Dialogue originates in the Greek word of dialogos, meaning conversation. This brief lesson in etymology is not for nothing, for it gets to the heart of what the Dallas Museum of Art is trying to convey to the visitors of the newly opened exhibition, “Dialogues: Duchamp, Cornell, Johns and Rauschenberg.”
Taking four absolute powerhouse figures of Twentieth century art, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Cornell, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, the exhibition is not groundbreaking for the sheer number (only forty pieces are included) or “blockbuster-ness” (over half are from the museum’s permanent holdings) of the pieces that it brings together, but because of the means and methods in which it connects the artists and their work. It is in this created dialogue that themes, materials and ideas connect together in such a myriad of ways that it borders on being overwhelming!
One cannot help but feel like they are walking into a carefully crafted conversation upon entering into the exhibition space. The gallery is essentially an open room that is loosely divided into four quadrants, one for each artist. Large quotes from each artist dot the walls and cases are carefully constructed. For a group of artists who were concerned with the role of art in life, it only seems fitting that every detail of the environment of the exhibition would be so meticulously attended to.
The room functions as a metaphor for dialogue, as not only do the pieces and cases visually overlap, but the room is filled with the conversations of people walking through. Nothing here is rigidly segregated or isolated and whilst you are viewing Duchamp’s “Green Box,” a Johns’ print, a Cornell box and Rauschenberg print are all visible. Normally, exhibitions that look this slick, border on the “Disneyland-ish” and the preciousness of display are indiscriminately used to gloss over the mediocrity of the material.
Happily, this is far from the case with “Dialogues.” Every aesthetic decision seems to be made to highlight a conceptual point of the exhibition, of which there are many.
While a biographical connection did exist between these four men, the connection that is highlighted is that of visual language, artistic approach and conceptual formulations. Wordplay and text figure heavily into the work of all four artists and as
Organizing and Senior Curator, Dr. Dorothy Kosinski said in her Sunday exhibition walk-through, “This is the moment that text invades the art object.” It is through the text, not only found in the work itself, but from the artists’ writings and words that brings such a layered and rich quality to the exhibition.
Even the label texts are not mere standard institutional summary, but the artists’ own words. Surfaces throughout the exhibition are layered, textured and filled with meaning. Ideas of participation, appropriation and reproduction are all unavoidable when looking at these four artists and are made especially more so when put together.
As Cornell says, “I thought, everything can be used in a lifetime, can’t it? How does one know what a certain object will tell another?” This sentiment takes on further meaning when put into the context of the objects of all four artists.
The questions being asked by all four artists and so prevalent in this show are monumental and important – what is art, what is it to see and what devices make art? Far from being generic and general though, they instead function as a gateway for visitors to create their own conversations – they allow for dialogue to occur. “Dialogues” will be on view until January 8th.
