Tacita Dean at Mudam Luxembourg

July 9, 2022–February 5, 2023

The Dante Project (2021), a ballet based on The Divine Comedy, and One Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting (2021), a 16mm filmed conversation between the artists Luchita Hurtado and Julie Mehretu, are the two recent projects that serve as the foundation of this solo exhibition of the celebrated artist Tacita Dean, which is displayed across two galleries on the upper floor of the museum.

Tacita Dean (born 1965 in Canterbury) has created a unique body of work since the early 1990s employing a variety of media, including cinema, photography, sound, drawing, printmaking, and collage. Her art, which covers a wide range of subjects, is distinguished by a meticulous awareness of time, a great interest in history, and a love of the little things in life.

The Dante Project, a ballet based on The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1265, Florence–1321, Ravenna), for which Tacita Dean created the sets and costumes, is the subject of the first section of her exhibition at Mudam, in the East Gallery. Tacita Dean created a trilogy of works in different media (a monumental blackboard drawing, a photographic work, and a 35mm film) for the ballet’s three acts, which respond to the three cantiche that make up Dante’s poem (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso), that move from negative to positive, monochrome to color, and from representation to abstraction, plotting Dante’s journey through the underworld. Additional The Dante Project-related pieces in the gallery and the hallway round out the ensemble.

The second section of the show at the West Gallery revolves around One Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting, which is displayed in a pavilion that has been constructed in the middle of the area. The movie depicts a discussion between Julie Mehretu (1970, Addis Abeba) and Luchita Hurtado (1920, Caracas-2020, Santa Monica), which was captured on camera in the latter’s Santa Monica residence during the first few days of 2020. The two women converse openly about their lives and personal trajectories, as well as painting and their artistic methods. Paintings by Julie Mehretu and Luchita Hurtado are displayed in the pavilion alongside the movie, establishing a new dialogue between the three artists’ respective bodies of work.

Three collections of works (two lithograph series and a group of slate drawings) fill the remaining space of the gallery, echoing the pieces on display in the pavilion. All three collections share the shifting motif of Los Angeles’ sky, where the artist has a second base of operations. Buon Fresco (2014), a movie that has as its topic the Italian frescoes of Giotto (1266, Vespignano-1337, Florence) in the Upper Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, is currently showing at the Small West Gallery.

Curators: Suzanne Cotter and Christophe Gallois, assisted by Clémentine Proby

Also on view 
Monika Sosnowska through August 21, 2022
Isamu Noguchi / Danh Vo: a cloud and flowers through September 4, 2022
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Fly In League With The Night through September 5, 2022
Hana Miletić through September 18, 2022
25 years of the Mudam Collection through January 2, 2023
Martine Feipel and Jean Bechameil. Garden of Resistance through January 9, 2023

Mudam Luxembourg – Grand Museum of Modern Art Duc Jean encourages everyone to participate in culture and to be creative and open-minded. Mudam is located in Europe, similar to Luxembourg, but has a worldwide perspective. Mudam is dedicated to fostering a more diverse, tolerant, and responsible society in which museums take the lead in passing on our cultural heritage to coming generations.

Our goal is to collect, preserve, and make widely accessible the most important contemporary art of the moment. Mudam promotes study and discourse through its exhibitions, publications, and artistic and educational programs, paying particular attention to the changing nature of art and its creation around the world.