Page 23 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

JIMMIE DURHAM: BROWN BEAR,
2017, MUSK OX SKULL, BROWN
BEAR SKULL, WOOD, COTTON,
GLASS, LEATHER, PAINT, PLASTIC
STRING 205 X 75 X 158 CM.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND
KURIMANZUTTO, MEXICO CITY /
NEW YORK PHOTO: NICK ASH

Ralph Rugoff suggested the name of the recipient with the following
comments: «I have nominated Jimmie Durham for the Golden Lion for
Lifetime Achievement of the 58th International Art Exhibition based on
his remarkable accomplishments as an artist over the past six decades,
and in particular for making art that is at once critical, humorous and
profoundly humanistic.

Artist, performer, essayist and poet, Durham had his first solo exhibition
in 1965 (we should probably be giving him two lifetime awards by this
point in time). His generously expansive artistic practice spans many
media, including drawing, collage, photography and video, but he is
best known for his sculptural constructions, often made from natural
materials as well as inexpensive common objects that evoke particular
histories.
These sculptures are often accompanied by texts that drolly but
incisively comment on Eurocentric views and prejudices. Insistently
invoking the limits of Western rationalism and the futility of violence,
his work has also frequently made reference to the oppression and
JIMMIE DURHAM: WOLF, 2017, misunderstanding of different ethnic populations around the world
WOLF SKULL, STEEL, STAINLESS by colonial powers. Durham typically treats this material without
STEEL, GLASS, BLACK WALNUT the slightest trace of ponderous gravitas; instead, he forges razor-
SHELL, PLASTIC, CAR PAINT sharp critiques that are infused with shrewd insight and wit, and that
(CHAMELEON) 167 X 34 X 120 CM. pleasurably demolish reductive ideas of authenticity.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND
KURIMANZUTTO, MEXICO CITY /
NEW YORK. PHOTO: NICK ASH For more than 50 years, Durham has continued to find new, ingenious
and cogent ways to address the political and social forces that have
shaped the world we live in. At the same time his contributions to
the field of art have been outstanding for their formal and conceptual
originality, their agile blending of dissonant parts and alternative
perspectives, and their irrepressible playfulness. His work moves and
delights us in ways that can never be anticipated. In everything he
makes, we are reminded that “sympathy is part of imagination and
imagination is the engine of intelligence”, to borrow one of his own
lines. That deeply sympathetic intelligence radiates from his work like
invisible rays of light, illuminating a way of seeing that touches and
changes everyone lucky enough to cross its path.»

WORLD of ART 23