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Marla Price, director of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, is pleased to announce the purchase of the monumental sculpture Conjoined by the New York-based artist Roxy Paine. Conjoined is a 40-foot-tall by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture of two trees whose branches cantilever in space to connect in midair. The sculpture is scheduled to be installed in March 2008 on the grounds opposite the reflecting pool of the Museum's world-renowned building, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Conjoined was recently on view in New York City as part of the exhibition Roxy Paine: Three Works, installed in Madison Square Park in May 2007 through February 27, 2008.

Paine's longtime interest in the juxtaposition of nature and industrialization is evident in his extensive body of work. From his mushroom and plant fields to his artmaking machines and large-scale metal trees, he continues to explore the relationship of the natural to the unnatural. Through work that meshes the organic with the manufactured, Paine questions our position between the man-made world we control and nature's world we cannot.

Following the erection of Richard Serra's Vortex in 2002, Conjoined is the second major work of outdoor sculpture to be placed on the Museum's eleven-acre site. According to the Museum's chief curator, Michael Auping, "It has always been our plan to place an important work on the northeast corner of the pond across from the gallery pavilions. It took some time to find the right work, one that fits into the architect's idea of natural theater, or 'an arbor for art,' as he called it, but that also stands out as a piece of sculpture, a man-made invention. The surreal coming-together of these two stainless-steel trees seemed to us to be a perfect combination of nature and culture."

Roxy Paine was born in 1966 in New York and studied at both the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico and the Pratt Institute in New York. Since 1990, his work has been internationally exhibited and is included in major collections such as the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, The Netherlands; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Wanas Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in Brooklyn and Treadwell, New York.

For more information, contact Kendal Smith Lake, Manager of Communications, at (817) 738-9215 x167, or FAX (817) 735-1161, or email her at: kendal@themodern.org or go to: www.themodern.org

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love

Walker's Signature Cut-Paper Silhouettes Depict Historical Narratives Set in the Antebellum South

Darkytown Rebellion - 2001
projection, cut paper, and adhesive on wall
14 x 37 ft. (4.3 x 11.3 m) overall
Collection Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
Credit: Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love will be on view to the public at the ModernArt Museum of Fort Worth from July 5 through October 19, 2008. Special exhibitions are included in general museum admission: $10 for adults; $4 for seniors (60+) and students with identification; free for children 12 and under; free for Modern members.

The first full-scale American museum survey of the work of Kara Walker opens at the Modern on July 6, 2008. The exhibition is organized by Philippe Vergne, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, and Yasmil Raymond, Assistant Curator, at the WalkerArtCenter, Minneapolis, in close collaboration with the artist. My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love features works ranging from Walker's signature black cut-paper silhouettes to film animations to more than one hundred works on paper.

Walker is among the most complex and prolific American artists of her generation. Over the past decade, she has gained national and international recognition for her room-size tableaux depicting historical narratives haunted by sexuality, violence, and subjugation through the genteel eighteenth-century art of cut-paper silhouettes. Set in the American South before the Civil War, Walker's compositions play off stereotypes to portray, often grotesquely, life on the plantation, where masters, mistresses, slaves, women, and children enact a subverted version of the past.

Over the years the artist has used drawing, painting, light projections, writing, shadow puppetry, and, most recently, film animation to narrate her tales of romance and oppression, power and liberation. These scenarios thwart conventional readings of a cohesive national history and expose the collective and ongoing psychological injury caused by the tragic legacy of slavery. Her work leads viewers through an aesthetic experience that evokes a critical and emotional understanding of the past and proposes an examination of contemporary racial and gender stereotypes.

Walker's visual epics systematically and critically walk a line-the "color line," to quote W. E. B. DuBois-that moves us from the antebellum South to an analysis of many of the prevailing economic, social, and individual power structures still in place today. Deploying an acidic sense of humor, she examines the dialectic of pleasure and danger, guilt and fulfillment, desire and fear, race and class. "The black subject in the present tense is the container for specific pathologies from the past," says the artist, "and it is continuously growing and feeding off those maladies."

