Preview: Kurt at Seattle Art Museum
We take you inside the Nirvana rocker exhibit before its May 13 opening.
Posted by: Laura Dannen on May 12, 2010 at 12:30PM
1 Comments
The exhibit opens with “people who bear direct witness to Kurt Cobain,” says Michael Darling, curator of contemporary art at SAM. Alice Wheeler. Kurt Cobain at MTV’s Live and Loud, Pier 63, Seattle WA, Dec. 13, 1993, 1993 printed 2010, color photograph.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Sound clips of Kurt grunting and groaning in concert provide the soundtrack for this room with iconic photos of him crashing into his drum kit. Charles Peterson, Nirvana, Rajis, Los Angeles 2/15/90, 1990 Inkjet print, 66 × 44 in.
View Slideshow » Illustration:In Alice Wheeler’s Tent City, she photographs a boy from the Midwest who moves to Seattle to embrace his grunge dream—bleached-blond hair and guitar included. Alice Wheeler, Tent City, Seattle, WA, April 1999, color photograph, 27 × 40.5 in.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Evan Holloway’s Left-handed Guitarist captures Kurt’s signature stance: slightly hunched over because of back and stomach problems, scraggly blond hair drooping in face, seeming to hide from his own fame. Evan Holloway, Left-Handed Guitarist, 1998, foam, paper, plastic, graphite.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Elizabeth Peyton, Zoe’s Kurt, 1995, oil on board.
View Slideshow » Illustration:In Slater Bradley’s Doppelganger Trilogy—which includes this still image and a video installation—the artist hired someone who resembled both him and Kurt Cobain to pose in a series exploring mimicry and the malleability of identity. Slater Bradley, Silver I Love You So Much It Makes Me Sick, 2008, silver marker on Chromogenic print.
View Slideshow » Illustration:German artist Friedrich Kunath borrows from the melancholy of Kurt’s notebooks and doodles in this wall-size sketch. Fans will recognize the unicorn on the top right as Kurt’s own. Friedrich Kunath, Untitled, 2010, mixed media on canvas.
View Slideshow » Illustration:By placing his sculpture of Kurt Cobain on the ground rather than on a pedestal, local artist Scott Fife gives a sense of the rocker’s ennui, says Darling. Scott Fife, Kurt Cobain, 2006, archival cardboard, glue, screws.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Beyond a black curtain is a series of pieces exploring the early demise of Kurt Cobain, including Jordan Kantor’s Greenhouse, which interprets photographs of a shadowy figure presumably standing over Kurt’s body on the day of his suicide. Jordan Kantor, Greenhouse, 2006, oil on canvas.
In conjunction with the Andy Warhol Media Works exhibit at Seattle Art Museum is another study of the nature of celebrity, with one of our own at its center. Titled simply Kurt, this new exhibit features 80 pieces that explore the life and untimely death of Nirvana rocker Kurt Cobain. Photos by Alice Wheeler and Charles Peterson show Kurt, the personification of grunge, in his heyday, while paintings, sculpture, and video installations dissect his growing disillusionment with commercial success. It’s fitting that as you consider themes of freedom, fear, and desire in this collection, snippets of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” play in the background—“Here we are now, entertain us.” The local boy belonged to everyone.
Kurt is on display at Seattle Art Museum from May 13-September 6, but we got to go inside before the exhibit opened. Take a peek. (Click on the slideshow above.)
Photos by Laura Dannen.
Tags: Visual Art, Seattle Art Museum, Slideshow, Preview, Kurt Cobain, Thru Sept 6
An awesome show, even for those who aren’t or weren’t into Kurt. It is fun, funny, poignant and in the end, sad. Sad for the talent wasted. But everyone should go see it.