Carved in Stone: A Selection of Chinese Ink Rubbings from the Art Locked Stacks Collection In Chinese culture, rubbings are seen as more than mere copies; since each one is unique they are seen as works of art in their own right. There are several names for rubbings in Chinese, but they are commonly referred to as “black tigers” (hei laohu 黑虎) by collectors and connoisseurs because of their color and because of the number of fraudulent rubbings on the market that can “bite” an unsuspecting buyer. The technique of making ink rubbings of stone and metal inscriptions is believed to have originated in China by the Liang Dynasty (502–556 C.E.) but perhaps as early as the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E–220 C.E.). The works shown in this exhibition are all rubbings taken from stelae, vertical stone monuments usually engraved with writings. The six sets of hanging scrolls on display on the walls of the Reading Room represent a range of calligraphic styles from stelae of varying sizes. They are a small sample of a much larger scroll collection in the Art Locked Stacks that includes additional rubbings as well as facsimile calligraphic scrolls and facsimile landscape scrolls from both China and Japan.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Posters
Spring 2008-Winter 2009

The posters that were displayed in the reading room represent five stacked-paper works by the artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Each of these stacks, created by exhibiting institutions according to the artist’s specifications, is meant to be interactive: museum visitors are free to take a poster away with them, thereby dispersing the piece into the wider environment. The museum then replenishes the pile; the interaction is therefore dynamic and ongoing.

The posters range in their subject matter but are rather uniform in their design, the piles forming clean-edged cubes or prisms directly on the floor. In their form they are reminiscent of Minimalist objects, but in their assigned or evolving meanings, they challenge the asceticism and un-sentimentality of the Minimalist mode.

In some cases the implied meanings of Gonzalez-Torres’s stacks come from their titles. Among the works represented here, three carry suggestive subtitles, borne out by their printed content: “Untitled” (Death by Gun); “Untitled” (Silver Beach); “Untitled” (Passport). The others, minimally printed or entirely unprinted, untitled, and without subtitles, leave interpretation open wider. All of the posters appear stark—but all inject emotion in their invitation to touch and in their suggestion of a bodily or emotional wholeness that can exist only on paper.

Untitled (1990)
Untitled (Death by Gun) (1990)
Untitled (Silver Beach) (1990)
Untitled (Passport) (1991)
Untitled (1992/93)

N6537 .G628 A4 1990Z ARTLCKL



The Guerrilla Girls Talk Back Portfolio
Fall 2007-Winter 2008

The posters featured in the reading room were selections from the portfolio Guerrilla Girls Talk Back: The First Five Years (1985-1990). Active in New York and elsewhere from 1985 to the present, the Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of artists, critics, and other art world participants who draw attention to disparities in treatment and pay between male and female artists and between white artists and their non-white peers. Members maintain their anonymity—important for keeping their messages broad and their professional identities safe—by the trademark donning of gorilla masks and by the adoption of female artist pseudonyms (e.g., Alice Neel, Mary Miss, Audrey Flack, Eleanor Antin).

The distribution of posters across SoHo and the East Village was the Guerrilla Girls’ first strategic action (soon followed by protests, speaking engagements, and surprise appearances). Combining simple graphics, clear yet clever statements, and illustrative statistics, the posters were created in order to target the art system at its epicenter, New York City.

The portfolio consists of 31 posters; the sample displayed was rotated periodically over the fall 2007 quarter.

N6512.5 .G83 G84 1990 ARTLCKL


Maoist Posters
Spring-Summer 2007

Significant not only as examples of propaganda art from the time of the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China, Maoist imagery is often a central component of contemporary Chinese art practice. The Art & Architecture Library owns a small collection of these graphically compelling poster works.