The Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (CAAC), under the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Andalusian Regional Government, has inaugurated the exhibition ‘Sturtevant: the echo of innovation’, the first major exhibition in Spain dedicated to the revolutionary work of this author (1924, Lakewood, Ohio – 2014, Paris).
The exhibition, which will be on display until the end of September, commemorates the centenary of the birth of the artist known for a production that repeats iconic works of her contemporaries, thus questioning the foundations of originality, authorship, and the systems that define the world of contemporary art.
For the Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, the Sturtevant exhibition represents «one of the most ambitious and relevant proposals in the program of the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art for this season.» Indeed, the exhibition is composed «of more than 40 works from prestigious museums, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York or the Pinault Collection in Paris, as well as several private collections, thus highlighting the great work of the CAAC in establishing ties of dialogue and collaboration with international art institutions,» in the words of Del Pozo.
«Sturtevant replicated works by some influential artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Marcel Duchamp, imprinting them with her own seal and thus putting them in front of their own mirror,» summarized Patricia del Pozo, emphasizing the importance of the trajectory of this artist, «very little known in Spain, whose work delved into the function of art as a space to question our reality.»
The exhibition features over 40 works by the American artist, spanning from the 1960s, when she began meticulously repeating works by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Robert Rosenquist, and Marcel Duchamp, to reinterpretations of works by a new generation of artists in the 1990s and 2000s, including Robert Gober, Félix González-Torres, and Joseph Beuys, among others.
Located in the halls of the East Cloister and the Outer Chapel of the CAAC, the exhibition has been conceived as an immersive experience in which the works dialogue with each other, as is the case with the piece ‘Beuys Fat Chairs’ (1992), placed in front of ‘Duchamp Fresh Widow’ (1992).
Among the most prominent works on display is ‘Warhol Black Marilyn’ (2004), a repetition of Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Monroe series, and ‘Duchamp 1,200 Coal Bags’ (2008), a work from the Pinault Collection that revisits the installation originally created by Duchamp in the 1930s. «These pieces are not imitations, but conceptual inquiries that expose the power dynamics of the art and market that shape the cultural meaning of art,» says Jimena Blázquez, director of the CAAC and curator of this exhibition.
The corridors of this exhibition space are covered with other works by Sturtevant such as ‘Warhol Cow Wallpaper’ (1966), ‘Warhol Flowers’ (1964/70), ‘Stella Arbeit Macht Frei’ (1989), and ‘Johns Flag’ (1966). The exhibition also houses other fundamental works like ‘Gober Partially Buried Sinks’ (1990), which examines how individual narratives are absorbed and redefined by cultural institutions.
Finally, the Outer Chapel of the CAAC hosts two of Sturtevant’s most emblematic installations dedicated to the Cuban-American artist Félix González-Torres: ‘González-Torres, Untitled (Blue Placebo)’ and ‘González-Torres, Untitled (America)’, both from 2004.
Elaine Sturtevant
Elaine Frances Sturtevant (1924, Lakewood, Ohio – 2014, Paris), known as ‘Sturtevant’, is a prominent figure in conceptual art, celebrated for questioning originality and authorship. She studied psychology at the University of Iowa, philosophy at the University of Zurich, and art at the Cleveland School of Art and the Art Students League of New York, developing a critical and conceptual approach.
In the 1960s, she burst onto the New York art scene by meticulously repeating works of artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein. A quote from Warhol, ‘Ask Sturtevant,’ symbolizes her technical ability and challenge to perception.
After a hiatus in the 1970s, she resumed her practice in the late 1970s, including artists like Joseph Beuys, Felix González-Torres, and Robert Gober in her work.
In 2011, she received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for her career. Until her passing in 2014, her production challenged traditional notions of art in a world mediated by the repetition and circulation of images. Her work remains a reminder of the importance of art as a space to question and redefine the systems that shape our perception and cultural understanding.
‘Sensemayá. Cantos para matar la culebra’ by Claribel Calderius
Coinciding with the opening of the Sturdevant exhibition to the public, the CAAC has inaugurated the exhibition by Claribel Calderius. Titled ‘Sensemayá. Cantos para matar la culebra’, it is a project specifically created by the Cuban artist for the Chapel of San Bruno at the Cartuja Monastery, which also marks the first individual exhibition in a Spanish institution by the creator.
In this exhibition, which will be on display until the end of September, Calderius proposes a visual and emotional journey that combines tradition, memory, and spirituality. Inspired by the eponymous poem by Nicolás Guillén, the exhibition takes up the figure of the snake as a symbol loaded with meanings: regeneration, change, and spiritual power. The artist uses jute fibers, a rustic and organic material, to construct a visual language that resignifies the architecture and history of the place.