June 14, 2021
Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea
on view at the Peter and Merle Mullin GalleryExhibition dates: September 23 through February 27, 2022
In 1937 a naked Le Corbusier infamously painted eight ‘racy’ murals over the walls of Eileen Gray’s groundbreaking E-1027 house, the modernist villa that she designed on the French Riviera. In 2019 Kim Schoenstadt took this violation as a point of inspiration for her large-scale, multimedia exhibition at ArtCenter Mullin Gallery.
Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea is an artistic exploration into the sordid stories, rewritten histories, and exploits that befell Eileen Gray’s career and her iconic E-1027 house in the south of France. The exhibition provides a means to not only explore the legacy of Gray and E-1027, but also to examine issues underrepresented artists face when breaking into the field in which they are not typically represented. Conceived specifically for the Mullin Gallery, Schoenstadt’s installation consists of sculptures, wall drawings, stitched canvases, and collages inspired by the original and the subsequently misinterpreted architecture and color-block motifs of Gray’s interior. Integral to the exhibition is an assemblage of ephemera—images and texts regarding the history of E-1027—and a series of public programming. An illustrated catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition, representing the first monograph of Schoenstadt’s work.
ArtCenter Exhibitions announces the exhibition, Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea, on view September 23 through February 27, 2022 at the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery at ArtCenter College of Design. Featuring sculptures, paintings, drawings, and ephemera, the exhibition features new works inspired by Schoenstadt’s research of E-1027, an iconic house by 20th century architect, designer and artist Eileen Gray. This site-specific installation reveals the most recent developments in Schoenstadt’s prolonged investigations of architecture, time and the shifting landscape.
In 1926 Eileen Gray began building a personal residence in Roquebrun-Cap-Martin, France to share with her lover, the architect and writer Jean Badovici. The house, given the enigmatic name E-1027—E standing for Eileen, 10 for J (Jean), 2 for B (Badovici), and 7 for G (Gray)—is now recognized as a modern masterpiece. Yet it has also, in recent years, become a symbol of injustice towards the late designer, and indicative of gender bias and discrimination towards women in professional roles. Badovici notoriously took credit as co-architect. Even more outrageously, frequent guest Le Corbusier painted over Gray's origianl designs with murals of his own (c. 1938-39). Architectural historian Beatriz Colomina compared Le Corbusier's infamous act to “...a dog peeing on street corners; he wants to make his mark by erasing hers [Gray's], by filling a white living room with colorful designs and putting his signature in a space that does not belong to him.” This gesture has been referred to as an act of vandalism and desecration, and in direct defiance of Gray’s express wish that E-1027 remain free of any decoration other than her integrated choices.
Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea was envisaged by Schoenstadt as less an intervention onto Gray’s masterpiece than a synthesis of memory and a rumination of error through acts of restoration and reinterpretation. “I never lived in Gray’s head, nor can I ever understand how she would respond to the house,” says Schoenstadt. “She is a phantom and created a house that was haunted by ghosts in all genres of history, from famous architects to Nazis and soldiers during WWII, to purposeful neglect. These figures all live in the house in some way.” With this in mind, Schoenstadt’s intent is not to reproduce Gray’s work but to consider such “ghosts”—the figures that have inhabited the house—while offering an artistic interpretation that honors a visionary yet overlooked figure of 20th-century modernist architecture and design.
To provide context within Schoenstadt’s larger body of work, included in the exhibition are works selected from her Postcard series—travel postcards and postcard images incorporating the artist’s drawings of hybrid architectural forms. Informed by actual and imagined structures, these works provide alternate views of familiar buildings, landscapes and cityscapes that envision parallel realities, much like science fiction.
