TACITA DEAN (Image on top)
FOUND POSTCARD MONOPRINT (THE PHANTOM SHIP)
2018
found postcard with printer ink
14 x 12 1/8 x 1 5/8 inches (framed)
JULIE MEHRETU (Image on bottom)
MONOTYPE #36
2018
monotype with printer ink and occasional acrylic on hahnemühle copperplate 300gsm
23 5/8 x 30 5/16 inches (framed)
For their summer 2018 exhibition at Marian Goodman’s Paris gallery, longtime friends Tacita Dean and Julie Mehretu created a series of 45 monotypes each, in parallel, to commemorate Goodman’s 90th birthday. The works were sold as pairs, and each pair must always be installed together. For her half of the project, Dean altered found postcards with printer ink, obscuring the images, while also adding a painterly touch. Dean — known for her films, sound work, drawings, and photographs — frequently uses found images, not necessarily because she is drawn to the stories they might tell, but more for their presence as silent objects emerging from the past. Mehretu’s monotypes feature the expertly composed mesh of expressive marks she is known for, made by dappling, smearing, spraying, and erasing the ink before the plate is sent through the press. Dean has been the recipient of various awards including the Kurt Schwitters Prize in 2009, and the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006. In 2014 she became an artist-in-residence at the Getty Research Institute. Mehretu has received international recognition for her work, including, in 2005, the American Art Award from the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the prestigious MacArthur Fellows Award. In 2015 Mehretu was awarded the US Department of State Medal of Arts Award. Both Dean and Mehretu have been the subject of solo exhibitions worldwide and are included in major museum collections.