Art and Architecture: Artifex Press | Tim Hawkinson, David Grosz, Peggy Fogelman, Hannah Barton | Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné

March 10, 2015

Viewing videos on NYPL.org requires Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher.

Get the Flash plugin from adobe.com

Embed

Copy the embed code below to add this video to your site, blog, or profile.

FREE - Auditorium doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Artifex Press and artist Tim Hawkinson are pleased to announce the publication of Tim Hawkinson's digital catalogue raisonné. To mark the public launch of this catalogue, The New York Public Library hosts a discussion between Hawkinson; David Grosz, President of Artifex Press; Peggy Fogelman, Acting Director of the Morgan Library & Museum; and Hannah Barton, Editor of the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné. A demonstration of the catalogue explores the breadth of Hawkinson’s career, the collaborative formation of the catalogue, and provides a digital tour of its dynamic features. The Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné is the latest example of Artifex Press’s “living catalogues raisonnés,” the publisher’s new take on this essential, authoritative artist catalogue, which documents in real time the most up-to-date incarnation of an artist’s complete body of work. 

A grid view of the “Found Objects” chapter of the Tim Hawkinson catalogue, sorted from newest to oldest
A grid view of the “Found Objects” chapter of
the Tim Hawkinson catalogue,
sorted from newest to oldest

The Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné documents all works of art the artist has created since his professional career began in 1986, with several meaningful student works from the years leading up to 1986 included. In addition to providing complete information on all artworks, the catalogue contains extensive exhibition and publication records, multimedia features, and original content written by the artist. The catalogue showcases Hawkinson’s unique ability to turn his surroundings into playful, idiosyncratic, and interactive works of art. All made by his own hand—the artist does not use studio assistants and works on his own out of a large space built behind his home in California—these artworks range greatly in size and scope. Utilizing many materials found around his house or neighborhood, Hawkinson has constructed works in an astounding array of media—from a tiny bird skeleton out of fingernails to a singing machine made of plastic water bottles.

A grid view of all of the images for Animal Treasures (2013)
A grid view of all of the images
for Animal Treasures (2013)

Tim Hawkinson’s idiosyncratic creations are meditations on nature, machines, mortality, the body, and human consciousness. Since the 1980s, the artist has used common found and store-bought materials, handcrafted objects, and machines to shift familiar subject matter off-kilter, creating visual conundrums and conceits imbued with deeper meaning. His inventive works range in size from monumental kinetic and sound-producing sculptures to almost microscopic pieces created from such unassuming materials as fingernail clippings and eggshells. Driven by ideas, materials, and an interest in transformation, Hawkinson continues to create unlikely and thought-provoking associations by transforming common materials into works of art. He has been included in over 150 group exhibitions and has held 30 major solo exhibitions, with a mid-career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2005.

Überorgan (2000), installation view, Sculpture Garden at 590 Madison Avenue, New York, March 26-June 1, 2005. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery
Überorgan (2000), installation view, Sculpture Garden at 590 Madison Avenue, New York,
March 26-June 1, 2005. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery

Hannah Barton is a Research Associate at Artifex Press and Editor of the Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné. She has been actively researching Hawkinson’s work and collaborating with the artist on the creation and upkeep of his catalogue since 2013. Additionally, she contributes ongoing research to the Chuck Close, Jim Dine, and Agnes Martin catalogues raisonnés. Barton earned an MS in Art History and an MS in Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute, specializing in Art Librarianship as well as Modern and Contemporary Art. She has previously held positions in the libraries of the Frick Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Peggy Fogelman is Acting Director of the Morgan Library & Museum.  Simultaneously, she serves as the Morgan’s Director of Collections, guiding the work of the curatorial departments, exhibition program, conservation, and collections management. She has some twenty years of curatorial and senior management experience at museums across the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Brown universities, she is a specialist in European sculpture and has published widely on art and its public impact. Notable among the exhibitions that she has organized are Adriaen de Vries, Imperial Sculptor; Foundry to Finish: Bronzecasting in the Studio of Adriaen de Vries; Rome on the Grand Tour; Zoopsia: New Works by Tim Hawkinson; and Please Be Seated: A Video Installation by Nicole Cohen, all at the Getty Museum, as well as Robert Graham: Body of Work at the Fischer Gallery, University of Southern California. 

David Grosz is President of Artifex Press, a publisher of digital catalogues raisonnés and a developer of catalogue raisonné software. Grosz was previously Editor in Chief of Artinfo.com, a catalogue editor at the Guggenheim Museum, and Managing/Literary Editor at Grand Street. In 2011, he was a columnist for Sotheby's magazine, writing on art and technology, and from 2005 to 2007, he was an art critic for the New York Sun. His writing has also appeared in Slate, Modern Painters, the New Republic Online, Art News, the New Criterion, and the Forward, among other publications.

The Artifex Press series events are organized in collaboration with Arezoo Moseni.