ASPEN ART MUSEUM PRESENTS HERVÉ TÉLÉMAQUE: A HOPSCOTCH OF THE MIND

On View November 4, 2022 through March 26, 2023

“I drew on my life as a Haitian of mixed race to construct a double language based on both the political and the social, the question of identity and racism, and sexuality.” – Hervé Télémaque

ASPEN, COLORADO (October 20, 2022) – The Aspen Art Museum is pleased to present Hervé Télémaque: A Hopscotch of the Mind, a major exhibition of works by the influential Haitian artist and the first solo exhibition of Télémaque’s work in a US museum. Organized by Serpentine Galleries, London, with reconceptualized staging for the Aspen Art Museum presentation, the exhibition brings together works made in the late 1950s through the present day, highlighting the enduring themes of the artist’s multifaceted practice. Opening on November 4, 2022, and running through March 26, 2023, A Hopscotch of the Mind proposes a non-linear exploration of Télémaque’s visual vocabulary, encouraging viewers to jump across media and periods, forming their own associations between the disparate fragments of his idiosyncratic narration.

Nicola Lees, Nancy and Bob Magoon Director of the Aspen Art Museum, said, “Since the 1960s Hervé Télémaque has used his artistic practice to depict an engaging, narrative portrait of his world, addressing historical geopolitical events such as French colonization of Haiti, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Cold War through his signature style of captivating figuration. At the same moment in history, the Aspen Art Museum was founded with a mission to be a haven for artists that views their insight as crucial to our understanding of the world around us. With this in mind, we are delighted to have had the opportunity to reconceptualize the staging of the exhibition in Aspen with artist Helen Marten. We are grateful to the Serpentine’s former Associate Exhibitions Curator Joseph Constable and to Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist for bringing forth this exhibition, and we are delighted to share Télémaque’s poignant work this fall.”

Throughout his career, Hervé Télémaque has created an expansive body of work with a unique visual vocabulary featuring abstract gestures, cartoon-like imagery, and mixed-media compositions. Through his paintings, drawings, collages, objects, and assemblages, Télémaque brings together striking combinations of historical and literary references with those of consumer and popular culture.

Incorporating images and experiences from Télémaque’s daily life, his extensive body of work consistently draws connections between the realms of interior consciousness and social experience, and the complex relationships between image and language. A vehement commitment to highlighting the histories and contemporary resonances of racism, imperialism, and colonialism has remained a constant throughout the artist’s career, often referring to his Haitian heritage and experience as part of the Caribbean diaspora. 

Exhibition highlights include:

· A broad selection of works spanning from the 1960s to the present day, including never-before-seen pieces from the artist’s Paris studio and major loans from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint Etienne.

· A striking exhibition design by artist Helen Marten with framing devices and apertures that highlight the visual and linguistic rhythms of Télémaque’s artworks.

This exhibition is organized by Serpentine Galleries, London, by Joseph Constable, former Associate Exhibitions Curator, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director. In keeping with the Museum’s artist-centered approach, the presentation at Aspen Art Museum is curated by Joseph Constable, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and artist Helen Marten, who have reconceptualized the staging of the exhibition.

ABOUT HERVÉ TÉLÉMAQUE 

Born in 1937 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Télémaque left for New York in 1957, when former president François Duvalier was elected to power, to study at the Art Students League under painter Julian Edwin Levi. Entering into an art scene dominated by Abstract Expressionism, Télémaque became interested in the approaches of artists such as Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, but at the same time felt limited by this early influence: “This thoroughly New York school seemed inadequate for me to express where I came from and who I was.”

In 1961, Télémaque moved permanently to Paris, associating with the Surrealists, and later co-founding the Narrative Figuration movement in France with artists Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and Bernard Rancillac through the manifesto exhibition Mythologies quotidiennes at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1964. A reaction against the dominant trend towards abstract art and the developing movement of Pop Art in North America, Télémaque’s Narrative Figuration often results in works with a Pop sensibility that incorporate consumer objects and signs. His painting No Title (The Ugly American), 1962/64, was included in the reinstallation of MoMA’s permanent collection as part of the museum’s reopening in 2019 following a renovation and expansion.

By tracing the arc of his career from the 1950s onwards and unravelling these multilayered and complex works, the exhibition reveals the relevance and resonance of his practice to our current moment. Through their cartoon-like style and fluid approach to medium, Télémaque’s works utilize playful metonymies for the pervasive structures that continue to underpin our lives, making his work as pertinent to current artistic discourses as it is to challenging the political and art-historical narratives of the past sixty years.

ABOUT THE ASPEN ART MUSEUM

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum is a globally engaged non-collecting contemporary art museum. Following the 2014 opening of the museum’s facility designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Shigeru Ban, the museum enjoys increased attendance, renewed civic interaction, and international media attention. In July 2017, the museum was one of ten institutions to receive the United States’ National Medal for Museum and Library Services for its educational outreach to rural communities in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley and its learning partnerships with civic and cultural partners within a 100-mile radius of the museum’s Aspen location.

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This exhibition is organized by Serpentine Galleries, London.