Beau Monde
Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism
In selecting Dave Hickey to curate its fourth biennial, SITE SANTA FE made a bold and canny choice because Hickey had vociferously criticized both the concept and execution of biennials as “trade shows for curators in search of internationally certified installations to fill out their exhibition schedules.” While the earlier curators all scoured the globe in search of artists to weave installations around a loose theme, Hickey opted for the pragmatic, the democratic, and the historical in Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism. Instead of trying to make an ideological point, he organized “an exhibition that I want to see,” whose fundamental criterion was simply “Does the space look better and more interesting with or without it?” Hickey selected 27 international artists, including Jo Baer, Ed Ruscha, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Jessica Stockholder, who wove diverse cultural milieux into a “beau monde.”
Exhibited Artists:
Kenneth Anger
Jo Baer
Jeff Burton
James Lee Byars
Pia Fries
Gajin Fugita
Graft Design
Frederick Hammersley
Marine Hugonnier
Jim Isermann
Ellsworth Kelly
Josiah McElheny
Darryl Montana
Sarah Morris
Takashi Murakami
Nic Nicosia
Kermit Oliver
Jorge Pardo
Ken Price
Stephen Prina
Bridget Riley
Ed Ruscha
Alexis Smith
Jesús Rafael Soto
Jennifer Steinkamp
Jessica Stockholder
Jane & Louise Wilson
Curator:
Dave Hickey
Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger was a pioneer of avant-garde film and video art. His iconic short films are characterized by a mystical-symbolic visual language and pha...LEARN MOREJo Baer
Jo Baer was a key figure among the celebrated protagonists of Minimalist painting in New York in the 1960s and first half of the '70s. It was during t...LEARN MOREJeff Burton
Jeff Burton's photography has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Barbican Centre in London, and many other national and internatio...LEARN MOREJames Lee Byars
James Lee Byars was one the most influential conceptual artists of his generation, creating works in performance, installation, sculpture and drawing....LEARN MOREPia Fries
Pia Fries studied at the Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts, Switzerland, and at the Academy of the Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany, where she s...LEARN MOREGajin Fugita
LEARN MOREGraft Design
GRAFT is conceived as a studio for architecture, urban planning, design, music and the pursuit of happiness. Since its establishment 1998 in Los Angel...LEARN MOREFrederick Hammersley
Frederick Hammersley first gained critical recognition in 1959 as one of the "Four Abstract Classicists" along with Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, a...LEARN MOREMarine Hugonnier
For 20 years, Marine Hugonnier’s work has acted as a critical analysis of the way in which the conventions of representation collude with political id...LEARN MOREJim Isermann
Jim Isermann received his Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin...LEARN MOREEllsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly is regarded as one of the most important abstract painters, sculptors and printmakers of his time. Spanning seven decades, his career ...LEARN MOREJosiah McElheny
Josiah McElheny’s sculptures, paintings, installations, performances, and films engage with the history of ideas across wide-ranging fields of study—f...LEARN MOREDarryl Montana
Darryl Montana is the Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas “Hunters” Black “masking” Indian Tribe. In the late 1800’s, the New Orleans indigenous Black Indi...LEARN MORESarah Morris
Sarah Morris was born in 1967 in London and now lives and works in New York. Since the mid-1990s she has reinvigorated painting with her abstracted ge...LEARN MORETakashi Murakami
Drawing from traditional Japanese painting, sci-fi, anime, and the global art market, Takashi Murakami creates paintings, sculptures, and films popula...LEARN MORENic Nicosia
Nic Nicosia was born in 1951 in Dallas, TX. He currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas. In 1974 Nic received a BS in Radio-TV-Film from The Univers...LEARN MOREKermit Oliver
Kermit Oliver’s masterfully executed paintings and drawings have earned him worldwide recognition as one of the finest contemporary American artists o...LEARN MOREJorge Pardo
Jorge PardoLEARN MOREKen Price
Ken Price was a relentlessly inventive artist, continually changing the forms, surfaces, colors, and shapes of his sculptures throughout his five-deca...LEARN MOREStephen Prina
Stephen Prina is an American artist, musician, and composer, born in 1954 in Galesburg, Illinois. He currently splits his time between Los Angeles, Ca...LEARN MOREBridget Riley
Riley’s geometric, entrancing paintings incorporate simple color and bold shapes that create dizzying optical effects. In the 1960s, her work immediat...LEARN MOREEd Ruscha
Ed Ruscha was born on December 16, 1937, in Omaha, Nebraska. His family moved to Oklahoma City in 1941. In 1956, Ruscha moved to Los Angeles, where he...LEARN MOREAlexis Smith
Born in Los Angeles in 1949, Alexis Smith studied painting at the University of California, Irvine. Throughout her career, Smith exhibited extensively...LEARN MOREJesús Rafael Soto
Jesus Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan artist who resided in Paris and was a pioneer of Op and Kinetic Art. He received a scholarship to study at the Acad...LEARN MOREJennifer Steinkamp & Jimmy Johnson
Jennifer Steinkamp manipulates light to "dematerialize architecture." Using a computer to project images onto existing forms, Steinkamp not only trans...LEARN MOREJessica Stockholder
Jessica Stockholder’s sprawling constructions have played a crucial role in expanding the dialogue between sculpture and painting and form and space. ...LEARN MOREJane & Louise Wilson
Jane and Louise Wilson, RA Elect, are identical twin sisters who have been working as an artist duo in collaboration for over two decades. Jane and Lo...LEARN MOREDavid Hickey
Dave Hickey, a MacArthur Foundation "genius," was one of the preeminent arts writers of modern times. In the 1960s, he founded the formative art galle...LEARN MORE