considered extends a conversation that began within the walls of a Boston museum. The Edgewood College Gallery is pleased to offer a public lecture and print catalogue to new and expanded viewerships for these provocative artists.

Mark Morrisroe at ClampArt Gallery
Jack Pierson at Cheim and Read

Nan Goldin at Matthew Marks Gallery

This exhibition is organized by Edgewood College with kind cooperation from The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection) at Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland), Cheim & Read Gallery (NYC), ClampArt (NYC), The Kemper Museum (Kansas City), and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Art Lesson: The Boston School Considered is funded by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board. The School of Arts and Sciences at Edgewood College and the Marion H. Baker Fund for the Arts also provide support.

This event is presented as part of the Year of the Arts at Edgewood College, a celebration of music, theatre and art for 2012-2013. Supporters of our Year of the Arts programming include the Kohler Foundation, BMO Harris Bank, the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board, DANE Arts with additional funds from the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, Native Capital Investment, and the Ahrens-Washburn Community Fellows Program.