Organized as a narrative, the exhibition articulates the parallel shifts in Walker's visual language and subject matter-from a critical analysis of the history of slavery as a microcosm of American history through the structure of romantic literature and Hollywood film to a revised history of Western modernism and its relationship to the notion of "primitivism."

About the Artist
Born in 1969 in Stockton, California, Kara Walker received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991 and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. Since that time, she has created more than thirty room-size installations and hundreds of drawings and watercolors, and has been the subject of more than forty solo exhibitions. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award (1997) and, most recently, the Deutsche Bank Prize (2004) and the Larry Aldrich Award (2005). She was the United States representative for the 25th International São Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2002). She currently lives in New York, where she is associate professor of visual arts at Columbia University, New York.

Catalogue
The WalkerArtCenter has published a 432-page illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition. The book contains critical essays by scholars and cultural critics on the myriad social, racial, and gender issues present in Walker's work, including texts by exhibition curator Philippe Vergne; cultural and literary historian Sander L. Gilman; art historian and critic Thomas McEvilley; art historian Robert Storr; and poet and novelist Kevin Young. The publication features more than 250 full-color images of the artist's work, a complete exhibition history and bibliography, a 36-page insert contributed by the artist, and an illustrated lexicon of recurring motifs in the artist's most influential installations by Yasmil Raymond. The catalogue will be available in The Modern Shop.

For more information, contact Kendal Smith Lake, Manager of Communications, at (817) 738-9215 x167, or FAX (817) 735-1161, or email her at: kendal@themodern.org or go to: www.themodern.org

Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Presents Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer September 14, 2008-January 4, 2009

Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer is organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Curator Andrea Karnes. The exhibition will be on view to the public from September 14, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Special exhibitions are included in general museum admission: $10 for adults; $4 for seniors (60+) and students with identification; free for children 12 and under; free for Modern members.

The Swiss/American artist duo Teresa Hubbard (born 1965 in Dublin, Ireland) and Alexander Birchler (born 1962 in Baden, Switzerland) live and work in Austin, Texas. In a career of more than fifteen years, they have become known for their picturesque, color-saturated photographic series and their deliberately slow-paced video installations, which feature slow pan shots, endless loops, and puzzling plot lines. Starting with their early staged photographs, No Room to Answer presents key works from 1991 to 2008. Their most recent video, Grand Paris Texas, 2008, which debuts with this exhibition, was commissioned by the Modern Art Museum and will become part of the Museum's permanent collection.

Although Hubbard and Birchler are best known for their photographic series and video installations, their projects over the years have taken shape in several different formats, including black-and-white photography, sculpture, performance-based work, and mixed-media installations. "No matter what physical form a given piece takes," the artists explain, "the constant within our work has been a strong presence of the performative, the sculptural, and the cinematic." Being a team in which each artist brings different material attractions and concepts to the table undoubtedly reinforced their use of multiple mediums in a single work, or in a series. The ultimate result is a body of imagery that encompasses numerous shifting identities.

In several of their earliest collaborations, including Contestants in a Birdhouse Competition, 1991/96, the natural history museum, with its contrived presentation of objects to portray historic events, served as an intriguing means for the artists to explore how stories are conveyed and how meaning is derived. They began to use these institutions' visual language in their own works, which included Plexiglas vitrines, display cases, objects and images in frames, dioramas, and old photographs. "We had a fascination with the theatricality of objects," Hubbard and Birchler recall, "so we used the natural history museum to explore basic questions, such as, How are objects orchestrated? What happens when a moment is taxidermied, and what does that say about the nature of time and existence?"

