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Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller

DATES November 4, 2016 through June 18, 2017
ORGANIZING DEPARTMENT Special Exhibition
  • Iggy Pop Life Class
    Iggy Pop has one of the most recognizable bodies in popular culture. A body that is key to an understanding of rock music, and that has been paraded, celebrated, and scrutinized through the years in a way that is unusual for a man. It is also fair to say that it has witnessed and endured a lot. I wanted him to be the subject of a life class because I hoped drawing him could add something different to our understanding of such an important figure in the culture.
    —Jeremy Deller

    In Iggy Pop Life Class, Jeremy Deller (English, born 1966) conducted a life class with the musician Iggy Pop as model. On February 21, 2016, Pop posed in front of twenty-two participants from the New York area. The drawings in this gallery are the results of this session.

    A pioneer rock musician, Pop began performing in the late 1960s and is known for his confrontational and unpredictable performances, in which he almost always appears topless. Often participatory and ritualistic, these performances (which persist to this day) have redefined the singer’s role in a rock band. For Deller, the life drawing class offered the opportunity to study Pop’s body in a way that differed from photography. As Deller notes, “I am the first to admit there is a degree of absurdity in the idea of convincing someone, who is known for his dynamic stage presence, to be still for four hours.”

    Alongside the life class drawings is a display of objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s historical collections, selected by Deller, that depict the male form (often nude) in movement or as an object of desire or worship.
  • Jeremy Deller on Iggy Pop Life Class
    Alongside the Iggy Pop Life Class drawings, I have selected some objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection featuring the male nude. The naked form here sometimes appears as an object of worship, sometimes as a disruptive presence. Certain of these objects if made now would be considered shocking or even obscene, but in their original context were seen as devotional. The tension between the sacred and profane has inspired artists and storytellers for thousands of years, including the creators of rock and roll music.
    —Jeremy Deller
  • All drawings Untitled from Iggy Pop Life Class
    Jeremy Day
    Jeanette Farrow
    Margaret Fisher
    Seiji Gailey
    Michael Grimaldi
    Robert Hagan
    Tobias Hall
    Deirdra Hazeley
    Patricia Hill
    Okim Woo Kim
    Maureen McAllister
    Kallyiah Merilus
    Guno Park
    Kinley Pleteau
    Angel Ramirez
    Robert Reid
    Mauricio Rodriguez
    Danielle Rubin
    Taylor Schultek
    Charlotte Segall
    Andrew Shears
    Levan Songulashvili
  • February 1, 2016 Twenty-one artists, from all walks of life, gathered at the New York Academy of Art on Sunday, February 21, 2016, for a special life drawing class with a guest model, American rock legend Iggy Pop. The class was organized by the Brooklyn Museum and conceived by artist Jeremy Deller. The drawings created during the class will be part of a Brooklyn Museum exhibition in fall 2016, with a tour to be announced later.

    In stark contrast to his kinetic stage persona, Pop methodically posed nude on a different kind of stage. “The life class is a special place in which to scrutinize the human form. As the bedrock of art education and art history, it is still the best way to understand the body,” says Deller. “For me it makes perfect sense for Iggy Pop to be the subject of a life class; his body is central to an understanding of rock music and its place within American culture. His body has witnessed much and should be documented.” 

    The participating artists represent New York’s diverse community, ranging from 19 to 80 years of age with varying backgrounds, and include undergraduate and graduate students, practicing artists, and retirees. The life drawing class was led by artist and drawing professor Michael Grimaldi. The twenty-one participants were selected by Deller and Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum, from recommendations made by instructors at the Brooklyn Museum’s Gallery/Studio Program, the Art Students League of New York, Kingsborough Community College, the New York Academy of Art, and Pratt Institute. The participants include: Jeremy Day, Jeannette Farrow, Margaret Fisher, Seiji Gailey, Robert Hagan, Tobias Hall, Deirdra Hazeley, Patricia Hill, Okim Woo Kim, Maureen McAllister, Kallyiah Merilus, Guno Park, Kinley Pleteau, Angel Ramirez, Robert Reid, Mauricio Rodriguez, Danielle Rubin, Taylor Schultek, Charlotte Segall, Andrew Shears, and Levan Songulashvili.

    London-based conceptual artist Jeremy Deller (English, born 1966) is known for orchestrating large-scale collaborative projects. In 2001, Deller worked with former miners and members of reenactment societies to restage a violent confrontation between the police and striking miners that had occurred in 1984 during the yearlong miners’ strike in the United Kingdom. For It Is What It Is, commissioned by The Three M Project and Creative Time in 2009, Deller toured the United States with a car destroyed in a 2007 bomb attack in Baghdad, inviting journalists, Iraqi refugees, soldiers, and scholars to share their experiences. He has developed several music projects including Acid Brass (1997), a brass band performance of acid house music. Winner of the 2004 Turner Prize, Deller represented Great Britain at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. His appreciation of academic drawing can be traced to his art history studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Sussex.

