Drum and Flag
November 9, 2023 - January 27, 2024
Art Club 2000
Leo Copers
Noah Davis
John Dogg
Nicole Eisenman
Derek Fordjour
Wade Guyton
David Hammons
Chris Johanson
Hans Namuth
Betty Parsons
Richard Prince
Henry Taylor
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Tilton Gallery is pleased to present Drum and Flag, an exhibition of works that feature the sights and sounds of celebration. They depict celebrations of life, of people, of events big and small and in images and symbols both specific and abstract. Yet in all the works, a moment of melancholy creeps in. The moment is fleeting and the contradictions inherent in a celebration appear. The celebration of something implies the absence of something else. The moment of celebration must always end.
And yet, the celebrations begin again. They recur spontaneously and annually, for the once-in-a-lifetime and for the mundane of the everyday. People continue to come together through shared sights and sounds to capture, enjoy and prolong moments and to find new ones. As one moment ends, the next begins. This invisible inertia propels us forward. It is manifest in the motion that's seen and heard in these works. The sweep of time is felt in new materials and old. The undertow of melancholy is overcome by the current of celebration, coming in and going out like a wave.
This exhibition of celebratory works coincides with Tilton Gallery's 40th anniversary. It features a mix of artists that the gallery has championed since its inception in 1983. Concurrent with the exhibitino, a selection of additional works are installed in the gallery library by artists Leo Copers, Tomashi Jackson, February James, Davdi Hammons, Ed Clark, and Richard Tuttle.