Events
Auction
Printed Matter
Spring Benefit Auction
May 24–June 8, 2023
This online benefit auction for Printed Matter features over sixty donated artworks—some of which were created especially for the fundraiser—by contemporary artists, including Richard Artschwager, Piero Golia, Adam McEwen, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Taryn Simon, and Jonas Wood. Proceeds from the auction, which is hosted by Artsy, will support the nonprofit organization’s mission to further the distribution, understanding, and appreciation of artist’s books and related publications.
Piero Golia, The Best Is Yet to Come, 2020 © Piero Golia
Video
Taryn Simon
Cutaways
Taryn Simon’s Cutaways (2012) is available online from June 23 through July 22 as part of Artist Spotlight: Taryn Simon. At the close of the taping of a video interview for Prime Time Russia in Moscow, Simon was asked to sit in silence and stare at the newscasters for several minutes so that the producers could gather additional footage for the editing process. Cutaways presents this footage as an autonomous work.
Taryn Simon, Cutaways, 2012 © Taryn Simon
Online Reading
Homi K. Bhabha
Beyond Photography
Simon’s case studies are meditations on the touching of opposites—order and disorder, civility and barbarism, violence and aspiration—in the inscription of the human condition.
—Homi K. Bhabha
In his essay “Beyond Photography,” Homi K. Bhabha elaborates on the themes, structures, and stories that comprise Taryn Simon’s A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII (2008–11), a collection that is at once cohesive and arbitrary, mapping the relationships among chance, blood, and other components of fate. The essay is available for online reading from June 23 through August 31 as part of Artist Spotlight: Taryn Simon.
Taryn Simon: A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII (2nd ed. New York: Gagosian Gallery; London: Wilson Center for Photography, 2012)
Online Reading
Salman Rushdie
Foreword to “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar”
Democracy needs visibility, accountability, light. It is in the unseen darkness that unsavoury things huddle and grow.
—Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie discusses Taryn Simon’s An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, which depicts objects, sites, and spaces that are integral to America’s foundation, mythology, and daily operations but that remain inaccessible or unknown. His text is available for online reading from June 23 through August 31 as part of Artist Spotlight: Taryn Simon.
Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar (3rd ed. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2013)
Online Reading
Philip Tinari
Taryn Simon in China
In the end, what interests me most in this story is not the absoluteness of censorship but rather the way this particular system provides a set of constraints which, like most constraints, can be short-circuited to different effect. Certain panels may not have entered China, but the images and information they contain could not be kept out.
—Philip Tinari
Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), describes a 2013–14 presentation of Taryn Simon’s A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII at UCCA Beijing. This text is available for online reading from June 23 through August 31 as part of Artist Spotlight: Taryn Simon.
Taryn Simon: Rear Views, a Star-forming Nebula, and the Office of Foreign Propaganda (London: Tate Publishing, 2015)
In Conversation
Taryn Simon
Teju Cole
Monday, March 29, 2021, 7pm EDT
Join Taryn Simon and writer and photographer Teju Cole as they reflect on Simon’s artistic practice and creative process. An award-winning novelist, Cole encountered Simon’s exhibition Paperwork and the Will of Capital in a Brussels gallery on the eve of the 2016 United States presidential election. When the results of that election left him shocked and in despair, Cole found himself temporarily unable to write. Simon’s art, however, continued to inform his thinking and writing process. He revisited her work with the essay “Capital, Diplomacy and Carnations” for the New York Times Magazine—a look at Simon’s masterful take on “powerful forces in the world that shape our day-to-day realities.” A live question-and-answer session will follow the talk, which is hosted by the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. To join the online event, register at osu.edu.
Left: Taryn Simon. Photo: © Taryn Simon. Right: Teju Cole. Photo: Maggie Janik
Announcements
Permanent Installation
Taryn Simon
The Pipes
Taryn Simon’s large-scale outdoor sculpture The Pipes (2016–21) will be on long-term view at MASS MoCA, in North Adams, Massachusetts, starting on June 26, 2021. What began as an oversize concrete instrument for a cacophony of global mourning in Simon’s work An Occupation of Loss (2016) will be populated by the sounds, collective call-and-response, and movements of a living public. The eleven structures that make up the installation—which Simon designed in collaboration with Shohei Shigematsu of the architecture firm OMA—offer the public an immersive experience and a sacred space for reflection, impromptu performance, and stargazing.
