The New York Times - USA (2020-10-15)

THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 Y C3

Simone Leigh, a Brooklyn-based sculptor
whose large-scale works address the social
histories and subjective experiences of
Black women, will represent the United
States at the next Venice Biennale in April

2022. The first African-American woman to
      receive this honor, among the art world’s
      most prestigious, Ms. Leigh was selected by
      the State Department’s Bureau of Educa-
      tional and Cultural Affairs on the recom-
      mendation of museum professionals and
      artists convened by the National Endow-
      ment for the Arts.
      “I feel like I’m a part of a larger group of
      artists and thinkers who have reached criti-
      cal mass,” Ms Leigh, 52, said. “And despite
      the really horrific climate that we’ve
      reached, it still doesn’t distract me from the

fact of how amazing it is to be a Black artist

right now.”

The last two U.S. representatives to the

Biennale — Martin Puryear, also a sculptor,

in 2019, and Mark Bradford, a painter, in

2017 — are Black artists, as well. The next

edition was originally scheduled for May

2021, but the pandemic forced it to be post-

poned a year.

Working primarily in ceramics, Ms.

Leigh has long elevated the labor of Black

women. She has fused representations of

their bodies with vernacular architectural

forms from Africa or utilitarian vessels such

as jugs and pitchers, made and used

throughout the African diaspora.

These distinctive figures, sometimes

faceless and veering into abstraction, have

been holding court in New York recently,

from the 2019 Whitney Biennial to a solo ex-

hibition at the Guggenheim Museum after

the artist won the institution’s Hugo Boss

Prize in 2018. Ms. Leigh’s majestic 16-foot-

tall bronze bust, titled “Brick House,” gaz-

ing down 10th Avenue from the High Line

Plinth since 2019, celebrates Black female

beauty and strength — not often commemo-

rated in the public sphere. (The Kenyan-

American artist Wangechi Mutu recently

offered another alternative to monuments

in her sculptures of female figures for the

facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Ms. Leigh’s exhibition at the U.S. Pavil-

ion, a 1930s Palladian-style space with a ro-

tunda and Doric columns, is co-commis-

sioned by Jill Medvedow, director of the In-

stitute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and

its chief curator, Eva Respini, who is also or-

ganizing the artist’s first survey exhibition

at the Boston museum in 2023.

Ms. Medvedow said she could not think of

an artist better suited to representing the

United States at this time. “The idea of Si-

mone Leigh in Venice does disrupt the nar-

rative of 400-plus years of American his-

tory,” she said. “Her sculptures are really

commanding in the space they occupy. The

scale and presence and magnificence of her

figures are so demanding of visibility.”

The neoclassical building sits inside the

Giardini, the Venice park that hosts the na-

tional pavilions. Ms. Leigh plans to do an

outdoor monumental bronze statuary in the

forecourt, framed by the building’s archi-

tectural colonnade, and a series of sculp-

tures and installations throughout the five

interior galleries. “It’s surprisingly similar

to working in a space like the White House

that just has many layers of meaning,” said

Ms. Leigh, who anticipates using ceramic

materials, raffia and steel in addition to

bronze. “I am aware of those histories as

I’m building the exhibition.”

She declined to go into greater detail on

what she intends to do, given that the show

is a year and a half away and may well

change, other than to say it will be anchored

by some texts on Black feminist theory,

which is how she typically conceptualizes

her exhibitions.

The “stiffness” of the U.S. Pavilion can be

hard to manage, said Cecilia Alemani, direc-

tor and chief curator of High Line Art, who

commissioned Ms. Leigh’s “Brick House”

and is serving as the artistic director of the

international group exhibition in the 2022

Venice Biennale.

“On the High Line, Simone confronted

the history of sculpture and monumental-

ity,” said Ms. Alemani, noting that the artist

chose the traditional technique of bronze

figurative sculpture — the same medium as

the Confederate statues now being re-

moved from public spaces — to present a

symbol of something very different. “It’s a

similar relationship with history when it

comes to the American pavilion,” she con-

tinued. “Her challenge will be to turn that

space upside down metaphorically with the

stories that she’ll be able to tell through her

artwork.”

