Original Language: Highlights from the MCA Collection
Images
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Cooling Towers, 1983, Gelatin silver prints, 12 parts, each: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm), Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gerald S. Elliott Collection, 1995.31.a–l
Photo: © MCA Chicago © 1983 Bernd and Hilla Becher
Leon Golub, Reclining Youth, 1959, Lacquer on canvas, 78 3/4 x 163 1/2 in. (200 x 415.3 cm), Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of the Susan and Lewis Manilow Collection of Chicago Artists, 1979.52
Photo: © MCA Chicago
Matthew Barney, Cremaster 2: The Drone’s Cell, 1999, Chromogenic development print in acrylic frame, 43 x 54 in. (109.2 x 137.2 cm), Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift from The Howard and Donna Stone Collection, 2002.7. © 1999 Mathew Barney
Photo © MCA ChicagoAbout
In the period immediately following the second World War, artists redefined the language of art-making practice, signaling the birth of movements such as minimalism, conceptualism, and process art. Original Language: Highlights from the MCA Collection presents key works by artists and spans five decades, ranging from Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, and Jeff Koons to a younger generation that includes Doug Aitken, Laura Owens, and Paul Pfieffer, among others. Dynamic, bold, and innovative, the work of these artists reveals a set of connective ideas that tap into a universal enquiry about the contemporary world and the nature of human existence within it. Original Language aims to further the MCA's mission as a leading contemporary art institution with a vision that is continually reflected in the evolution of its collection.
Funding
Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Women’s Board of the MCA and the State of Illinois.