# @drawingcenter on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/7vgMUOR1xj
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/16049688-drawingcenter-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/39a867a8ac.jpg
- **Posted:** 2015-09-17T18:44:53.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Drawing Center (@drawingcenter) — https://gondola.cc/drawingcenter

## Caption

Throwback Thursday

In 2002, The Drawing Center exhibited "Ellen Gallagher: Preserve" introducing a new series of mixed-media drawings taken from advertisements in mid-century black culture magazines. The exhibition also featured the artist's first sculptural project: a three-dimensional jungle gym construction. "Ellen Gallagher: Preserve" originated at the Des Moines Art Center and was organized by Jeff Fleming.

Art21 writes on Gallagher: “ Repetition and revision are central to Gallagher’s treatment of advertisements that she appropriates from popular magazines like "Ebony," "Our World," and "Sepia" and uses in works like "eXelento" (2004) and "DeLuxe" (2004–05). Initially, Gallagher was drawn to the wig advertisements because of their grid-like structure. Later, she realized that it was the accompanying language that attracted her, and she began to bring these “narratives” into her paintings—making them function through the characters of the advertisements, as a kind of chart of lost worlds. Although the work has often been interpreted strictly as an examination of race, Gallagher also suggests a more formal reading with respect to materials, processes, and insistences. From afar, the work appears abstract and minimal; upon closer inspection, googly eyes, reconfigured wigs, tongues, and lips of minstrel caricatures multiply in detail. Gallagher has been influenced by the sublime aesthetics of Agnes Martin’s paintings, as well the subtle shifts and repetitions of Gertrude Stein’s writing.“ Read the whole post and find links to ART 21 interviews on art21.org.

#TBT #EllenGallagher #ART21 art21org 
Images: Ellen Gallagher, Untitled, Preserve, 2001

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## Tags

ellengallagher, tbt, art21

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