CLEVELAND.- The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) presents a collection of limited-edition sculptural objects commonly called multiples, in the new Project 244 exhibition, Needful Things: Recent Multiples. This exhibition will be on view through Jan. 2, 2005, offering a survey of 46 editions of 3-D work created and produced since 1994 by 44 international artists. Admission to this exhibition and the Museum is free to all.
The multiple, mechanically mass-produced objects of sometimes-infinite number, intended for popular consumption, has played a defining role in the history of contemporary art. In the 1960s, Fluxus artists embraced the multiple as a “utopian device” they believed might democratize art consumption and transform artistic enterprise. Pop and minimalist artists in the 1970s appreciated the commercial quality of multiples. In the 1980s, as art became increasingly critical of the commodity culture, the multiple’s popularity waned. The 1990s marked a return to activism in art and the increasing stratification of the market, creating a renewed interest in multiples. Currently, younger and emerging artists find the multiple to be an effective way to market their ideas, as collectors and institutions find them an attractive and effective palliative to their cravings for larger, more expensive, original works of art.
Influential German artist Joseph Beuys once claimed that “the idea of multiples is the distribution of ideas,” notes Curator of Contemporary Art Jeffrey D. Grove. “In the so-called marketplace of ideas, multiples allow artists to experiment with issues and ideas that may be distributed more directly, more potently and more economically, than traditional, unique artworks,” claims Grove. Cathleen Chaffee, CMA curatorial assistant of contemporary art and co-curator of this exhibition states, “perhaps because of their accessibility, multiples tap into some of the intellectually acknowledged, if psychologically suppressed, pleasures surrounding one’s relationship to art: the desire to possess, ‘fetishize’ and own it.”
Needful Things: Recent Multiples explores and revels in those needs. It also exposes and encourages such behavior by making available information on how visitors may obtain these multiples for themselves. Needful Things includes rarified multiples that consist of few examples and are relatively expensive to produce and purchase—such as Elizabeth Diller (American, b. 1954) and Richard Scofidio’s (American, b. 1935) sophisticated cocktail glasses, Vice and Virture (edition of 8) (1997)—as well as easily reproduced examples published in unlimited numbers, such as Allan McCollum’s (American, b. 1944) More Visible Markers in 12 Exciting Colors (2000). McCollum’s work exemplifies other pleasurable aspects of the multiple: candy-colored and affordable, they are eye-catching and entertaining.
The renowned artists in this exhibition also include 2004 Whitney Biennial artist Sue De Beer (American, b. 1973), whose Untitled (Pink Guitar) (2003) is from an edition of 10 and E.V. Day (American, b. 1967) Mummified Barbie (2002), whose unique multiple of three Barbie dolls enveloped in wax and twine show how ordinary objects become sensational.
Other highlights include never-before-seen new editions by Isaac Julien (English, b. 1960), represented by eight 14-Karat gold knuckle rings that spell L-O-V-E for one hand and H-A-T-E for another, Tony Matelli’s (American, B. 1955) cast bronze and hand painted cigarette butts and Iran do Espírito Santo (Brazilian, b. 1963) elegant sculptures of a keyhole in black granite and stainless steel. A variety of events have been scheduled to coincide with the exhibition.
