Matt Mullican: The Mit Project

Arts & Photography

Mullican, Matt

Individual Artists

Massachusetts Inst Technology

Matt Mullican: World Frame

Univ of South Florida Contemporary

Matt Mullican is an American artist and a member of the "Pictures Generation" along with such artists as Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, David Salle, Jim Welling, Sherri Levine, Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler, Richard Prince and Robert Longo. His practice addresses systems of knowledge, language, meaning, and signification whilst focusing in upon the relationship between perception and reality, in a sense, the seeing of something and its subsequent representation. The Meaning of Things documents the results of Mulligan?s summer school at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Italy. The exhibition revolves around Untitled, a set of four banners made by Mullican for his solo exhibition at Le Magasin, Grenoble 1990, and then shown only one more time due to the large size of each element comprising the work. The banners show a repertoire of stylized figures that, following a code elaborated by the artist, summarize key aspects of reality and human experience. The symbols are divided into five areas: red (subjective understanding), black (language), yellow (arts), blue (the real world as life and meaning we experience without being aware), green (physical elements). The visual language of the banners is extremely immediate, similar to that of commercial logos, urban signage or heraldry?a comparison that feels very appropriate given the setting in which the work is exhibited. Simultaneously, the meaning of the symbols, and the system they form, requires the viewer to develop an understanding of the code elaborated by the artist. The fifth in our continuing series with Fondazione Antonio Ratti, The Meaning of Things once again contributes to the understanding of the processes engaged in by the artist, by looking at the collaborative nature of the workshops and the collective narrative that is created, forming an invaluable resource for students, curators and artists alike.

Matt Mullican: The Meaning Of Things: Who Feels The Most Pain

Black Dog Press

As ludic and nonauthoritarian as John Baldessari’s art, this new monograph on the “father of conceptual art” is dedicated to his practice as an artist and a teacher, and the many ways in which they intertwine. Having been trained as an arts educator, John Baldessari (born 1931) is renowned for his work as much as for his innovative class at CalArts, Los Angeles, where he has formed many generations of artists and helped shape the West Coast art scene. Organized alphabetically, Learning to Read with John Baldessari―which accompanies a retrospective at Museo Jumex, Mexico City―includes an essay on the artist’s approaches to art-making and teaching; a biography of the artist as a teacher; artworks reproduced thematically; and stories and anecdotes from former students such as Liz Craft, Ed Henderson, Matt Mullican, Tony Oursler and David Salle, about their years at CalArts.

Learning to Read with John Baldessari

Bickerton, Ashley

Salle, David

Cranston, Meg

González, Julieta

Welling, James

Oursler, Tony

Hammonds, Kit

Craft, Liz

History & Criticism

JRP|Ringier

Throughout his three-decade career, artist Matt Mullican has always been more concerned with what we think we see than with what we see, taking as a foundational truth the notion that we understand the world primarily through our imagination. Working in various media, Mullican's unique artistic vision concerns itself with a universe of simple yet mysteriously resonant graphic symbols. Drawing on the language of warning labels and highway signs, Mullican has created an unorthodox body of work that occupies a unique place in the world of contemporary art--his piece Five Into One (1991) was one of the earliest artistic forays into the medium of virtual reality. Details From an Imaginary Universe collects Mullican's videos, installations, and drawings from 1972 up to the present day, providing a comprehensive overview of this artist who has tapped and explored our collective visions of a world that in its very familiarity is utterly alien to us.

Matt Mullican: More Details From An Imaginary Universe

Sherer, Daniel

O'Dell, Kathy

Schmidt-Wulffen, Stephan

McCollum, Allan

Tarantino, Michael

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Hopefulmonster

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Books by Mullican, Matt