Artists Announced for the 1999 Carnegie International

stitlert@carnegiemuseums.org 

September 1, 1999
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The artists who will be featured in the 1999 Carnegie International were announced today by Madeleine Grynsztejn, curator of contemporary art at Carnegie Museum of Art and curator of the exhibition. The show, on view from November 6, 1999, through March 26, 2000, will include works by forty-one emerging and established artists from twenty-two countries. As the pre-eminent international survey of contemporary art in North America, the 53rd exhibition in the 103-years-old series will continue the historic legacy set forth by previous Carnegie Internationals in presenting new and compelling works by artists from around the world.

"For more than one hundred years, Carnegie Museum of Art has played an important role among American museums with its presentation of the International," said Richard Armstrong, the Henry J. Heinz II director of the museum. "With Madeleine Grynsztejn's intelligent and focused direction, we can be assured that the 1999 Carnegie International will extend this exhibition's distinguished history."

1999 Carnegie International Artists

Franz Ackermann	Germany	(b. 1963)
Matthew Barney	USA	(b. 1967)
Janet Cardiff	Canada	(b. 1957)
John Currin	USA	(b. 1962)
Hanne Darboven	Germany	(b. 1941)
Thomas Demand	Germany	(b. 1964)
Mark Dion	USA	(b. 1961)
Willie Doherty	Northern Ireland	(b. 1959)
Olafur Eliasson	Germany	(b. 1967, Denmark)
Kendell Geers	South Africa	(b. 1968)
Felix Gonzalez-Torres	USA	(b. 1957-1996, Cuba)
Ann Hamilton	USA	(b. 1956)
José Antonio Hernández-Diez	Venezuela	(b. 1964)
Pierre Huyghe	France	(b. 1962)
Alex Katz	USA	(b. 1927)
William Kentridge	South Africa	(b. 1955)
Bodys Isek Kingelez	Democratic Republic of Congo	(b. 1948)
Suchan Kinoshita	Netherlands	(b. 1960, Japan)
Martin Kippenberger	Germany	(b. 1953-1997)
Kerry James Marshall	USA	(b. 1955s
Takashi Murakami	Japan	(b. 1962)
Shirin Neshat	USA	(b. 1957, Iran)
Ernesto Neto	Brazil	(b. 1964)
Chris Ofili	England	(b. 1968)
Gabriel Orozco	USA	(b. 1962, Mexico)
Markéta Othová	Czech Republic	(b. 1968)
Laura Owens	USA	(b. 1970)
Edward Ruscha	USA	(b. 1937)
Gregor Schneider	Germany	(b. 1969)
Ann-Sofi Sidén	Sweden	(b. 1962)
Roman Signer	Switzerland	(b. 1938)
Sarah Sze	USA	(b. 1969)
Sam Taylor-Wood	England	(b. 1967)
Nahum Tevet	Israel	(b. 1946)
Diana Thater	USA	(b. 1962)
Luc Tuymans	Belgium	(b. 1958)
Kara Walker	USA	(b. 1969)
Jeff Wall	Canada	(b. 1946)
Jane and Louise Wilson	England	(b. 1967)
Chen Zhen	France	(b. 1955, China)

Among the artists selected to participate in the exhibition are a number whose work is relatively unknown to audiences outside their home countries, including Kendell Geers, Suchan Kinoshita, Bodys Isek Kingelez, and Markéta Othová. Other artists, such as Jeff Wall and Ann Hamilton, have been featured in past Carnegie Internationals and are included in this year's show with powerful new work.

"Artists participating in the 1999 Carnegie International are invited first and foremost on the strength of their work," said Grynsztejn. "After an intensive research period during which I viewed a significant amount of art and spoke with artists, it became clear that the most compelling work being created today centers on a conceptually-oriented realism; that is, on a preoccupation with what constitutes the real."

"This common pattern or preoccupation with the real comprises the primary thematic premise of the exhibition. In this day and age when physical and digital/global and local realms co-exist, we are located at the very crossroads of multiple realities."

"The diverse approaches to realism in this exhibition include works that emphasize phenomenological experiences - not only sight, but sound, action, and touch - that engage the viewer on an immediate level, often inviting interaction with the artwork itself. Other artworks evince a labor-intensive approach that emphasizes materiality and obsessive fabrication. These works intensify everyday experience and viscerally involve the spectator. Further, a number of artworks in the exhibition manifest a deliberate slippage between reality and fiction. These works, situated at a deliberate remove from their 'original' source, question reality with the intention of returning to it with greater awareness. Each of the works in the Carnegie International reground the viewer in a vivid and concentrated realm that tests the real and its conventions, not for the purpose of reconnecting the viewer to some original vision or root condition, but to present reality in all its impurity, multiplicity, and intense present-ness."

The exhibition will occupy 42,000 square feet of space in Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Work included in the International will encompass a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, film and video, as well as works created specifically for this exhibition.

Ms. Grynsztejn was counseled by an advisory committee comprised of Okwui Enwezor, poet, critic, and artistic director of Documenta; Susanne Ghez, director of the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; and Lars Nittve, director of the Tate Gallery of Modern Art.

"The Carnegie International has consistently been among the most challenging and important exhibitions in the world," said Milton Fine, chairman of the board of Carnegie Museum of Art. "We are grateful for the generous support of all of our funders, particularly Mellon Financial Corporation, sponsor of the 1999 Carnegie International."

Martin McGuinn, chairman and CEO of Mellon Financial Corporation, said, "Mellon Financial Corporation is pleased and honored to serve as the corporate sponsor of the 53rd Carnegie International. We know that our investments in arts and culture help make our communities vital and more attractive and interesting places in which to live and work."

The 1999 Carnegie International is sponsored by Mellon Financial Corporation.

Major support is provided by income from the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Endowment Fund and by The Grable Foundation; The Heinz Endowments; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; US Airways; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Bohen Foundation; and The Peter Norton Family Foundation.

Additional support has been received from ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio; The British Council; the Danish Contemporary Art Foundation; the Government of Canada/Gouvernement du Canada; Susan and Lewis Manilow; the Mondriaan Foundation; and the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Additional in-kind contributions have been provided by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Promotional partners for the 1999 Carnegie International include the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Westin William Penn, WQED Pittsburgh/Pittsburgh Magazine, and WYEP-FM.

The premier art museum in the region, Carnegie Museum of Art boasts a distinguished collection of American art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and late-twentieth-century works, including film and video. Other collections of note include European and American decorative arts, and prints and drawings from the late-sixteenth century to the present. The Heinz Architectural Center, opened in 1993, is dedicated to the collection, study, and exhibition of architectural drawings and models.

Carnegie Museum of Art offers many lectures, tours, and programs as well as art history and studio art classes for adults and children. Call 412/622-3288 to receive a guide to programs and classes.

Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museums are closed on Mondays. Admission prices are $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, $4 for children and students, and free for Carnegie members.