ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY.- The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College inaugurates the new 17,000 square-foot Hessel Museum of Art with Wrestle, an exhibition of over 150 representative works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection. Curated by Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) executive director Tom Eccles and independent curator Trevor Smith, Wrestle will open November 12 and remain on view until May 27, 2007.

This compelling overview of the Hessel Collection focuses on works that challenge notions of self and others, offering connections in form and content among works from diverse artistic and social positions. “We have tried to be sensitive to the context and intentions of the artists,” Tom Eccles states, “but we have also tried to craft an exhibition that is contentious, provocative, and faithful to the character of the collection as a whole and the collector’s bold and passionate choices over the past 40 years.”

The exhibition was created, Eccles states, “by the curators’ allowing for the contradictory forces that emerged in the selection of works to inform unexpected juxtapositions that in some cases bridge decades of artistic evolution. The act of struggling became a virtue of the exhibition process, two curators continuously responding to the other’s moves on the game board of the Museum.” Co-curator Trevor Smith adds, “It seemed appropriate to remember that this collection has operated as a flexible critical resource for the Center for Curatorial Studies. Over the years, students, visiting curators and scholars have tested out new cultural and art historical perspectives, evolving their sense of what curatorial practice might become. The selection of works and the juxtapositions we present are not purely art historical matters but a reflection on patterns, serendipitous connections and obsessions that we have discovered as we have explored the collection.”

An innovative two-volume catalogue, also titled Wrestle, continues the curatorial play of suggestive juxtapositions. All works in the exhibition are illustrated along with three specially commissioned artist projects. In addition to essays by Eccles, Smith and CCS faculty member Ivo Mesquita, independent critic Michael Brenson interviews Ms. Hessel and Tom Eccles. Designed by Goto Design, New York, the Wrestle catalogue will be launched at the grand opening of the Hessel Museum on November 12. A special panel discussion addressing the Wrestle takes place during the grand opening of the Hessel Museum, and includes curators Tom Eccles and Trevor Smith, as well as invited guests Arthur Danto, Johnsonian Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, Columbia University; Vasif Kortun, Director, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul; Ute Meta Bauer, Director and Associate Professor MIT, Visual Arts; and Molly Nesbit, Professor of Art, Vassar College. The November 12 opening will also feature a special performance by British conceptual artist Martin Creed, with the students of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

The opening exhibition and Museum inauguration mark the beginning of a revitalized program of exhibitions, artist commissions, and public programs at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. While much of the Marieluise Hessel Collection has been housed at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College since its founding in 1990, the inauguration of the Hessel Museum marks the first time that selections from this collection will be on permanent public display. Wrestle is the largest presentation of work from the Hessel Collection to date.

In addition to the exhibition in the Hessel Museum, the galleries of the adjacent Center for Curatorial Studies will be used to expand Wrestle to include a number of large-scale installations and significant works from the collection.

The Artists: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Giovanni Anselmo, Janine Antoni, Vanessa Beecroft, Alighiero E Boetti, Daniel Buren, Larry Clark, Martin Creed, Rineke Dijkstra, Valie Export, Luciano Fabro, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torre, Mona Hatoum, Eberhard Havekost, Gary Hill, Roni Horn, Isaac Julien, Imi Knoebel, Yayoi Kusama, Sol Lewitt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Christian Marclay, Malerie Marder, Paul McCarthy, Ana Mendieta, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Bruce Nauman, Cady Noland, Gabriel Orozco, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Giuseppe Penone, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Jason Rhoades, Pipilotti Rist, Doris Salcedo, Thomas Schütte, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth, Do-Ho Suh, Rosemarie Trockel, Karlheinz Weinberger, Lawrence Weiner, Christopher Wool.