The idea of what is framed in a particular shot is another essential aspect of Hubbard and Birchler's imagery, literally and metaphorically. It follows, then, that the camera lens has become one of their most fundamental framing devices. "One of the things that instigated working across different mediums for us was that we were trying to find different ways of using a frame . . . looking at frames on strips of film and examining how emotionally, conceptually, structurally, and physically we could work with that arena." The frame in Hubbard and Birchler's work deeply implicates the advancement of a camera mechanism, the pathways through which elements of architecture are transgressed, the possibilities of the finite and the infinite, the formation of physical and psychic space, and the natural and artificial course of time.

The artists' videos are characterized by looped, dreamlike imagery that only hints at any particular storyline or resolution: In Eight, 2001, a young girl in a party dress watches through a window as the remnants of her birthday party are soaked by the rain. In Single Wide, 2002, a woman drives a truck into the side of a mobile home. In House with Pool, 2004, a woman and a teenager seem to inhabit the same house without ever crossing paths. Many of the characters in Hubbard and Birchler's works are cast in scenes of struggle without resolution-there is something that is not shown or said and that never will be shown or said, but that is always gestured to. This approach to narrative becomes a metaphor for situations of conflict and invented resolutions, not only for the characters on view in their works, but also for the viewer, who essentially comes to an understanding of the story based on his or her own experiences. "One of the most important things for us," they explain, "is that we have always left the authority of reading the work up to the viewer and there's got to be active interpretation that's not just asked for, but is somewhat demanded."

In their most recent work, the idea of the spatial is taken to an extreme, in that an actual structure becomes the protagonist in the narrative. Grand Paris Texas is named after The Grand, located in Paris, Texas. The tiny East Texas town became famous by way of the German filmmaker Wim Wenders' movie, Paris, Texas, 1984, even though none of the scenes for his film were actually shot there. Instead, his film's cold architecture and barren desert landscapes were filmed in and around Houston, the desert area of West Texas, and Los Angeles, reinforcing the film's bleak theme of social isolation in America in a way that the wooded landscape of the real Paris would not. Grand Paris Texas is a study of the physical and social space in that geographical location, which has been described as "the middle of nowhere." The idea of the now-dead theater as the house for movies such as Paris, Texas, is one metaphor for the use of the town. The incongruity of Paris becoming famous for a film that was not made there goes back to Hubbard and Birchler's investigation of how the ordinary becomes extraordinary, which is sometimes through the strangest of circumstances.

Following its presentation in Fort Worth, the exhibition will travel to Germany, where it will be shown at the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.

Catalogue
The accompanying catalogue (softcover, 192 pages, 230 color illustrations) was produced by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in association with the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart and Hatje Cantz. In addition to illustrations of all works in the exhibition, it includes essays by exhibition curator Andrea Karnes; Iris Dressler, director of the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart; and Sara Arrhenius, director of the Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, as well as a comprehensive interview with the artists about Grand Paris Texas. It will be available in The Modern Shop and through The Modern Online at the time of the exhibition.

Support for the presentation of Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer is provided by Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, John and Julie Thornton, The Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Alturas Foundation.

For more information, contact Kendal Smith Lake, Manager of Communications, at (817) 738-9215 x167, or FAX (817) 735-1161, or email her at: kendal@themodern.org or go to: www.themodern.org

CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS

Art Camp And Summer Art Study 2008

Our popular Art Camp at the Modern for ages 5 to 12 and Summer Art Study for ages 13 to 15 are back for Summer 2008, and this year we have added a special needs Art Camp!

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth's unique programs for young artists emphasize learning through direct observation of art and thoughtful art activities inspired by the current exhibition. This introduces students to some of the complex and challenging concepts and practices behind modern and contemporary art. Distinguished area artists are invited to design and lead art activities based on the art in the galleries. Activities encompass everything from artmaking in the traditional sense to interdisciplinary exploration. This year's Art Camp and Summer Art Study focus on works in the summer's special exhibition and in the Modern's permanent collection.