    A pioneer of rock music, Iggy Pop (American, born James Newell Osterberg, Jr., 1947) is a singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. Born and raised in Michigan, Pop began performing in the 1960s. In 1967, he formed The Stooges, a band that significantly influenced the trajectory of rock music in the 1970s and 1980s. Pop became known for dynamic and unpredictable stage performances, a trademark throughout his career. These highly physical events often left his body battered and cut. His music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career with well-known albums such as The Idiot (1977), Lust for Life (1977), Blah Blah Blah (1986), Brick by Brick (1990), and Skull Ring (2003). In 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2016 will mark the release of Pop’s seventeenth album, Post Pop Depression, a collaboration with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.

    This exhibition is organized by Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum.

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  • September 1, 2016 In Iggy Pop Life Class, Turner Prize–winning artist Jeremy Deller uses the traditional life-model drawing class to stage a performative event with Iggy Pop as model and subject. The resulting drawings, created by twenty-two participating artists, will be shown at the Brooklyn Museum from November 4, 2016, to March 26, 2017. Along with works depicting the male body selected from the Museum’s historical collections, the exhibition examines shifting cultural representations of masculinity across history.

    Deller’s collaboration with Iggy Pop as a nude model is essential to his concept. A pioneer rock musician—as a singer, songwriter, musician, and actor—Pop began performing in the 1960s, becoming known for strenuous and unpredictable stage performances—highly physical, deliberately aggressive events that often left his body battered and cut. These corporeally charged acts radically confronted the rock and roll trope of male sexual appeal. As Deller notes, “Iggy Pop has one of the most recognizable bodies in popular culture. A body that is key to an understanding of rock music, and that has been paraded, celebrated, and scrutinized through the years in a way that is unusual for a man. It is also fair to say that it has witnessed a lot. It was for these reasons that I wanted him to sit for a life class.” For Deller, the life drawing class offered the opportunity to study his body in direct and palpable terms.

    On Sunday, February 21, 2016, the twenty-two participating artists gathered at the New York Academy of Art, where Pop was the unexpected model. The artists represent New York’s diverse community, ranging from 19 to 80 years of age with varying backgrounds, and include undergraduate and graduate students, practicing artists, and retirees. The life drawing class was led by artist and drawing professor Michael Grimaldi. The artists were selected by Deller and Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum, from recommendations made by instructors at the Brooklyn Museum’s Gallery/Studio Program, the Art Students League of New York, Kingsborough Community College, the New York Academy of Art, and Pratt Institute. The artists are Jeremy Day, Jeanette Farrow, Margaret Fisher, Seiji Gailey, Robert Hagan, Tobias Hall, Deirdra Hazeley, Patricia Hill, Okim Woo Kim, Maureen McAllister, Kallyiah Merilus, Guno Park, Kinley Pleteau, Angel Ramirez, Robert Reid, Mauricio Rodriguez, Danielle Rubin, Taylor Schultek, Charlotte Segall, Andrew Shears, and Levan Songulashvili.

    Iggy Pop Life Class expands on the ways in which different cultures have traditionally considered the male body by including objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, chosen by Deller, that represent male figures from different cultures and periods around the world. Works include sculptures from ancient Egypt, Africa, India, Japan, and Mexico; prints and drawings by Egon Schiele, Max Beckmann, and Daniel Huntington; and photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, Horace Bristol, Jim Steinhardt, Robert Mapplethorpe, and John Coplans. “Pop’s use of his body in his performances, and Deller’s multifaceted approach to examining it through this project, offers the opportunity to discuss maleness, and to consider how feminism has expanded to apply not only to women, but to all genders on the spectrum,” said Sharon Matt Atkins.

    The exhibition is part of A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art through ten diverse exhibitions and an extensive calendar of related public programs.

    About A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum
    A Year of Yes recognizes feminism as a driving force for progressive change and takes the transformative contributions of feminist art during the last halfcentury as its starting point. The Museum-wide series imagines next steps, expanding feminist thinking from its roots in the struggle for gender parity to embrace broader social-justice issues of tolerance, inclusion, and diversity. A Year of Yes begins in October 2016 and continues through early 2018.