View of Taryn Simon’s The Pipes (2016–21) prior to installation at MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts. Artwork © Taryn Simon. Photo: Will McLaughlin, courtesy MASS MoCA
Video
Taryn Simon on “Black Square”
In this video produced by Artforum, Taryn Simon discusses her Black Square series (2006–), an ongoing project in which she photographs objects, documents, and individuals against a black field of precisely the same dimensions as Kazimir Malevich’s 1915 Suprematist work of the same name. Simon also speaks about the most recent addition to the series, Black Square XXIV (2020)—a portrait of Joe Biden, whom she photographed at the White House during the first term of his vice presidency, in 2009. Speaking in the days leading up to the 2020 US presidential election, she notes how this still-unfolding event had changed and would continue to change the ways we might view this image.
Still from “Taryn Simon on ‘Black Square’”
Award and Talk
Taryn Simon
May 18–21, 2017
Photo London, Somerset House
www.photolondon.org
Photo London has selected Taryn Simon as its Master of Photography 2017. Simon will present Image Atlas, a live online digital archive that she developed in collaboration with programmer Aaron Swartz. Simon will be in conversation with James Lingwood, codirector of Artangel, at Photo London’s Talks Program on Thursday, May 18, 1:00–2:20pm, Somerset House.
Concurrently, Gagosian Britannia Street will present selected works by Simon. Works from An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar in the Tate’s permanent collection remain on view at Tate Modern through December 1, 2017.
Taryn Simon and Aaron Swartz, Border, 9/30/16, 12:19pm (Eastern Standard Time), Image Atlas, 2012, website view
Award
Taryn Simon
Free Arts NYC honors Taryn Simon at the eighteenth annual art auction on April 26, 2017. Simon will be working with Free Arts youth on a project related to her body of work, The Picture Collection. Free Arts NYC is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering underserved youth through art and mentoring programs that develop their creativity, confidence, and skills to succeed.
Photo: David Pinzer
Video
Taryn Simon
Where the Secret Goes
In this video produced by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark, Taryn Simon speaks about what drives her as an artist and about the research-based working process through which she gained access to and documented places normally inaccessible to the public for An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar (2007). Following September 11, 2001, as the American government and media sought hidden sites beyond US borders, Simon explains, she looked inside her own country, examining the divide between privileged and public access—and the psychological and bureaucratic barriers—in domains including religion, security, governance, entertainment, and law.
Still from “Taryn Simon Interview: Where the Secret Goes”
New Release
Gagosian App for iPad
Issue 4
Gagosian announces the release of issue 4 of the Gagosian App for iPad on July 13, 2013. Artists featured in this issue include Georg Baselitz, Piero Manzoni, Robert Rauschenberg, Nancy Rubins, Thomas Ruff, Taryn Simon, and Cy Twombly.
In issue 4 we feature an illustrated “pop-up” biography of Georg Baselitz, show Piero Manzoni’s Azimuth magazines digitized with full English translations for the first time, offer an endless “art board” of works from the exhibition The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg, including historical and biographical information on more than seventy-six artists. We also show a comprehensive overview of Nancy Rubins’s monumental public sculptures made from industrial objects, and give you a look at Thomas Ruff’s stereoscopic ma.r.s. photographs in 3-D. We invite you to interact with multimedia highlights from Taryn Simon’s four major bodies of work, curated by the artist, and explore Cy Twombly’s final paintings with a photographic and audio tribute to the artist by Sally Mann.
Museum Exhibitions
Closing this Week
Taryn Simon in
Guest Relations
Through April 28, 2024
Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
jameelartscentre.org
Guest Relations brings together artwork and archival and architectural research to explore the historical, political, social, and cultural transformations that accompany processes of intense tourism. Examining the transactional nature of modern hospitality, the exhibition considers hotels as sites of artistic investigation, tracing their origins in colonial grandeur and hubris to their current, often generic, ubiquity in the age of globalization. Work by Taryn Simon is included.
Taryn Simon, Agreement to develop Park Hyatt St. Kitts under the St. Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by Investment Program. Dubai, United Arab Emirates, July 16, 2012, from the series Paperwork and the Will of Capital, 2015 © Taryn Simon
Just Opened
Humain Autonome
Déroutes
Through September 22, 2024
Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne,Vitry-sur-Seine, France
www.macval.fr
This exhibition focuses on the automobile as a paradoxical object, loved by some, hated by others. Production lines, operating systems, links with fossil fuels, myths, and the unconscious are all analyzed, deconstructed, and reassessed in works by more than fifty artists from different generations. Work by Ed Ruscha, Taryn Simon, and Blair Thurman is included.