Grouped by age and accompanied by their counselor, art campers spend time in the galleries and on the grounds exploring the art and architecture, which is followed by time in the museum studio, where they work with two artists each session. The instructors provide enriching opportunities to process, apply, and respond to ideas formed in relation to the art they see. The last day of camp ends with a reception and display of the campers' artwork to celebrate their creative accomplishments with families and friends. Modern campers make exciting discoveries concerning art, the world, and themselves through Art Camp at the Modern.

Art Camp for Ages 5 to 8
9 am to noon
A snack is served each day. Class size is limited to 14.
$200; $125 for Modern members
Session 1: June 9-13
Instructors: Titus O'Brien and Tiffany Wolf
Session 2: July 14-18
Instructors: Elaine Pawlowicz and Raychael Stine

New Camp for Special Needs Ages 8 to 10
9 am to noon
June 30-July 3
Instructors: Chris Powell and Terri Thornton
A snack is served each day.
Class size is limited to 10 with parent or caregiver accompaniment.
$200; $125 for Modern members

Art Camp for Ages 9 to 12
10 am-2 pm
A lunchtime drink is provided each day, but campers should bring a sack lunch.
Class size is limited to 14.
$250; $175 for Modern members
Session 1: June 23-27
Instructors: Carol Benson and Janet Chaffee
Session 2: July 28-August 1
Instructors to be announced

Summer Art Study for Ages 13 to 15
10 am-4 pm
Session 1: June 16-20
Instructor: Jennifer Rose
A lunchtime drink is provided each day, but campers should bring a sack lunch.
Class size is limited to 14.
$285; $225 for Modern members

Teen Volunteer Program for Ages 16 and Older
Every summer we have requests from Art Campers who have outgrown the children's program and want to return as a volunteer. It's a great way for teens to continue their art education, see all the behind-the-scenes preparation that goes into Art Camp, and stay connected to the museum and exhibitions. Volunteers work with artists, education staff, children, and peers who have a serious interest in art. An application process, interview, and mandatory meeting are required of all volunteers. They can devote their time to the entire summer season or a two-week session. Visit www.themodern.org to download an application. Deadline for application is May 1, 2008.

Registration Information
Pre-registration for Modern members is Saturday, March 8, from 10 am to noon in the docent area at the staff entrance. General registration and online registration begins Sunday, March 9, during museum operating hours. Registration forms are available at the museum's admission desk and at www.themodern.org . Call 817.840.2121 or visit the Web site for more information. Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Scholarships
Scholarships are granted based on a child's need and interest. A teacher recommendation is required. For more information concerning scholarships or to obtain an application, please contact Christine at 817.840.2121 or send a message to christine@themodern.org.

For more information, contact Kendal Smith Lake, Manager of Communications, at (817) 738-9215 x167, or FAX (817) 735-1161, or email her at: kendal@themodern.org or go to: www.themodern.org

Wonderful Wednesdays

This new free gallery program is for families and children of all ages. It is designed as an informal introduction to the Modern's permanent collection and special exhibitions. Offered once a month, this program consists of a focused tour that is accompanied by a drawing project created by the Museum's education staff. This spring, each of the Wonderful Wednesdays will focus on the special exhibition Martin Puryear.

February 13 - Permanent Collection
March 12 - Martin Puryear
April 9 - Martin Puryear
May 14 - Martin Puryear

4-4:45 pm
Please sign in at the admission desk. This free class is offered on a first-come, first-served basis and is limited to 20 participants.

For more information, contact Kendal Smith Lake, Manager of Communications, at (817) 738-9215 x167, or FAX (817) 735-1161, or email her at: kendal@themodern.org or go to: www.themodern.org

Magnolia at the Modern Film Schedule

The Magnolia at the Modern is an ongoing series featuring critically acclaimed films. Regular show times are Friday at 6 & 8 pm, Saturday at 5 pm, and Sunday at 2 & 4 pm (exceptions are noted). Tickets are $8.50; $6.50 for Modern members. Advance sales begin two hours prior to each show.

