NOW/THEN/AGAIN: Contemporary Art in Dallas 1949-1989 Page: 7
85 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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the work of a young California artist, Chris Burden, accomplished with the help of a
group of collaborators. If the Calder wasn't easily classifiable as a sculpture in 1949,
the Burden is even less so today. With its 625 miniature submarines suspended in an
ovoid formation from the ceiling, its list of their names recorded on the wall, and its
"black book" of inventory information about each of the historic subs, Chris
Burden's work of art is an installation rather than an object. It raises fundamental
questions about military power and the ultimate meaning of national security; it re-
examines history by exhibiting in model form the "invisible" naval arsenal of
America; and it does so in a way that is at once accessible and challenging. If ALL
THE SUBMARINES survives the vicissitudes of taste as well as Calder's FLOWER
has, the Dallas Museum of Art will have proven that there is considerable meaning to
what Harold Rosenberg has referred to as "The Tradition of the New."
Between Calder and Burden, the museum has acquired through gift and pur-
James Surls's 1974 sculpture (be- chase more than 1,700 works of art made after World War II. Some of them, like
low) and William T. Wiley's 1976
Painting for Rain (top right) owe as Jackson Pollock's CATHEDRAL of 1947 and Jasper Johns's DEVICE of 1961-62, are
much to native American traditions
as they do to the cultural influence
of New York. by common consensus among the masterpieces of Modern Art. They are known to
connoisseurs, artists, and critics throughout the world and are part of the canon of
International Modernism that has been defined by New York museums and dealers.
Others stand outside this metropolitan esthetic, trying stubbornly to communicate in
other cultural systems. Rufino Tamayo's EL HOMBRE of 1953, James Surls's 1974
sculpture and William T. Wiley's PAINTING FOR RAIN of 1976 owe as much to
native American traditions as they do to New York and raise questions about the
esthetics of Mexico and the Southwest that are more critical in Dallas than in our
nation's cultural capital.
How does an institution gain control over anything so large, important, and
disparate as the contemporary collections at the Dallas Museum of Art? Many of the
paintings and sculptures in the museum are so large that they are difficult to assess
physically, especially in the confines of our storage rooms, and others are either too
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Brettell, Richard R. NOW/THEN/AGAIN: Contemporary Art in Dallas 1949-1989, book, 1989; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth307668/m1/12/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Museum of Art.