Theaster Gates - AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN New York Friday, February 8, 2019 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago

  • Catalogue Essay

    THEASTER GATES
    Born 1973, Chicago, IL
    Lives and works in Chicago, IL

    2006 MS (Urban Planning, Ceramics, Religious Studies) Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
    1998 MA (Fine Arts, Religious Studies), University of Cape Town
    1996 BS (Urban planning, Ceramics), Iowa State University, Iowa

    Selected honors: Nasher Prize (2018), Artes Mundi (2015), Creative Capital Grant (2012)
    Selected museum exhibitions and performances: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Seattle Art Museum; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Documenta 13
    Selected public collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem and many other public and private collections.

    Theaster Gates has expanded the definition of what it means to be an artist. Trained in urban planning, religious studies and fine arts, Gates has developed an expanded practice that works to bridge the gap between art and life. Encompassing sculpture, installation, performance and urban interventions, Gates’s practice aims to function as a catalyst for social engagement to engender political and spatial change. Gates is widely known for forming the Rebuild Foundation in Chicago as a not-for-profit engine to rebuild the cultural foundation of underinvested neighborhoods. Perhaps Gates’s most ambitious urban development project is The Dorchester Project, the transformation of an abandoned building in Chicago’s South Side into a cultural hub. Gates has described this project as “real estate art”, as part of a “circular ecological system” whereby the sale of sculptures and works of art that were created from the materials salvaged from their interior finance the renovation of the buildings.

    Civil Rights Throw Rug 7200.43 belongs to Gates' series of appropriated regulation fire hoses. By incorporating a medium loaded with symbolism and historical propensity (policemen often stymied civil rights protests by blasting activists with high-pressure fire hoses), Gates simultaneously references both the racial tensions of the 1950s while also identifying the ongoing struggle for civil rights.

32

Civil Rights Throw Rug (7200.43)

decommissioned fire hose and trim
38 x 32 in. (96.5 x 81.3 cm.)
Executed in 2012, this work is from an edition of 20 unique variants plus 3 artist’s proofs.

Estimate On Request

AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN

New York Selling Exhibition 10 January - 8 February 2019