This guide follows the thematic structure of the museum exhibition. Each tab in the guide corresponds with a theme and provides additional information about some of the artists and cultures included in the exhibition. Please note, not all artists or culture groups are included. If you need help finding additional information, please contact the Ricker Library.
Works of art are not singular or isolated things. Rather, we understand them in relation to the contexts in which they were produced and the investments they solicit from us—the feelings they engender, the values they accrue, and the communities they make. When considering a museum collection in terms of such attachments, the museum becomes an entangled actor, and the bonds between the institution and the objects in its care come into view as much as artists’ connections to their subjects and the forces of encounter between artwork and viewer.
Attachment is a thematic collaboration among KAM curators and draws from most areas of the museum’s permanent collection along with a selective number of loans. Organized under five themes—appendages, supports, shadow bodies, accumulations, and refusals—the exhibition examines critical scenes of attachment to encompass material, affective, bodily, psychoanalytic, cultural, political, and institutional frames of reference.
Exhibiting artists include: Berenice Abbott, Conrad Bakker, Hans Bellmer, Louise Bourgeois, Michael Ray Charles, Carl Chiarenza, Willie Cole, Isabelle Cornaro, Walker Evans, Vernon Fisher, Frank Gallo, Jess, Vera Klement, Annette Lemieux, Danny Lyon, Bea Nettles, Melissa Pokorny, Fritz Scholder, Laurie Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Hedda Sterne, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, and Purvis Young; along with selections from the museum’s African, Asian, ancient Peruvian, and decorative arts collections, including Marcel Proust’s 18th-century settee.
Attachments was curated by Amy L. Powell, Allyson Purpura, Kathryn Koca Polite with assistance from doctoral student in Art History Dana Ostrander.
The exhibition was sponsored in part by Fred and Donna Giertz.
Image courtesy of Krannert Art Museum
Image courtesy of Krannert Art Museum
Image courtesy of Krannert Art Museum
Materials accessed in this guide are provided for personal and/or scholarly use. Users are responsible for obtaining any copyright permissions that may be required for their own further uses of that material. For more information about fair use please refer to the College Art Association Code of Best Practices in Fair Use in the Visual Arts.
