Preview: Kurt at Seattle Art Museum
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.
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.
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.
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.
Elizabeth Peyton, Zoe’s Kurt, 1995, oil on board.
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.
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.
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.
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.
