"It's hard to imagine today when we're constantly barraged with algorithm-selected content in the palm of our hands, but until the 1960s, the concept of turning on the TV and seeing images of Count Dracula one second and then the Vietnam War the next moment was incomprehensible. For the first time, people were seeing images of political assassinations, the oppression of protests and the carnage of war in their living rooms."
"For example, the exhibition begins with a collection of three life-size camels made of wood, steel, burlap and animal skin-they're meant to serve as a reminder that reality is strange. As artist Nancy Graves put it, "Camels shouldn't exist. They have flesh on their hooves, four stomachs, and a dislocated jaw. Yet, with all of the illogical form, the camel still functions." These works were first exhibited at the Whitney in 1969, and they're back once again."
Sixties Surreal at the Whitney assembles over 100 works from 1958–1972 that channel surrealist techniques to reflect a media-saturated, disorienting world. The exhibition pairs famed pieces by Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden and Jasper Johns with lesser-known works, emphasizing uncannily reconfigured objects such as a soft toilet, a phallic chair and life-size camels. The show foregrounds responses to televised images of assassinations, protests and war, and highlights feminist sculptures and experimental materials. The presentation prioritizes disorientation and new modes of meaning-making through collage, sculpture and painting.
Read at Time Out New York
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