Tour Overview
Opening June 14
The Pattern and Decoration Movement (P&D) of the mid 1970s-to-mid 1980s elevated applied arts such as weaving, beading, and quilting. Taking decorative motifs as their primary subject matter, P&D artists across the United States undermined reigning notions of “good taste” and offered a bold alternative to the austerity of Minimalism and Conceptualism.
Although P&D initially garnered positive attention, critics largely failed to appreciate that its visual promiscuity emerged from critiques of heteropatriarchy and Western hegemony. Drawn entirely from the Allen’s collection, this exhibition imagines a dialogue between historical P&D artists and those working today. This juxtaposition offers a precedent for the craft revival in contemporary art, while also tracing an evolution of earlier stances towards feminism, queerness, and global art.
In response to architect Mies van der Rohe’s proclamation “less is more,” Robert Venturi—who designed the 1977 gallery that houses this exhibition—retorted “less is bore.” Underlying Venturi’s humor is a progressive politics of inclusivity and a rebuke of modernism’s fixation with “purity.” This exhibition celebrates art that is cute, camp, kitsch, and joyful, while illuminating the ideological implications of those formal attitudes.
The exhibition includes works by P&D artists such as Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Kim MacConnel, Judy Pfaff, Miriam Schapiro, Lucas Samaras, and Frank Stella; and contemporary artists Tom Burr, Edie Fake, Sanaa Gateja, Sahar Khoury, Ellen Lesperance, Takashi Murakami, Maria Nepomuceno, Zak Ové, Mickalene Thomas, Xiyadie, and others.