The Eric and Jean Cass Gift on Display at GoMA

Art collectors Eric and Jean Cass “have been supporters of Niki de Saint Phalle ever since they bought their first work from a gallery in Ostend in 1976,” says the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow (GoMA), and the esteemed collectors’ recent donation of more than 300 important modern and contemporary artworks to the Contemporary Art Society “for allocation to public institutions and to support contemporary art in the UK” included many of Niki’s works. In 2012, the Contemporary Art Society put that gift’s intention into action by inviting seven UK-based museums to research the donation and pitch for “clusters of works that complement or enliven their current collections.”

In that context, the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow received 14 major works by Niki de Saint Phalle, as well as a number of collectable ephemera, drawings and personal letters. Now those works are slated for exhibition at GoMA, beginning on 16 November 2012.

“We are incredibly excited to have been given these unique and wonderful works by Niki de Saint Phalle,” says Ben Harman, Curator of Contemporary Art for Glasgow Museums. “This act of extraordinary generosity by Eric and Jean Cass will create the largest assembly of the artist’s work at any public collection in the UK.” The “unprecedented gift” will be enjoyed “by generations of local, national, and international visitors to Glasgow,” added Harman. Learn more about the exhibition.

A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance

Opening this week at the Tate Modern in London is “A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance”, an innovative group exhibition curated by Catherine Wood. Here’s how the Tate Modern web site describes the show:

“This exhibition will take a new look at the dynamic relationship between performance and painting since 1950. Contrasting key paintings by Jackson Pollock and David Hockney, the exhibition considers two different approaches to the idea of the canvas as an arena in which to act: one gestural, the other one theatrical. The paintings of the Vienna Actionists or the Shooting Pictures of Niki de Saint Phalle will be re-presented within the performance context that they were made, and juxtaposed with works by artists such as Cindy Sherman or Jack Smith that used the face and body as a surface, often using make-up in work dealing with gender role-play. The exhibition proposes a new way of looking at the work of a number of younger artists whose approach to painting is energised by these diverse historical sources, drawing upon action painting, drag and the idea of the stage set.”

“A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance” runs from 14 November 2012 through 1 April 2013. For more information, you can visit the Tate Modern web site or contact the museum directly.