Taryn Simon, Finance package for the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Baku, Azerbaijan, February 3, 2004, from the series Paperwork and the Will of Capital, 2015 © Taryn Simon
On View
Taryn Simon in
Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother
Through September 15, 2024
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
www.metmuseum.org
At a time when photographs are primarily shared and saved digitally, many artists are returning to the physicality of snapshots in albums or pictures in archives as sources of inspiration. Taking its title from a photograph by Maurizio Cattelan, the exhibition Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother brings together works in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from the 1970s to today. The selected works reflect upon the complicated feelings of nostalgia and sentimentality evoked by these physical artifacts, while underlining the power of the found object. Work by Taryn Simon is included.
Taryn Simon, Chapter XI, from the series A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII, 2008–11 © Taryn Simon
On View
Taryn Simon
Start Again the Lament
Through November 30, 2024
Cisternerne, Frederiksbergmuseerne, Frederiksberg, Denmark
frederiksbergmuseerne.dk
Start Again the Lament is an extensive sound installation by Taryn Simon broadcast into the subterranean urban dripstone cave of the Cisternerne. Performed by professional mourners, the work explores how people mourn individually and collectively, considering the anatomy of grief and whom we choose to guide us through it. These sonic rituals of loss and discontent—including northern Albanian, Wayuu, Greek Epirotic, and Yazidi laments—transform the exhibition space into an instrument echoing recitations with a reverberation of seventeen seconds.
Installation view, Taryn Simon: Start Again the Lament, Cisternerne, Frederiksbergmuseerne, Frederiksberg, Denmark, March 17–November 30, 2024. Artwork © Taryn Simon
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Taryn Simon in
Flower Power
September 29, 2023–January 7, 2024
Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, France
www.mdig.fr
This exhibition explores the symbolism of flowers, from antiquity to the present, through more than one hundred works, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, prints, books, and clothing. Flower Power is organized in thematic sections devoted to history and mythology, the relationship between science and art, religion, and politics and economy. This exhibition has traveled from Kunsthalle München in Munich, where it was titled Flowers Forever: Blumen In Kunst Und Kultur. Work by Taryn Simon is included.
Taryn Simon, Agreement to form a Palestinian national unity government. Mecca, Saudi Arabia, February 8, 2007, from the series Paperwork and the Will of Capital, 2015 © Taryn Simon
Closed
Taryn Simon in
How to Put Art in a Book
November 9–19, 2023
Palazzo Grassi, Venice
www.pinaultcollection.com
How to Put Art in a Book is a project dedicated to publishing and its manifold connections with contemporary art. The exhibition brings together fifty-two books selected by artists—including Taryn Simon, who also has work in the show—designers, and curators who were invited to nominate publications that they consider outstanding or unique.
Left: Taryn Simon: An Occupation of Loss Double Album (London: The Vinyl Factory, 2019). Right: Taryn Simon: A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII (1st ed. New York: Gagosian; Los Angeles: Wilson Center for Photography; Berlin: Neue Nationalgalerie, 2012)
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Nan Goldin
Memory Lost
May 11–October 8, 2023
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
louisiana.dk
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is presenting Nan Goldin’s Memory Lost (2019–21)—a new acquisition jointly owned with Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Scored by composer Mica Levi, with additional music by CJ Calderwood and Soundwalk Collective, the twenty-four-minute-long slideshow relates a haunting and emotional narrative comprised of outtakes drawn from Goldin’s archive. It is exhibited alongside selected works from the collection by artists including Taryn Simon.
Nan Goldin, Memory Lost, 2019–21 © Nan Goldin
Closed
Taryn Simon in
New on View
February 16–August 6, 2023
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
www.icaboston.org
New on View presents a small selection of works on view for the first time at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, including several pieces recently acquired for its permanent collection. Exploring themes such as domesticity and photography in an expanded field, the exhibition demonstrates that these recently added works build on the collection’s strengths by taking it in expansive new directions. Work by Taryn Simon is included.
