{"id":2915,"date":"2012-07-06T09:15:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T14:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/?p=2915"},"modified":"2012-07-06T09:43:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T14:43:36","slug":"currents-34-isaac-julien-now-on-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/2012\/07\/currents-34-isaac-julien-now-on-view\/","title":{"rendered":"“Western Union: Small Boats” now on view"},"content":{"rendered":"

Museum acquires major work by Isaac Julien<\/strong>
\nContemporary video installation presented sequentially for the first time\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Milwaukee, Wis.<\/strong> \u2013 The Milwaukee Art Museum has acquired a video work by London-based Contemporary artist Isaac Julien<\/a>. Western Union: Small Boats<\/em> (2007) juxtaposes the grandeur of the Sicilian Palazzo Gangi (made famous by Luchino Visconti\u2019s 1963 cinematic masterpiece The Leopard) with present-day sea voyages from Africa to the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n

Western Union: Small Boats<\/em> is part of Julien\u2019s \u201cExpeditions\u201d trilogy, now on view as part of the Museum\u2019s Currents<\/em> series, which highlights the work of Contemporary artists.<\/p>\n

As with all the works in \u201cExpeditions,\u201d Western Union<\/em> is presented on three separated projection screens, physically indicating the fragmented narratives of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to have acquired Western Union: Small Boats<\/em>\u00a0into our permanent collection and are honored to be the first to present these three works sequentially,\u201d said Brady Roberts, chief curator for the Milwaukee Art Museum. \u201cJulien\u2019s masterful filmmaking and control of the installation environment create an experience that combines the formality of a gallery with an enveloping cinema theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of Currents<\/em>, the \u201cExpeditions\u201d trilogy (True North, Fant\u00f4me Afrique, Western Union: Small Boats<\/em>) is being presented together, sequentially, for the first time.<\/a><\/p>\n

True North<\/em> (2004) is a meditative work loosely inspired by the story of the African American explorer Matthew Henson, who accompanied Robert Peary as one of the first people to reach the North Pole. Fant\u00f4me Afrique<\/em> (2005) punctuates a tour through urban Ouagadougou, the center for cinema in Africa, and the arid spaces of rural Burkina Faso, with archival footage from early colonial expeditions and key moments in African history.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis multi-screen installations display rich narrative imageries of architecture and landscapes that reference issues in global politics, race, and migration,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cIsaac Julien\u2019s video installations combine mesmerizing images linked across screens with compelling audio tracks that are immediately engaging yet conceptually layered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaac Julien (b. 1960) first came to prominence with his dramatic documentary Looking for Langston<\/em> (1989), in which he explored the life of poet Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance as a parallel to his own identity as a gay black artist.<\/p>\n

Isaac Julien\u2019s \u201cExpeditions\u201d is on view \u00a0through February 17, 2013 in the Contemporary Galleries at the Milwaukee Art Museum.<\/p>\n

The acquisition of Western Union: Small Boats<\/em> is funded by the Contemporary Art Society<\/a>, the Ralph and Cora Oberndorfer Family Trust, and by exchange. Programming for this exhibition is generously sponsored by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation\u2019s Johnson and Pabst LGBT Humanity Fund, the Contemporary Art Society, and the African American Art Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM<\/strong>
\nThe Milwaukee Art Museum\u2019s far-reaching holdings include more than 30,000 works spanning antiquity to the present day. With a history dating back to 1888, the Museum houses a collection with strengths in 19th- and 20th-century American and European art, contemporary art, American decorative arts, and folk and self-taught art. The Museum includes the Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion, named by Time magazine as \u201cBest Design of 2001.\u201d For more information, please visit www.mam.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Museum acquires major work by Isaac Julien Contemporary video installation presented sequentially for the first time\u00a0 Milwaukee, Wis. \u2013 The Milwaukee Art Museum has acquired a video work by London-based Contemporary artist Isaac Julien. Western Union: Small Boats (2007) juxtaposes the grandeur of the Sicilian Palazzo Gangi (made famous by Luchino Visconti\u2019s 1963 cinematic masterpiece … “Western Union: Small Boats” now on view<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}