Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now

Tacita Dean's "Crowhurst" (2006) anchors the "Mutability" section of Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, an exhibition at MoMA involving recent acquisitions and highlights. (The other two sections are "Abstraction" and "Provocation," which has, among other things, an unsettling before-and-after set of photographs by William Wegman called Foamy Aftershave). Here, Dean has painted out the background of a photograph of a 4,000-year-old yew tree in England, thereby heightening the solidity of the tree and the transience of the human world that surrounds it. We die; the earth lives on.

What is it about contemporary art that so seduces and so frustrates? The answer lies, in part, in the fact that confronting art produced in one's lifetime can be comforting: ah, we think, we share a frame of reference with the artist, born out of singular time and space. And yet: a ridiculous notion, since these two things are themselves incredibly mutable. Our Sunday night in New York City is not your Sunday night elsewhere, etc., etc. Is it even night where you are?

The time of its creation matters when dealing with an artwork, obviously, but it is but one of many ways in to understanding, interpreting, enjoying, disagreeing, and all the other "ing"s that occur when looking at something. And this exhibition is full of work that begs to be disagreed with, unsettling as it--and that notion--may be.