Above, Before & After

May 7, 2016 – Apr 16, 2017

Images

A black box containing an image of white box is mounted on the side of a thick black frame. The entire piece is intersected by a horizontal blue line, which appears to be painter's tape. — Edward Krasinski, Interwencja (Intervention), 1983. Acrylic on wood with blue adhesive tape; wooden panel: 39 7/16 x 37 7/8 x 5 7/16 in. (100.2 x 96.2 x 13.8 cm); installed dimensions variable
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, purchased jointly by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago with funds provided by Mary and Earle Ludgin by exchange, and by the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York by Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc.; The Cynthia Hazen Polsky Fund. 2014.37. Courtesy of Paulina Krasinska and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw

Small white circles connected by thin wire balance opposite a thicker orange wire weighted by an orange rudder-like shape hanging from the edge of a white table. — Edward Krasinski, Interwencja (Intervention), 1983. Acrylic on wood with blue adhesive tape; wooden panel: 39 7/16 x 37 7/8 x 5 7/16 in. (100.2 x 96.2 x 13.8 cm); installed dimensions variable
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, purchased jointly by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago with funds provided by Mary and Earle Ludgin by exchange, and by the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York by Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc.; The Cynthia Hazen Polsky Fund. 2014.37. Courtesy of Paulina Krasinska and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw

About

The artists featured in Above, Before & After manipulate form and space to explore the relationship between art and the viewer. Selected from the MCA's collection, the works—rarely exhibited together—were created over the span of more than 60 years in response to diverse historical and social contexts. Collectively, however, these pieces prompt a larger conversation that asks viewers to consider that art objects often achieve their fullest value when viewers approach them from multiple angles.

The exhibition's mix of two- and three-dimensional works include the MCA's newly acquired Edward Krasinski's *Interwencja (Intervention)* (1983), as well as collection highlights by artists John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Alfredo Jaar, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Lorna Simpson, and Takis. Whether explicitly political, as in Jaar's sculpture, which draws upon histories of undocumented workers in the United States, or subtly expressed in Calder's mobiles that activate color and line through their kinetic qualities, these works occupy spaces—imagined and real. When artists repurpose the doorframes, ceilings, and corners of the art museum, viewers are encouraged to question what they see—the artwork, the white walls, and the very ground they encounter.

This exhibition is organized by Michael Darling, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, and Faye Gleisser, Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow.

The exhibition is presented in the McCormick Tribune Orientation Gallery on the museum’s second floor.