Output details

Leon Golub Retrospective exhibition

The exhibition, which was three years in planning, encompassed all aspects of Leon Golub’s practice of ‘history painting’, from the early 1950s to the late works – small drawings and paintings completed between 2000 and 2004. Over 100 paintings and drawings were exhibited, drawn from public and private collections in America, Britain and Europe, located in the 19th century Velazquez Palace in the Ritero Park, where the Reina Sofia Museum stages temporary exhibitions. The selection of works and design of the exhibition (a collaboration between myself and the architect, Marcos Coralles) l emphasised the major themes of Golub’s practice over a fifty year+ period, from early classically influenced works, through the Vietnam paintings, the works of the 1980s to the introduction of dogs, lions and text in the paintings of the 1990s, Golub’s ‘late style’. During the final four years of his life (the artist died in 2004), he was mostly occupied with small paintings (exhibited at Documenta XI) and drawings on vellum and board, works which drew upon the dominant themes of his work: sexuality, masculinity, mythology, the technological body, and mortality. A documentation room displayed selected images, catalogues and other material relevant to the exhibition and l also screened films and videos on the artist. Wall texts and a 5-page exhibition guide were also written by me. The exhibition, accompanied by an educational programme of talks and screenings, opened May 2011 and ran for four months. A total of 113,000+ visitors to the exhibition were recorded and there was extensive press and media coverage. The exhibition, a public talk and documentary film were put on the Reina Sofia website.

The output is presented via portfolio, which should be viewed in order to gain a proper understanding of the research.