Thursday, August 20th, 2009
McGee Acqusition by Berkeley Art Museum, Named Guardian Artist of the Week
Barry McGee – Untitled, 2008, acquired by the Berkeley Art Museum. (Image: Ratio 3)
As part of its current exhibit, Galaxy: A Hundred or So Stars Visible to the Naked Eye, The Berkeley Art Museum is exhibiting a recent Barry McGee acquisition. The 13-panel ballpoint pen-head installation was purchased from Ratio 3 Gallery, where McGee presented a solo exhibition last September. In a video walk through, curator Lawrence Rinder adds valuable insight to these drawings, shedding light on their origins and meaning. Rinder notes that McGee based the series on a homeless person he encountered on Harrison Street in San Francisco’s Mission District. ”He saw a man who was so striking, Barry couldn’t get him out of his mind…and proceeded to make a number of drawings bases on this experience.” This is not the first piece of McGee’s art in the museum’s permanent collection. In 2004 they acquired an early piece dated to 1994.
In related news, with a new monograph just two months away and a substantial UK museum exhibit at the Baltic Centre recently completed, The Guardian’s Jessica Lack has selected Barry McGee as artist of the week.
see 2:36 – 3:43. (Video © Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive)
The McGee grouping acquired by BAM can be seen in this image from A Moment for Reflection: New Works by Lydia Fong, at Ratio 3 Gallery, 2008. (Image: Ratio 3)
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