In a partnership with Spelman College,

the historically Black liberal arts college for

women in Atlanta, the artist and the cura-

tors from the Institute of Contemporary Art

will work directly with students on all as-

pects of the Venice commission as part of a

training program for museum professionals

and scholars. “It’s one of my favorite parts

of the project,” said Ms. Leigh, who has of-

ten collaborated with communities of Black

feminists in her own performances and vid-

eo-based works.

“Given the Black female subjectivity of

Simone’s topic,” Ms. Medvedow said, the

Spelman partnership “felt like a tremen-

dous opportunity and part of this overdue

cultural shift about who needs to be repre-

sented and how we’re assigning represen-

tation in our field.”

At Venice Biennale,

A First for the U.S.

Simone Leigh, who explores

Black women’s stories, will

create an exhibition for 2022.

SHANIQWA JARVIS; SIMONE LEIGH AND HAUSER & WIRTH

Top, “Jug,” from 2019, bronze. Above, “No Face
(House)” from 2020, made from terra-cotta,
porcelain, India ink, epoxy and raffia.

By HILARIE M. SHEETS

Simone Leigh at Stratton

Sculpture Studios in

Philadelphia, where she

fabricates and casts her

large-scale bronzes and other

works. Ms. Leigh was selected

to represent the United States

at the next Venice Biennale.

SIMONE LEIGH AND THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM

FOUNDATION; DAVID HEALD

SIMONE LEIGH AND THE MENIL COLLECTION; DAN BRADICA

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ACROSS

1 Key for

Tchaikovsky’s

“1812 Overture”

6 A house may be

built on it

10 Burlesque

accessories

14 Web-footed

mammals

15 A goose egg

16 Gimlet garnish

17 —

18 Locale suggested

by this puzzle’s

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20 Malcolm Gladwell

best seller that

explores the

10,000-hour rule

22 Ice cream

container

23 Virginia Woolf’s

“___ Dalloway”

24 Statue of ___,

figure atop the

U.S. Capitol

26 ___ culpa

29 Autobahn hazard

30 Elflike

31 Big hopper

32 Things with

perks?

36 —

37 “I need to speak

with you,” briefly

38 Capote sobriquet

39 Cartomancy tool

40 Brand of spread

for sandwiches

and toast

41 Bouncer’s

equipment

43 —

44 Ingredient in a

Cuban sandwich

45 Spanish

23-Across: Abbr.

46 Holy Trinity part

47 Ones coming for

a ride?

49 Select

52 Wood rich in

tannins

53 “Yankee Doodle”

epithet that’s

also the name of

a food

55 Nickname for

18-Across, and a

hint to how four

answers in this

puzzle are to be

entered

59 Instrument

played using

circular breathing

60 Nashville music

mecca, informally

61 “Old MacDonald”

sound

62 —

63 Where Achilles

took a dip?

64 Little ones

65 They can be

treated with warm

compresses

DOWN

1 English town

known for its salt

2 ___ de sel

3 Goes the

distance

4 ___ Gawande,

author of the

2014 best seller

“Being Mortal”

5 Embodied

6 Catch

7 Take five

8 S.I. V.I.P.s

9 Balls of yarn,

fake mice, etc.

10 Gossip

11 Big Alaska export

12 “You think that’s

true about me?”

13 “SpongeBob

SquarePants”

setting

19 ___ Rebellion,

1808 uprising in

New South Wales

21 Language that

gave us “spunk”

and “slogan”

25 Piece of

information

26 Performers of

the ceremonial

haka dance

27 Noted example

of corporate

misconduct

28 Stone with

curved bands

29 Violinist Zimbalist

31 Dweller in a

eucalyptus forest

32 Capitulates

33 Have a loan from

34 Strand at the

airport, maybe

35 Letter-shaped

part of a sink

39 Whirled powers?

41 What it takes two

to tie

42 Time it takes

light to travel

.3 mm: Abbr.

47 Novelist Santha

Rama ___

48 Grades

49 Hot alcoholic

drink

50 1973 #1 Rolling

Stones love

ballad

51 Fishing spots

52 Traditional

gemstone for a

seventh wedding

anniversary

54 Gas

55 Galas

56 Make a decision

57 Sardonic

58 Italian god

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