    About Jeremy Deller
    London-based conceptual artist Jeremy Deller (English, born 1966) is known for orchestrating large-scale collaborative projects. In 2001, Deller worked with former miners and members of reenactment societies to restage a violent confrontation between the police and striking miners that had occurred in 1984 during the yearlong miners’ strike in the United Kingdom. For It Is What It Is, commissioned by The Three M Project and Creative Time in 2009, Deller toured the United States with a car destroyed in a 2007 bomb attack in Baghdad, inviting journalists, Iraqi refugees, soldiers, and scholars to share their experiences. He has developed several music projects including Acid Brass (1997), a brass band performance of acid house music. More recently, he created Sacrilege (2012), a life-size inflatable Stonehenge, and we’re here because we’re here (2016), a modern memorial to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. Winner of the 2004 Turner Prize, Deller represented Great Britain at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. His appreciation of academic drawing can be traced to his art history studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Sussex.

    About Iggy Pop
    A pioneer of rock music, Iggy Pop (American, born James Newell Osterberg, Jr., 1947) is a singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. Born and raised in Michigan, Pop began performing in the 1960s. In 1967, he formed The Stooges, a band that significantly influenced the trajectory of rock music in the 1970s and 1980s. Pop became known for dynamic and unpredictable stage performances, a trademark throughout his career. His music has encompassed a number of styles over the decades, with well-known albums such as The Idiot (1977), Lust for Life (1977), Blah Blah Blah (1986), Brick by Brick (1990), and Skull Ring (2003). In 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. March 2016 marked the release of Pop’s seventeenth album, Post Pop Depression, a collaboration with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.

    Press Area of Website
    View Original
  • February 21, 2016 Twenty-one artists, from all walks of life, gathered at the New York Academy of Art on Sunday, February 21, 2016, for a special life drawing class with a guest model, American rock legend Iggy Pop. The class was organized by the Brooklyn Museum and conceived by artist Jeremy Deller. The drawings created during the class will be part of a Brooklyn Museum exhibition in fall 2016, with a tour to be announced later.

    In stark contrast to his kinetic stage persona, Pop methodically posed nude on a different kind of stage. “The life class is a special place in which to scrutinize the human form. As the bedrock of art education and art history, it is still the best way to understand the body,” says Deller. “For me it makes perfect sense for Iggy Pop to be the subject of a life class; his body is central to an understanding of rock music and its place within American culture. His body has witnessed much and should be documented.”

    The participating artists represent New York’s diverse community, ranging from 19 to 80 years of age with varying backgrounds, and include undergraduate and graduate students, practicing artists, and retirees. The life drawing class was led by artist and drawing professor Michael Grimaldi. The twenty-one participants were selected by Deller and Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum, from recommendations made by instructors at the Brooklyn Museum’s Gallery/Studio Program, the Art Students League of New York, Kingsborough Community College, the New York Academy of Art, and Pratt Institute. The participants include: Jeremy Day, Jeannette Farrow, Margaret Fisher, Seiji Gailey, Robert Hagan, Tobias Hall, Deirdra Hazeley, Patricia Hill, Okim Woo Kim, Maureen McAllister, Kallyiah Merilus, Guno Park, Kinley Pleteau, Angel Ramirez, Robert Reid, Mauricio Rodriguez, Danielle Rubin, Taylor Schultek, Charlotte Segall, Andrew Shears, and Levan Songulashvili.

    London-based conceptual artist Jeremy Deller (English, born 1966) is known for orchestrating large-scale collaborative projects. In 2001, Deller worked with former miners and members of reenactment societies to restage a violent confrontation between the police and striking miners that had occurred in 1984 during the yearlong miners’ strike in the United Kingdom. For It Is What It Is, commissioned by The Three M Project and Creative Time in 2009, Deller toured the United States with a car destroyed in a 2007 bomb attack in Baghdad, inviting journalists, Iraqi refugees, soldiers, and scholars to share their experiences. He has developed several music projects including Acid Brass (1997), a brass band performance of acid house music. Winner of the 2004 Turner Prize, Deller represented Great Britain at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. His appreciation of academic drawing can be traced to his art history studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Sussex.

    A pioneer of rock music, Iggy Pop (American, born James Newell Osterberg, Jr., 1947) is a singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. Born and raised in Michigan, Pop began performing in the 1960s. In 1967, he formed The Stooges, a band that significantly influenced the trajectory of rock music in the 1970s and 1980s. Pop became known for dynamic and unpredictable stage performances, a trademark throughout his career. These highly physical events often left his body battered and cut. His music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career with well-known albums such as The Idiot (1977), Lust for Life (1977), Blah Blah Blah (1986), Brick by Brick (1990), and Skull Ring (2003). In 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2016 will mark the release of Pop’s seventeenth album, Post Pop Depression, a collaboration with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.

    This exhibition is organized by Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum

    Press Area of Website
    View Original