Taryn Simon, Folder: Rear Views, 2012 (detail), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston © Taryn Simon
![Taryn Simon, Professional Mourners: Mrike Nokaj, Kalash Tossouni Boudoyan, Amar Ozmanyan, Aziz Tamoyan, Lala Ismayilova, Haji Rahila Jafarova, Lama Tashi Galay, [Redacted], Lama Phurba Tshering, Goama Marcel Nana, Paul Nana, Rasmane Nana, Yamba Nana, Pong Pon, Pong Rean, Seng Son, [Chen Jian], [Hu Xinglian], [Redacted], [Redacted], [Redacted], Aníbal González, [Redacted], [Redacted], Hanna Koduah, [Redacted], Nota Kaltsouni, Vangelis Kotsos, Nikos Menoudakis, Alagu Adaikkan, Muniyammal Bose, [Redacted], [Redacted], [Redacted], Busara Azimbaeva, Toktokan Chancharova, Siah anak Tutong, Zamfira Ludovica Muresan, Patimat Alibekova, Zakhra Maldaeva, Ana Luisa Montiel, Marisol Montiel, 2018 © Taryn Simon](https://gagosian.com/media/images/gallery/news/2023/5ehL66DpmqxA_370x370.jpg)
Closed
Taryn Simon in
Shift: Music, Meaning, Context
April 13–August 6, 2023
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago
www.mocp.org
Shift: Music, Meaning, Context explores how music changes in form and interpretation as it moves across time, bodies, and place. This exhibition, produced in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Chicago, combines video, sound, and photography to transform the museum’s galleries into a unique choral mélange. Work by Taryn Simon is included.
Taryn Simon, Professional Mourners: Mrike Nokaj, Kalash Tossouni Boudoyan, Amar Ozmanyan, Aziz Tamoyan, Lala Ismayilova, Haji Rahila Jafarova, Lama Tashi Galay, [Redacted], Lama Phurba Tshering, Goama Marcel Nana, Paul Nana, Rasmane Nana, Yamba Nana, Pong Pon, Pong Rean, Seng Son, [Chen Jian], [Hu Xinglian], [Redacted], [Redacted], [Redacted], Aníbal González, [Redacted], [Redacted], Hanna Koduah, [Redacted], Nota Kaltsouni, Vangelis Kotsos, Nikos Menoudakis, Alagu Adaikkan, Muniyammal Bose, [Redacted], [Redacted], [Redacted], Busara Azimbaeva, Toktokan Chancharova, Siah anak Tutong, Zamfira Ludovica Muresan, Patimat Alibekova, Zakhra Maldaeva, Ana Luisa Montiel, Marisol Montiel, 2018 © Taryn Simon
Closed
Taryn Simon in
Selections from the Collection
September 17, 2022–April 16, 2023
George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York
www.eastman.org
Since the invention of photography, the documentation of war has been a subject of interest to the camera and consumers. People have long relied on photographs to view and grapple with the harsh realities of war and conflict. This selection ranges from the Crimean War (1853–56) to the Afghanistan War (2001–21). The works challenge us to think critically about how photography documents and disseminates information about war, and how photographers’ approaches to recording war has shifted over time. Work by Taryn Simon is included.
Taryn Simon, Imperial Office of the World Knights of the Ku Klu Klan (KKK), Sharpsburg, Maryland, 2007, from the series An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, 2007 © Taryn Simon
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Taryn Simon in
16th Biennale de Lyon: Manifesto of Fragility
September 14–December 31, 2022
Various locations in Lyon, France
www.labiennaledelyon.com
Manifesto of Fragility, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath for the 16th Biennale de Lyon in France, explores fragility as one of few universally felt truths in our divided world. Ten photographs from Taryn Simon’s series, Paperwork and the Will of Capital (2015), are included in the exhibition, among the work of more than two hundred artists. In the series, Simon addresses the instability of executive decision-making and the precarious nature of survival by examining accords, treaties, and decrees drafted to influence systems of governance and economics. All involve the countries present at the 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, which addressed the globalization of economies after World War II.
Installation view, 16th Biennale de Lyon: Manifesto of Fragility, Fagor Factory, Lyon, France, September 14–December 31, 2022. Artwork © Taryn Simon. Photo: Blaise Adilon
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Human Brains
It Begins with an Idea
April 23–November 27, 2022
Fondazione Prada, Venice
www.fondazioneprada.org
Curated by Udo Kittelmann in collaboration with Taryn Simon, this exhibition fills three floors of Ca’ Corner della Regina and is the result of an in-depth research process carried out with Fondazione Prada and a scientific board chaired by Giancarlo Comi and composed of physicians, philosophers, scientists, and researchers. It is part of a multidisciplinary project of the same name launched by Fondazione Prada in November 2020 and centering on the brain, a unique organ due to the complexity of its functions, which are fundamental in the characterization of human beings.
Installation view, Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea, Fondazione Prada, Venice, April 23–November 27, 2022. Artwork © Taryn Simon. Photo: Marco Cappelletti, courtesy Fondazione Prada