You Are Here
You Are Here
Curator: Jennifer M. Friess, Associate Curator of Photography | On View: Through Summer 2023
Welcome back to the museum. We’ve missed you.
On March 16, 2020, we closed our doors, just six days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. We didn’t know for how long. At that point there were twelve confirmed COVID-19 cases in Washtenaw County. We weren’t wearing masks because we didn’t fully understand how the virus is transmitted. We reopened to the public 488 days later, on June 17, 2021. While it is exciting to be together again and to see the world slowly reopen, we are also deeply impacted by what we’ve been through. This exhibition holds both of those feelings.
The works of art in this show were selected because you really need to experience them in person, to be immersed in their textures, patterns, colors, and ideas. The exhibition is designed to remind visitors to be present where they are: to look and feel and be at UMMA, in person at the museum. It also reminds visitors where they aren’t: at home, isolated, connecting with each other virtually.
The centerpiece of the exhibition—Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of Keshawn Warren standing in front of a vibrant floral background—exemplifies the idea of being present in oneself. Elsewhere you’ll find experiences for all of your senses. Come visit and play the Harry Bertoia sound sculpture to announce your presence in the gallery. After all, you are here.
Jennifer M. Friess
Associate Curator of Photography
Featured in the center of UMMA’s iconic Apse is a portrait by Kehinde Wiley
Wiley’s work challenges us to reconsider what and who contemporary portraiture can and should represent. He invites everyday people of color to select poses from historic paintings of kings, queens, gods, and saints. For this portrait, Wiley’s model—a young man named Keshawn Warren—chose the stance of Saint Francis in Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert (pictured here). Warren’s open arms and upward glance mimic the Christian saint’s posture, but in Wiley’s reinterpretation, a lush and vibrant floral background wraps around Warren as he claims his space.
Kehinde Wiley
Saint Francis of Assisi
2008
oil wash and graphite on paper, in artist's frame.
© Kehinde Wiley
Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York
Watch UMMA Transform
Over the course of several weeks in September 2021, UMMA’s Apse transformed into a technicolor spectacular. Watch the space transform before your eyes in this timelapse video.
Watch on YoutubeSelect Works in this Exhibition
(best seen in person)
2022/1.53.7
Title
Collin at sunset
Artist(s)
Jess T. Dugan
Object Creation Date
2020
Medium & Support
photograph on paper
Dimensions
16 x 20 in. (40.64 x 50.8 cm);13 1/2 x 18 in. (34.29 x 45.72 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds from the Estates of Robert Metcalf and James van Sweden, by exchange
Primary Object Classification
Photograph
Primary Object Type
portrait
Collection Area
Photography
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Collin at sunset
photograph on paper
16 x 20 in. (40.64 x 50.8 cm);13 1/2 x 18 in. (34.29 x 45.72 cm)
Museum purchase with funds from the Estates of Robert Metcalf and James van Sweden, by exchange
2016/2.82
Title
Ba Jin
Artist(s)
Xu Weixin
Object Creation Date
2016
Medium & Support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
8 ft. 2 1/2 in. x 6 ft. 6 3/4 in. (250.03 x 200.02 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist
Physical Description
A black and white portrait of a man visbile from the shoulders upward wearing a white shirt and spectacles looking slightly to the right. Chinese text appear down both the left and right side of the image.
Primary Object Classification
Painting
Primary Object Type
portrait
Collection Area
Asian
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Ba Jin
oil on canvas
8 ft. 2 1/2 in. x 6 ft. 6 3/4 in. (250.03 x 200.02 cm)
Gift of the artist
2021/1.87
Title
Stature
Artist(s)
Tyree Guyton
Artist Nationality
American (North American)
Object Creation Date
1988
Medium & Support
oil on canvas with a paper windowshade
Dimensions
4 ft. 3/4 in. x 4 ft. 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in. (123.83 x 123.19 x 6.35 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Patrick and Marla Smith
Physical Description
Painted surface divided vertically with the left side painted red and the right side painted black. Halfway down the red side, a checked piece of heavy paper or cardboard is stapled to the surface and a tan window shade is affixed to the upper right quadrant of the piece on the black surface. The entire piece is bordered by a light-colored painted frame.