Bab' Aziz
May 16-18
"An Arabian dream that weaves timeless story threads with mystical and Sufi elements into a beautiful film object." Deborah Young, Variety. A blind dervish and his spirited daughter wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes. Filled with breathtaking images and wonderful music this fairytale-like story of longing and belonging was filmed in the ever-shifting sandscapes of Tunisia and Iran.
98 minutes; Arabic and Persian with English subtitles

Flawless
May 23-25
"Flawless is a fictional tale, but something in director Michael Radford's conscientious, methodical presentation gives it the feeling of true history." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle. This crime/drama set is in 1960 London, where a soon to retire janitor (Michael Caine) convinces a glass-ceiling constrained American executive (Demi Moore) to help him steal a handful of diamonds from their employer, the London Diamond Corporation.
108 minutes; PG-13 for brief strong language.

Priceless
May 30-June 1
"Tautou is a delight, as always, using her bubbly personality to comic advantage. And Elmaleh makes for a sort of poor man's Buster Keaton, perpetually stressed but refusing to surrender, no matter how much damage he sustains to himself or his wallet." Desson Thomson, Washington Post. Through a set of wacky circumstances, a young gold digger (Audrey Tautou) mistakenly woos a mild-mannered bartender thinking he's a wealthy suitor.
104 minutes; PG-13 for sexual content including nudity; French with English subtitles

Standard Operating Procedures
June 6-8
Friday 6 & 8:15 pm; Saturday 5 pm; Sunday 2 & 4:15 pm
Critically acclaimed documentarian, Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
118 minutes; R for disturbing images and content involving torture and graphic nudity, and for language

Then She Found Me
June 13-15
"A smart, subtle and seriously funny dramedy bound to find favor with sophisticated audiencess..." Joe Leydon, Variety. Academy Award winning actress Helen Hunt directs and stars in this story of a New York schoolteacher who begins a courtship with the father (Colin Firth) of one of her students.
100 minutes; R for language and some sexual content

The Children of Huang Shi
June 20-22
A young British journalist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
114 minutes; R for some disturbing and violent content.

For more information, contact Kendal Smith Lake, Manager of Public Relations, at (817) 840-2167, or FAX (817) 735-1161, or email her at: kendal@themodern.org or go to: www.themodern.org

Modern Art Museum Information

Admission Prices
$4: Students with ID and Seniors (60+)
*$10: General (13 to Adult)
Free: Children under 13
Free: Modern Members
*Changes effective June 24, 2007

Admission includes
Permanent Collection exhibitions
All special and traveling exhibitions
Scheduled tours and gallery programs

Museum Gallery Hours
Closed Monday
Tuesday 10 am-5 pm (10 am-7 pm September-November and February-April)
Wednesday 10 am-5 pm
Thursday 10 am-5 pm
Friday 10 am-5 pm
Saturday 10 am-5 pm
Sunday 11 am-5 pm

Café Modern Hours
Tues–Sun 11 am–2:30 pm, 2–4:30 pm for coffee, snacks, and dessert;
Reservations 817.840.2157; Menus are available online at
www.themodern.org/cafemodern.html

Closed Mondays and holidays including New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

Hours may vary throughout the inaugural year to accommodate demand. Please call ahead to check for up-to-date scheduling.

The Modern focuses on post–World War II international art in all media. Additionally, the Museum offers a variety of educational programs, including lectures, guided tours, adult and children's classes and workshops, summer art camp and occasional family activity days. The Modern also features a state-of-the-art auditorium that showcases films, musical performances, and lectures, and a restaurant, Café Modern, housed in an elliptical dining room.

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Modern Announces Purchase of Sculpture by Roxy Paine

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love

Hubbard/Birchler: No Room to Answer

CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS

Art Camp And Summer Art Study 2008

Wonderful Wednesdays

Magnolia at the Modern Film Schedule

Modern Art Museum Information