Guggenheim

Themes and Variations: From the Mark to Zero
From left to right: Carlo Carrà, Manifestazione interventista, 1914 and Maurizio Nannucci, Changing Place, Changing Time, Changing Thoughts, Changing Future, 2003

From left to right: Carlo Carrà, Manifestazione interventista, 1914. Gianni Mattioli Collection, Venice. © Carlo Carrà, by SIAE 2009. Maurizio Nannucci, Changing Place, Changing Time, Changing Thoughts, Changing Future, 2003. Private Collection, Stetten, Germany

Themes and Variations: From the Mark to Zero

March 21–May 17, 2009

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents Themes and Variations: From the Mark to Zero, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero. This exhibition draws upon the museum’s permanent collections from the early 20th century to the post World War II period, enriched by loans from other collections. It charts the progress of the pictorial mark chronologically and thematically: from typography to collage; from letters to numbers; from the iteration of gesture and signs; and eventually sublimating into monochromatic works, beyond which the only possible condition is the void. As a "variation" of this theme, the exhibition includes Vigil, a one-man show of paintings by Jason Martin. Martin, one of the most creative young British artists of his generation, was invited to interpret grade zero with a series of canvases specifically created for this exhibition.