ABOUT The 613 by Archie Rand
Archie Rand with detail of The 613 (2008 studio installation). Photo by Sebastian Kahnert.
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2017 • 5–7:15pm
ADMISSION: Private Members-only event (Sponsor-level Members and above); RSVP by Jul 12
Executive Director Lori Starr and the Board of Trustees of The Contemporary Jewish Museum (The CJM) cordially invite you to preview all three of our new exhibitions: the world museum debut of the monumental immersive installation The 613 by Archie Rand; Kutiman: offgrid offline, a video installation of works by the acclaimed Israeli contemporary composer, media artist, musician, performer, and producer Kutiman; and In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art—Allison Smith and Christina Zetterlund, the latest iteration of our exhibition series inspired by the traditional Jewish learning method of havruta—the study of religious texts by people in pairs.
Exclusive introduction to The 613 by artist Archie Rand.
Remarks with artists.
Light refreshments will be served.
Galleries close.
RSVP by Jul 12, 2017 to agordon@thecjm.org or call 415.655.7824.
Archie Rand with detail of The 613 (2008 studio installation). Photo by Sebastian Kahnert.
The 613 by Archie Rand makes its world museum debut at The CJM. Rand’s monumental immersive installation is a grid of 613 16 in x 20 in paintings that cover 1700 square feet, completely filling the Swig & Dinner Families Gallery. The 613 took Rand five years to complete. Each work reacts to one of the 613 commandments as expressed by the law of Moses governing traditional Jewish behavior. The paintings are done in a densely colored, pulp illustrational style. A film about Rand’s The 613, directed and animated by Tatiana McCabe, will also be on view in the gallery.
Rand (born 1949) is an artist and educator from Brooklyn, New York, long associated with Columbia University and more recently with Brooklyn College. Rand’s work as a painter and muralist has been displayed around the world, and is included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition is accompanied by The 613, a book from Blue Rider Press of Penguin Random House featuring full-page color reproductions of each work; an essay by Rand; and blurbs by Art Spiegelman, Cynthia Ozick, and Ang Lee, and many others.
Kutiman: offgrid offline, installation view at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Kutiman: offgrid offline is the first American exhibition to showcase the work of young Israeli musician and composer Kutiman. Kutiman subtly and magically knits together new musical compositions utilizing audio and video found on the Internet as the source of his own work. In 2016 the Tel Aviv Museum of Art worked with the artist as he developed the piece. The CJM will present the resulting immersive multi-media installation with twelve video monitors, in the Stephen and Maribelle Leavitt Yud Gallery. At the cutting edge of contemporary art practice, Kutiman is extending the traditions of assemblage, cut-up literary technique, appropriation, and found art into the realm of music and sound installation. Also on view separately will be Kutiman’s legendary video work with the American vocalist Princess Shaw.
Allison Smith, Ghost Photography, (Skansen Revisited) 1891–1981 (detail), 2015.
The CJM presents the world premiere of a newly commissioned work from Oakland-based artist Allison Smith for In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art—an exhibition series inspired by the traditional Jewish learning method of havruta—the study of religious texts by people in pairs. For the seventh iteration of this series, Smith collaborated with Christina Zetterlund, a craft and design historian based in Sweden. Inspired by the writings of Otto Salomon (1849–1907), a Jewish Swedish educator whose work focused on craft and progressive education, the exhibition explores the politics of handcraft and its use in social movements, and features photo-based work that plays with conventions of period rooms and living history museums. Smith has exhibited her work nationally and internationally since 1995. Her work has been shown at SFMOMA; The Aldrich; The Arts Club of Chicago; MoMA PS1; Palais de Tokyo; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts; MASS MoCA; and The Andy Warhol Museum. She is Associate Professor and Chair of the Sculpture Program at California College of the Arts and is represented by Haines Gallery.
The 613 by Archie Rand is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco and Joan Brookbank Projects in collaboration with the artist Archie Rand.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s presentation is made possible by Patron sponsorship by Suzanne and Elliott Felson. Supporting sponsorship is provided by Shelli Semler and Kyle Bach.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum thanks The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for its lead sponsorship of The Museum’s exhibition program.
Kutiman Offgrid Offline is organized by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Tel Aviv museum presentation made possible thanks to the support of the Young Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s presentation is made possible by supporting sponsorship from David Agger and the Ullman Family. Additional support is provided by The Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest and The CJM Contemporaries Committee.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum thanks The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for its lead sponsorship of The Museum’s exhibition program.
In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art—Allison Smith and Christina Zetterlund is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. This exhibition is made possible with generous support from the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation. Additional support is provided by Rosanne and Al Levitt. In-Kind support is provided by Lim & Handtryck.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum thanks The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for its lead sponsorship of the Museum’s exhibition program.
Header image: Archie Rand, Not To Insult Or Harm Anybody With Words. (Leviticus 25:17), part of The 613, 2001–06, serial painting composed of 613 panels, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 in. each. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Mary Faith O’Neill. The 613 by Archie Rand. On view July 20–October 22, 2017 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.