• Leslie Lyon, Director of Public Affairs, College of Fine Arts, (512) 475-7033

2/9/2009

Blanton Museum of Art Announces Two Major New Gifts of Conteporary Art

Installation by Teresita Fernández will transform the Blanton's Rapoport Atrium

Shimmering large–scale assemblage by El Anatsui to be placed at entrance to collection galleries

(Austin, Texas: January 27, 2009): The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin announces two new major acquisitions to its collection of contemporary art. Stacked Waters, a site–specific installation by Teresita Fernández, and Untitled, 2007 by El Anatsui, are a gift and promised gift respectively from Jeanne and Michael Klein of Austin, Texas. The new works will be officially unveiled on January 31, when the Blanton kicks off a $40 million endowment campaign with a gala fundraiser in honor of Jack S. Blanton.

Interim director Ann Wilson states, “An acquisition from either of these artists would be an event in and of itself. Together, the works will completely transform the experience of entering the Rapoport Atrium and ascending its grand staircase. We are profoundly grateful to the Kleins for their vision in helping us shape this breathtaking new look for the museum. Their generosity is especially encouraging in these economically uncertain times.” Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, the Blanton's curator of American and contemporary art, continues, “Both Teresita Fernández and El Anatsui have emerged as major figures in the contemporary art scene, with long histories of national and international exhibitions and awards, The acquisition of these two extraordinary new sculptures affirms the Blanton's commitment to assembling a rigorous and thought–provoking collection of contemporary works by internationally recognized artists.”

The Blanton commissioned Teresita Fernández to develop this expansive new work for the museum's two–story Rapoport Atrium. Stacked Waters consists of 3,100 square feet of custom–cast acrylic that covers the walls in a blue pattern resembling water. Horizontal bands of saturated color shift and fade from deep blue to white in varying gradations. The title of the work is a nod to Donald Judd's stack pieces, and his exploration of box interiors. (The Blanton atrium will function similarly, suggesting a container.) Utilizing the natural light afforded by the space's many skylights, the work will appear as a mirror, reflecting the activity of museum visitors and becoming what the artist refers to as, “a changing portrait of Texas light…”

Jeanne and Michael Klein add, “The artwork of Teresita Fernández is transformative. We think it creates a mood that opens the conscious and unconscious mind, and the senses as well, freeing us to see the world in different ways and at the same time teaching us to perceive differently. Both Annette Carlozzi and we have known Teresita for many years so her name immediately came to mind when the three of us started discussing the notion of creating a welcoming and engaging work of art for the atrium area –one that tells a visitor that you're in an art museum.”

As a follow up to Fernández' special installation, the Blanton will present Teresita Fernández: Blind Landscape, a survey of the artist's recent works to be organized by the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, opening in Austin in November 2009.

El Anatsui's sculpture on the Blanton's mezzanine serves as a perfect complement to Fernández' Stacked Waters, echoing its shimmmering qualities and repeated motifs. “We were first introduced to the work of El Anatsui at the Venice Biennale in 2007, where it captivated the art world,” state the Kleins. “It was thrilling to work with the Blanton Museum to acquire a piece of this significance for Austin. We especially love seeing the works together in the atrium and the fact that both artists employ a process of sameness or repetition using multiple parts to make up the whole.”

El Anatsui's untitled work from 2007 is an elegant assemblage of aluminum and copper wire measuring 144 x 195 inches. A sort of metal tapestry, the work references the aesthetic traditions of El Anatsui's native Ghana. As commentary on West Africa's postcolonial globalization, with its abundant consumerism and waste, the artist transforms discarded objects into striking works of art, breathing new life, form, and function into seemingly useless materials

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Teresita Fernández

A recipient of the coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2005, Fern‡ndez is one of the most accomplished artists of her generation and is known for her evocative large–scale sculptures and immersive installations that address space, light and perception. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and is represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery. Recent commissions include Seattle Cloud Cover for the Olympic Sculpture Park at the Seattle Art Museum, a work for the Public Art Fund in 2001 and a special project at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2000. She has had solo exhibitions at many prestigious institutions including the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia; SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico; the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy; and most recently, at the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga in Spain

El Anatsui

Emerging during the vibrant West African post–independence art movements of the 1960s and 1970s, El Anatsui has received international acclaim for his constantly evolving and highly experimental sculpture. Although Anatsui's work attracted particular attention in the recent landmark exhibition Africa Remix––which was presented from 2004 to 2007 in Düsseldorf, London, Paris, Tokyo and Stockholm––his exhibition history spans three decades. In addition to frequent exhibitions in Nigeria and throughout Africa, his work has been shown widely in Europe, the United States and Japan as well as at the Venice, Havana and Johannesburg biennales. His sculpture is held in numerous public collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Anatsui continues to live and work in Nsukka, Nigeria, but maintains close connections with his native Ghana; he is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York