Human Animals: The Art of Cobra

Description

Organized by NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; Guest-curated by UMass Art History Assistant Professor Karen Kurczynski OPENING RECEPTION: September 14, 6 – 8 P.M. CoBrA, an interdisciplinary and trans-national European avant-garde movement named after its home cities — Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam — caused a revolution in modern art in just three years (1948–1951) of creative activity that continues to influence artists working today. Organized by NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale and guest-curated by scholar Karen Kurczynski, the exhibition presents the history of Cobra through paintings, sculpture, prints, and primary documents by artists such as Asger Jorn, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Constant, and Corneille. The impact and legacy of Cobra will be traced through the present day in another simultaneous exhibition, Cobra: Contemporary Legacy, organized by UMCA and curated by Kurczynski, a selection of contemporary work by artists such as Albert Oehlen (German), Jacqueline de Jong (Dutch), Tal R (Danish), Nicole Eisenman (American), and Herbert Gentry (American). The relationship between the works in these two exhibitions will underscore the urgency of the reexamination of the Cobra movement’s groundbreaking experiments and ideas and their influence on the work of contemporary artists.