Installation view of Vik Muniz, Rebus at the Museum of Modern Art. Muniz chose to include Abelardo Morell's Lightbulb (1991) photograph, in the museum's permanent collection, in the exhibition. Photograph by Thomas Griesel.
ARTIST'S CHOICE
VIK MUNIZ, REBUS
11 December 2008 - 23 February 2009
MoMA, Floor 3, Exhibition Galleries
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961) is the ninth artist to participate in Artist’s Choice, a series of exhibitions in which an artist serves as curator, selecting works from MoMA’s vast collection to create an exhibition. In his work, Muniz inventively questions the function and traditions of visual representation by using unlikely materials to render the subjects in his photographs. For this exhibition, Muniz has chosen a rebus—a combination of unrelated visual and linguistic elements to create a larger deductive meaning—as the organizing principle of his presentation. The exhibition will feature approximately 80 works of sculpture, photography, painting, prints, drawings, video, and design objects selected and installed by the artist in a narrative sequence to create surprising juxtapositions and new meanings. Among the artists whose work will be on view are Eugène Atget, Edward Weston, and Abelardo Morell.