Kim Schoenstadt is known for large-scale wall drawings that weave architecture and sculptural shapes together to make a memory map. She is also known for projects such as Now Be Here which in 2016 gathered nearly 1,000 women-identifying and non-binary artists for a photograph. The photograph visually revealed to the world artists that are not always included in exhibitions and collections. In 2020, Now Be Here transitioned into a fiscally sponsored arts organization that hosts a visual directory of national and International women-identifying and non-binary artists work and develops opportunities to promote their work to wider audiences. Born in Chicago with a BA from Pitzer College, CA, Schoenstadt currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Selected exhibitions include: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL; Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Prague Biennale, Prague; Poland Biennale, Lodz, PL; The Getty Center, Los Angeles; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea was organized in support of the national Feminist Art Coalition (FAC). Initiated by Apsara diQuinzio at Berkeley Art Museum, FAC is a multi-institutional coalition presenting programs focused on themes of feminism.
The exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance.
PROGRAMMING
September 23 (Thursday)
Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea exhibition opens at Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery
September 26 (Sunday, 3 p.m. PDT)
The Price of Desire viewing party following a recorded walk through of the exhibition. Produced in 2015 by Giant Pictures, this Belgian-Irish biopic starring Alanis Morissette serves as an introduction to Gray, E-1027, and the exhibition. A virtual viewing party, order up French cuisine from your favorite restaurant and join us in celebrating the life of this iconic and talented designer. Reserve a spot on Eventbrite.
October 21 (Thursday, 4 p.m. PDT)
Building Artist Archives. What does it take to build an archive? Our panelists present on the process and impact of building legacy and history. The discussion will focus on the benefits and challenges of archiving for one’s self and others.
Panel includes: Liza Kirwin, interim director, Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art; Arianne Edmonds, archivist and founder of the J.L. Edmonds Project; Suzanne Im, Digitization & Special Collection librarian, Los Angeles Public Library.
November 18 (Thursday, 4 p.m. PDT)
Legal Legacy: The Artist’s Contract – A conversation about artists’ contracts and the different interpretations that have come from one idea. Moderator Sarah Odenkirk discusses with panelists who worked on updating the seminal Artists’ Contract created by Seth Siegelaub in 1971.
Moderator: Sarah Odenkirk, partner in CDAS’ Entertainment group with a core practice in fine art and intellectual property. Panelists: Virginia Broersma, artist and founder of the Artist’s Office; Susan Schwartz, artist, lawyer and arts advocate; Laurence Einstein, Arts Lawyer.
Location:
Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery
ArtCenter College of Design
1111 S Arroyo Parkway
Pasadena, CA 91105
Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery Hours:
Admission to the Mullin Gallery will be available by advanced request, please contact exhibitions@artcenter.edu for further information.
Wednesday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed Saturday through Tuesday and holidays
Admission to the gallery is free and free parking is available at 1111 S Arroyo Parkway Pasadena, CA 91105.
About the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery: Located in the South Campus lobby of ArtCenter’s 1111 building, the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery serves as a welcoming point for students, faculty, staff and the public. Extending the reach of the College’s multifaceted Exhibitions department, this modestly-scaled space is optimized for high impact presentations of solo exhibitions and small group projects. Situated at a major gateway between Pasadena and North East Los Angeles, the space was designed to accommodate media in a wide variety, from intimately scaled works of art to automobiles, reflecting and intersecting with the multiple disciplines of ArtCenter’s curricula. The adjacent exterior courtyard provides opportunities for social and educational programs.
About ArtCenter Exhibitions: ArtCenter Exhibitions includes the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at the Hillside Campus in Pasadena above the Rose Bowl, the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography Gallery and the Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall at the South Campus a mile from Old Pasadena, and ArtCenter DTLA Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. These curated spaces embody ArtCenter's institutional will to understand artistic thinking and design strategies as levers in promoting social advancement, the pursuit of humanitarian innovation and use of critical inquiry to clarify objectives and truths. Using the lens of contemporary art and design, the mission of ArtCenter Exhibitions is to ignite emotional resonance, provoke intellectual dissonance and conjure unexpected pathways of thinking.
About ArtCenter: Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the general public through a highly regarded series of year-round extension programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
Contact:
Teri Bond, Director of Media Relations
ArtCenter College of Design
teri.bond@artcenter.edu
626 396-2385
