Bruce Conner's Legacy Tested: A New Exhibition at the Marciano Foundation
By
Nicholas Gamso
Summary
A critical reflection on the legacy of countercultural artist Bruce Conner, eighteen years after his death and ten years after MoMA's major retrospective. The article examines a new exhibition of Conner's work at the Marciano Foundation in Los Angeles, housed in a former Masonic temple and showcasing the private collection of Guess jeans co-founders. It explores the tension between Conner's caustic, iconoclastic sensibility and his canonization within the art establishment, questioning whether his subversive spirit survives institutional and commercial co-optation.
Source
Twitter / XBruce Conner's Legacy Tested: A New Exhibition at the Marciano Foundatione-flux.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledEighteen years have passed since Bruce Conner's death, in 2008, aged seventy-four; ten since MoMA held its massive Conner retrospective.
The countercultural polymath, known equally for his ragged combines (described by Philip Leider in Artforum as 'hideous in the extreme') and his seductive film collages, has been canonized, if the label befits a true iconoclast, for a long time.
A new show at the Marciano Foundation in Los Angeles—located in a former Masonic temple, and showcasing the private collection of the co-founders of Guess jeans—is the latest test of Conner's caustic sensibility.
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