Paper as Medium: Bent, Folded, Mutilated, Pressed, Stained, Slashed

Robert Rauschenberg, Cardbird VI from the Cardbird Series (1971), Photolithograph and screenprint on corrugated cardboard with tape additions. Overall (irreg.): 26 x 27-3/16", The Museum of Modern Art.

Paper: Pressed, Stained, Slashed, Folded
March 11-June 22, 2009
Museum of Modern Art
New York
Paper: Pressed, Stained, Slashed, Folded, an exhibition of approximately 70 works from MoMA’s collection that explore and manipulate the materiality of paper, comprises prints and illustrated books as well as drawings and a papier-mâché sculpture, the exhibition focuses largely on works from the 1960s and 1970s, when an interest in everyday materials and nontraditional processes fueled the redeployment of some of the most familiar and humble mediums. On view are works by approximately 30 artists, including Lucio Fontana, Eva Hesse, Lygia Pape, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Rockburne, Dieter Roth, and Ed Ruscha, as well as examples by contemporary artists Martin Creed, Ellen Gallagher, and Mona Hatoum, among others. Recent acquisitions by Giuseppe Penone and Mira Schendel are on display for the first time.
Sol LeWitt, Rip Drawing, 1973, Torn paper, 13-1/2 x 13-3/8", The Museum of Modern Art.

Artists, including Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, and Richard Tuttle, embraced the delicacy and mutability of paper. Included are two works by Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008), including Cardbird VI (1971), an edition made from corrugated cardboard and sealing tape.

Mona Hatoum (British of Palestinian origin, born in Beirut, Lebanon, 1952), Untitled (Grater), 1996, Rubbing on wax paper, Sheet: 10-3/4 x 14-7/8", frame: 13-5/16 x 17-5/16", The Museum of Modern Art.

On display are three works by Hatoum (British of Palestinian origin, b. Beirut, Lebanon 1952), including Untitled (Grater) (1996), a wax paper rubbing taken from an antique kitchen utensil. The embossing is both a literal trace of the object and a ghostly image, evoking, like much of Hatoum’s work, the fragility of life.