The audio tour for John Chamberlain: Choices shares perspectives on select key works from the exhibition.
www.guggenheim.org/chamberlain

Exhibition Website

John Chamberlain's Involvement with Abstract Expressionism

Access a slow-looking exercise related to these photographs.

Transcript
Marilee Talkington: Time is captured and collaged in a gallery installation featuring black-and-white vinyl photograph reproductions that are placed directly on the wall in an asymmetrical grouping. The images show Gego’s large-scale environmental installation titled "Reticulárea," loosely translating to “area of nets” in Spanish. This installation was presented in different iterations in Venezuela, the United States, and Germany between 1969 and 1982.  

For clarity, the images will be described in two rows, moving left to right:  

The top-left image, from a presentation at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, in 1969, shows two slim figures in a bright white gallery. They stand amidst wire sculptures of thin triangular webbing that scale the gallery walls. The repeating equilateral triangles placed next to each other create an effect of different geometric shapes, triangles to diamonds to hexagons, that build upon one another. 

The next image shows a small photo of another interior gallery space at the Museo de Bellas Artes, where some walls are painted dark, and some are light. Triangular wire webbing suspended from the ceiling hangs in the center of the room. Where the walls are dark, the wires appear light. Where the walls are light, the wires appear dark.  

Next, a tightly cropped image shows a detail of a cluster of wire webbing from another iteration of Gego’s "Reticulárea" presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, in 1975. The wires look dark and thickly entangled against a light background. 

Next, a wider shot of the same installation shows the hanging wire sculpture from the "Reticulárea" spilling from the side walls and part of the ceiling onto the gallery floor. Next to the gallery space is a window, showing a glimpse of foliage through the glass and daylight speckling the polished stone floor.  

Next, a small image shows another view of the same interior displaying Gego’s "Reticulárea" and its many webbed wire sculptures.  

The next image shows a close-up of Gego on the left side, seen in profile facing to the right. This image was taken during the installation of the "Reticulárea" at the Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas, in 1977. Two arms of another person reach down from the upper right of the image to pass her tools. Both figures are in a gallery space with triangular wire webbing behind them. 

Next, an image from the same installation shows three people in a room with ladders installing the "Reticulárea."

The next image from the same installation shows Gego on the left side of the image, taking a step toward the camera. She is installing her "Reticulárea" in a room filled with her immersive wire sculptures.  

Next, an image from the same installation shows a heap of 12 school-aged children grouped on the gallery floor under Gego’s "Reticulárea" hanging from the ceiling and side walls like netting. The children cluster, lounge, sprawl, and dance. 

On the bottom row, the first image shows Gego’s "Reticulárea" at the Art Gallery, Center for Inter-American Relations, now called the Americas Society, in New York in 1969. The immersive installation shows various metal-wire netting made up of triangles hanging from the side walls and part of the ceiling in the center of the room, creating a columnlike effect. The ceiling and walls of the room behind are covered in wire netting, with draped fabric also covering the back walls. 

The next image from the same installation shows Gego on a ladder on the left side of the image, installing her "Reticulárea." She looks right as she inspects some hanging wire netting. Behind her is more wire netting along the gallery walls.

Read more on guggenheim.org/audio

Description of Reticulárea installation photographs (1969–82)

As part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Summer of Know series, artist Ad Minoliti and activist Adam Werner discussed social and artistic responsibility, and building community on digital platforms, with moderation by X Zhu-Nowell, Assistant Curator at the Guggenheim Museum.

Photo: Ed Marshall

Archivo de la Memoria Trans
https://archivodelamemoriatrans.tumblr.com/

Queer Ancestors Project
https://www.queerancestorsproject.org/

The Feminist School of Painting
http://fschool.kadist.org/

Cromoactivismo
https://www.facebook.com/Cromoactivismo-1430319627007557/

Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal Seguro y Gratuito
http://www.abortolegal.com.ar/

Summer of Know

Conversation: Ad Minoliti and Adam Werner (2019)

Listen to audio about exhibitions and artworks at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark building is home to a collection of modern and contemporary masterpieces.

Description of Reticulárea installation photographs (1969–82)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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