EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 9, 2019) – The University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art presents the world premiere of “Philip Haas: Sculpture Breathes Life into Painting & Music,” a two-week performance installation that incorporates motorized sculpture, construction, totems, altered found objects, film, fetishized costume, movement, sound, spoken word, and music. On view May 29 – June 9, 2019, the installation will embark on a year-long tour in the U.S. and abroad following its debut.
“The defining physical element of the performance is a life-size sculpture representing the arts of painting, music, and sculpture, which, during part of the presentation, the artist will wear,” says JSMA executive director Jill Hartz. “Haas has an ambitious and powerful vision, and we’re excited to see this new piece develop.”
Each morning, over the course of the two weeks, the event will start with the various elements – sculpture table, easel, musical instruments, and other objects – arranged throughout the gallery. Sound and video will run concurrently. Haas will enter, often at arbitrary times, and fit the pieces to his body, delivering a commentary, while the audience is encouraged to move around the gallery.
In conjunction with his installation and performance, Haas will present selections of his work in Schnitzer Cinema’s May 29th program. Free and open to the public, the film series, which begins at 7 pm, will feature three short films by the artist. In “A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China, or: Surface is Illusion but so is Depth” (1989, 43 minutes), legendary English artist David Hockney, discoursing on a seventeenth-century Chinese scroll painting, explores one of his signature interests: spatial perspective and its fluctuating role within painting and the photographic arts. “The Singing Sculpture” (1992, 20 minutes) documents the revolutionary living sculpture made by Gilbert & George. “The Butcher’s Shop”(2008, 7 minutes) is a meditation on the sixteenth-century Annibale Carracci painting of the same name, the artist's work and life, and on the depiction of meat and human flesh in art from the Italian renaissance to Francis Bacon.
In marrying sculpture, painting, film, and architecture, Philip Haas has created a contemporary visual vocabulary all his own. He describes his process as “sculpting by thinking.” Haas’s groundbreaking artwork has been featured in such museums as the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City), the Dulwich Picture Gallery (London), and the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris). He received early acclaim with his film “Angels and Insects,” which was nominated for the Cannes Film Festival Palm d’Or and an Academy Award.
In the public realm, his “Four Seasons” monumental sculpture has been exhibited in the Piazza del Duomo (Milan) and the Gardens of Versailles (France) and is currently on a U.S. tour. Haas is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other awards. He has taught in the visual arts program at Princeton University.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, Europe, and the Americas as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of seven museums—and the only academic art museum-- in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.
Contact: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942,debbiews@uoregon.edu
Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
