Conversations

A series of conversations with artists and other members of the art community. These conversations create a unique forum in which an open dialogue will be created. Free with museum admission. Reservations are suggested 845 440 0100 x45

Sunday, February 22,
2009, 12:30pm

Zoe Leonard in conversation with Lynne Cooke

Zoe Leonard was born in 1961 in Liberty, New York, and now lives and works in New York City. She has exhibited internationally since 1990, including recent solo presentations at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2007); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2007); Paula Cooper Gallery, New York City (2003); Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (1999); Centre National de la Photographie, Paris (1998); Kunsthalle Basel (1997); and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1993). In 2007, Leonard was the subject of a 20-year career retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, in Winterthur, Switzerland, which will travel to the Reina Sofía in Madrid in winter 2008.

September 21, 2008	James Benning in conversation with Lynne Cooke Born in 1942 in Milwaukee, veteran filmmaker James Benning began making films in 1970, after first studying mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His work has been shown in a number of international venues, such as the Cannes, Hong Kong, Rotterdam, Sundance, Tribeca, and Vienna film festivals, as well as at various museums including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge; Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley; Tate Modern, London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Among his many awards are two National Endowment for the Arts awards, two Rockefeller Foundation fellowships, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. In 2007, he was the subject of a career retrospective at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna. He is currently working on a new film for the Cultural Grant received by the Ruhr District in Germany. Benning lives and works in Los Angeles, where he has been teaching film and mathematics at CalArts since 1987.
January 12, 2008	Merce Cunningham in conversation with Lynne Cooke Merce Cunningham, born in Centralia, Washington, received his first formal dance and theater training at the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle. From 1939 to 1945, he was a soloist in the company of Martha Graham. He presented his first New York solo concert with John Cage in April 1944. Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) was formed at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1953. The group included Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Paul Taylor, and Remy Charlip. John Cage was music director and David Tudor the company musician; MCDC has commissioned scores from more contemporary composers than any other organization. Visual artists who have contributed designs for works by Cunningham include Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, and Roy Lichtenstein. Cunningham has choreographed over 180 works for his company.

October 27, 2007	An-My Lê in conversation with Lynne Cooke Born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1960, An-My Lê gained a Master of Science from Stanford University, California, in 1985, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale School of Art, New Haven, in 1993. Among her most recent projects is “Small Wars” comprising a book (Aperture Press, 2005) and an exhibition of photographs that is currently touring the United States. Trap Rock is presented at Dia:Beacon with support from Murray Guy Gallery, New York.
September 14, 2007	Sadie Benning in conversation with Lynne Cooke Born in 1973 in Madison, Wisconsin, Sadie Benning started making films at age fifteen with a Fisher-Price Pixelvision camera. An intensely personal exploration of the artist's coming of age, as found in such early works as Jollies (1990), Me and Rubyfruit (1989), and If Every Girl Had a Diary (1990), brought her widespread acclaim. At the age of twenty, Benning was first included in the 1993 Whitney Biennial; she was included again in 2000. She is a former member and cofounder of the music group Le Tigre. More recent video works include The Judy Spots (1995), which aired on MTV, and Flat is Beautiful (1998). In 2004, The Wexner Center for the Arts presented a retrospective of all the artist's videos to date; Play Pause had its debut there. Lately, Benning has expanded her video practice to include painting and drawing.
October 22, 2006	Joan Jonas in conversation with Judith Rodenbeck Judith Rodenbeck holds the Noble Foundation Chair in Art and Cultural History at Sarah Lawrence College, where she teaches modern and contemporary art. Recently named Editor-in-Chief of the Art Journal, she is co-author (with Benjamin Buchloh) of Experiments in the Everyday: Allan Kaprow and Robert Watts--events, objects, documents (2000), and a contributor to catalogues for the exhibitions Work Ethic (2003) and Inside the Visible (1996). She is currently completing a book on happenings and Fluxus in the late 1950s and early 1960s and their relations to avant-garde theater, photography, and musical composition.