The Fluidity of Time
It seems the museum intends to “recontextualize” the work here through disjuncture–but the outcome is often disarray. Half of another room is inhabited by a 1962 George Segal sculpture, two life-size white plaster figures arranged as lovers on a bed; an early (1964-’65) Christo, a small orange storefront he constructed, with fabric obscuring the windows; and the 1983 Bruce Nauman neon sculpture Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain, with a large flashing circle that illuminates these words by turn. It’s anyone’s guess, but perhaps these works relate to what a wall label describes as “the fundamentals of human existence” by reflecting on materiality and immateriality. But how would this bear on the set of figural works in the other half of the room? These include a mural-size 1959 Leon Golub nude (from what’s called his “burnt man” series because of the canvas’s distressed surface), a very small 1954 Dorothea Tanning sleeping nude, and a vibrant 1946 egg tempera by George Tooker showing children cornering some fearful men. Perhaps here the theme is human anxiety, anomie, or fear.
