A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions reflects on the ways that artists have responded to the evolving conditions of the twenty-first century. Composed of works from the museum’s collection made since 2000, including several recent acquisitions and works on view for the first time, the exhibition explores the prevailing correlations between the personal, the intimate, and the individual; constructions of identity, history, and culture; the instability of materials; and strategies to rediscover or recover the past.
Underscoring the varied forms and approaches taken by artists including Lutz Bacher, Trisha Donnelly, Mark Manders, Paulina Olowska, and Danh Vo, the exhibition broadly considers the fluidity of ideas and how artworks embody time. The title phrase is taken from art historian George Kubler’s seminal book, The Shape of Time (1962), in which the author proposes a history of “things”—including artworks—that traces connected ideas developed in temporal sequence, sometimes over centuries.
Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda, 2008–2010 (detail); CAM, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; photo: Patrizia Tocci, courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York
Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Büsi (Kitty), 2001 (still); collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Paulina Olowska, A Portrait of the Artist—Indoors, 2012; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Paulina Olowska
Mark Manders, Big Female Head, 2011; collection SFMOMA, purchase, by exchange, through an anonymous gift; © Mark Manders
Ellen Gronemeyer, Exclamation-marc, 2015; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Ellen Gronemeyer
Catherine Opie, Kate (Bike), 2007; promised gift of the Pilara Foundation Collection to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Catherine Opie
Carrie Mae Weems, Hush of Our Silence from In The Year Three: Exit Art Portfolio 2003, 2003; collection SFMOMA, gift of Charles Kremer; © Carrie Mae Weems
Walid Raad, Cotton Under My Feet, 2007; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Walid Raad; photo: Don Ross
Significant support for A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions is provided by SFMOMA Collectors’ Forum.
Header image: Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda, 2008–10 (detail); collection SFMOMA, purchase, by exchange, through a fractional gift of Shirley Ross Davis; © Doris Salcedo