Primary Object Classification
Mixed Media
Primary Object Type
assemblage
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Stature
oil on canvas with a paper windowshade
4 ft. 3/4 in. x 4 ft. 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in. (123.83 x 123.19 x 6.35 cm)
Gift of Patrick and Marla Smith
2015/2.151
Title
Give Peace a Chance
Artist(s)
Burhan Cahit Doğançay
Artist Nationality
Turkish (culture or style)
Object Creation Date
2009
Medium & Support
collage and mixed media on canvas
Dimensions
43 in x 62 in (109.22 cm x 157.48 cm)
Credit Line
Anonymous gift
Subject matter
Very early in his career, Doğançay embraced the urban wall as his main subject matter. His larger project, termed "Walls of the World," presents representations of cities through the collaged and ever-changing graffiti of the urban environment. Each with a different set of techniques and styles, they all seek to represent a place, while engaging in contemporary culture more broadly through the use of pop culture images and phrases. Here, for example, the portrait of the Dalai Lama is combined with that of Richard Gere, who has worked with charity campaigns in Tibet. The imagery combines with the text; words in bold stenciling read "FREE TIBET" and "LOVE PEACE."
Physical Description
This mixed media painting has a graffiti aesthetic. There are a series of portraits, one large in spray paint in the center of the work and a number of smaller ones in collaged newspaper. Throughout the composition are stenciled phrases in black and red paint as well as inscribed phrases in pen and various colored paints. There are also a number collaged pieces of newspaper. The work is signed and dated (l.r.) "B Dogancay / 2009" in yellow paint.
Primary Object Classification
Mixed Media
Primary Object Type
collage
Additional Object Classification(s)
Painting
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Give Peace a Chance
collage and mixed media on canvas
43 in x 62 in (109.22 cm x 157.48 cm)
Anonymous gift
1997/1.131
Title
Black Excursion No. 13
Artist(s)
Louise Nevelson
Artist Nationality
American (North American)
Object Creation Date
1964
Medium & Support
painted wood and black formica
Dimensions
37 ½ in x 47 ¼ in x 4 ½ in (95.25 cm x 120.02 cm x 11.43 cm);37 ½ in x 47 ¼ in x 4 ½ in (95.25 cm x 120.02 cm x 11.43 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family
Label copy
March 28, 2009
Nevelson took found objects, such as discarded pieces of architectural ornamentation (doorknobs and banisters were often used), and shapes she cut from scrap wood and carefully arranged them into interesting patterns in packing crates, which she then spray-painted one “cleansing” color to unify the composite parts. Everything but the paint was salvaged from the streets near her Greenwich Village home. The individual boxes were then assembled into monumental “walls” and room-sized environments (one critic likened their spatial logic to Madison Avenue window displays, which also feature three-dimensional objects in a tightly delineated frontal position). Black Excursion No. 13 is a more intimately scaled, cabinet-sized work and is a fine example of how Nevelson created texture and rhythm by repeating and balancing shapes.
Although she had been a practicing artist since the 1920s, it was not until the late 1950s that Louise Nevelson came into prominence; in this period her distinctive manner of working was more in tune with the New York vanguard art scene, in which collage and assemblage were playing an increasingly important role.
Subject matter
Assembled from found pieces of wood and formica, the objects that make up the piece resonate between being subsumed into the purely abstract form and reminding the viewer of their one-time life as daily objects.
Physical Description
Square, rectangular, and circular pieces of wood and formica are assembled in rectilinear, cabinet-like compartments. The entire object is painted black.
Primary Object Classification
Sculpture
Primary Object Type
assemblage
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Black Excursion No. 13
painted wood and black formica
37 ½ in x 47 ¼ in x 4 ½ in (95.25 cm x 120.02 cm x 11.43 cm);37 ½ in x 47 ¼ in x 4 ½ in (95.25 cm x 120.02 cm x 11.43 cm)
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family
You Are Here Musical Labels
There’s a new way to experience the art on display as part of the You Are Here exhibition—you can listen to it.
Working with Chamber Music Department Chair Matt Albert and assistant professor of composition Roshanne Etezady, nearly 40 students in the U-M School of Music, Theatre, & Dance recorded musical pieces inspired by the artworks in this exhibition.
Listen Here
Photos by Peter Matthews
Support
Lead support for this exhibition is provided by Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch and the University of Michigan Office of the Provost.