Exhibitions
Multiplicity
1st floor West, American Art Museum
November 11, 2011 – March 11, 2012
Explore
- View a slideshow and comment about the exhibition!
- Save-the-date to attend an exhibition-related program
- Tour the galleries on Flickr
- Go behind-the-scenes with the museum's blog , Eye Level
- Read articles about the exhibition
Chuck Close, Self Portrait, 2000, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Multiplicity features 83 works from the museum’s permanent collection by such outstanding contemporary artists as John Baldessari, John Cage, Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, R. Luke DuBois, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Susan Rothenberg, Kiki Smith, and Kara Walker. The concept of making multiple images from the same matrix has been integral to printmaking ever since the earliest prints were pulled from woodblocks and metal plates in the fifteenth century. Each impression is considered to be an original work of art.
Many of the artists in this exhibition have expanded the idea of multiplicity beyond editions of identical impressions by creating series, sequences, and images that comprise numerous parts. They explore repetition, pairing, and variations on a theme as artistic strategies. Implicit in their exploration of multiplicity is a challenge to rarity and uniqueness as determinants of value.
This exhibition brings together a selection of prints by artists for whom the concept of multiplicity in its many forms provides a touchstone for their artistic expression. These prints are the result of collaboration between the artist and professional printers who help realize the artist’s vision. They question the authority of the unique masterpiece and alter the stereotype of the artist working alone in the studio.
Nearly half of the prints included in the exhibition are recent acquisitions. Joann Moser, senior curator, selected the works in the exhibition.
Free Public Programs
November 16, 2011, Washington Printmakers
December 1, 2011, Curator Gallery Talk
January 19, 2012, Take 5! Printmaking Demonstration
January 21, 2012, Multi-Prints Family Day
February 8, 2012, Curator Gallery Talk
February 11, 2012, 21st Century Consort, Multiplicity
February 16, 2012, Take 5! Printmaking Demonstration
March 10, 2012, Identifying and Collecting Fine Prints
The Museum's blog, Eye Level
Seeing Double: On Multiplicity, January 3, 2012
Multiplicity: Five Questions with Joann Moser, November 29, 2011
In the News
WETA, Februrary 2012, Around Town
Smithsonian Magazine, November 21, 2011, Around the Mall, "The Many Angles and Perspectives of 'Multiplicity' at the American Art Museum" by Joseph Stromberg
National Tour
Multiplicity is available for tour after closing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. If you are interested in hosting the exhibition at your museum, please visit our traveling exhibitions page for contact information.
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