"A few years ago, the Blanton Museum of Art made a firm commitment toward the acquisition and exhibition of contemporary art," remarked Museum Director Jessie Otto Hite. "This provocative exhibition represents a major step for the Museum into the realm of discourse about contemporary American and European art, and recent painting in particular."

The artists in Negotiating Small Truths share a common philosophical approach to painting that raises fundamental questions about truth and believability. Using widely differing techniques and a mixture of both abstract and representational imagery, they create works that challenge past assumptions about painting, such as the premise that beauty stems from pure or heroic sources, or that large size evokes monumental importance. Diverse, fresh, and unexpected, these works reveal how each artist explores the humble and overlooked details of daily life and individual experience, which in turn evoke larger personal and political issues.

"Negotiating Small Truths was conceived as a means to bring together artists working with various styles, techniques, and content, but who nonetheless share certain philosophical and political attitudes common to this moment in historythe late 1990s, the turn of a new century," stated Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, the Blanton's Curator of American and Contemporary Art and organizer of the exhibition. "The exhibition is a report on the state of the art, as well as the Blanton's first major show of contemporary painting in more than 15 years. It is also an exhibition with a very specific, poetic curatorial and artistic viewpoint, one that attempts to address current theoretical concerns, while celebrating the still plentiful possibilities of contemporary painting."

PUBLICATION

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 144-page catalogue available for $25 ($20 for members) with an essay by Carlozzi, statements by the artists, and excerpts from a dialogue between three distinguished critics who were in residence at the University last spring: visiting professor Thierry de Duve, doctoral student Lane Relyea, and Professor Richard Shiff.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

The following programs are open to the public free of charge:

5:00 PM, Wednesday, September 8
"Interrogating Painting"
Panel Discussion featuring artists Rochelle Feinstein, Fabian Marcaccio, Lisa Yuskavage and Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Curator of American and Contemporary Art
Art Auditorium, Room 1.102, Art Building, 23rd and San Jacinto

12:00 PM, Wednesday, September 22
"How Contemporary Painters Negotiate Small Truths"
Gallery talk by Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Curator of American and Contemporary Art
Blanton Museum of Art, Art Building, 23rd and San Jacinto

12:00 PM, Wednesday, October 6
"An Austin Conversation: Artists Respond to the Exhibition"
Gallery talk with artists from the UT art faculty and Austin community
Blanton Museum of Art, Art Building, 23rd and San Jacinto

5:00 PM, Thursday, October 14
"The Irretrievable Face"
Gallery talk by artist Ellen Gallagher
Blanton Museum of Art, Art Building, 23rd and San Jacinto

VISITOR INFORMATION

Founded in 1963, the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art of the University of Texas at Austin is one of the foremost university art museums in the country, with an encyclopedic collection of more than 13,000 works of art. The Blanton currently presents its collections and exhibitions in two different buildings on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin: selections from the permanent collection are shown in the Blanton's galleries in the Harry Ransom Center, located at 21st and Guadalupe, and temporary exhibitions, including Negotiating Small Truths and Old Master Drawings from the Suida-Manning Collection, and the Print Room are housed in the Art Building at 23rd and San Jacinto.

The Museum is open to the public, free-of-charge, seven days a week. Hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM; Thursday, 9 AM to 9 PM; and Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 PM. The Print Room is open to students, faculty, and Museum members Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 2 to 5 PM, and to the general public by appointment. The Museum is closed during all University staff holidays. For recorded information about current exhibitions, programs, parking, and hours, call 512-471-7324.

For further information or photographic materials, please contact:
Bill Thompson
Public Affairs Officer
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art
The University of Texas at Austin
phone: 512-232-1988
fax: 512-471-7023

 
Marlene Dumas, South African/Dutch, b. 1953
The Secret, 1994
Oil on canvas

 
Mark Francis, Irish, b. 1962
Separation (Touch), 1998
Oil on canvas