The 613 by Archie Rand at Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, JMU
August 30, 2018
The 613 by ARCHIE RAND
11 September – 13 October 2018
Events
11 September 2018, 5-6p / Wampler Lecture: Archie Rand - Duke 2036
12 September 2018, 5-7p / Artist Reception
13 September 2018, 1-2p / Archie Rand: In Conversation w/ Gallery Director
Gallery Hours
/ Tuesday through Saturday, 11a to 5p Extended Hours
/ FRI, 05 October 2018, 5-8p // First Fridays Downtown
/ SUN, 07 October 2018, 11-5p // Family Weekend
Harrisonburg, VA — Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University welcomes Brooklyn, NY painter and muralist Archie Rand (b. 1949) for the exhibition, The 613 by Archie Rand, which will be on view from 11 September – 13 October 2018. Rand visits the School of Art, Design and Art History as a Dorothy Liskey Wampler Distinguished Professor and will give a public lecture on Tuesday, 11 September, from 5-6pm in Duke Hall room 2036. The gallery will host Rand for an Artist Reception on Wednesday, 12 September, 2018 from 5-7pm. During his visit, Rand will meet individually with students, visit classes and engage in a public conversation with Gallery Director, John Ros on Wednesday, 13 September, 2018 from 1-2pm in the gallery.
Archie Rand forms a relentless narrative on many levels of cultural awareness, drawing on modern and contemporary art forms including, variously, pop art, children’s book illustration, film noir posters, and pulp fiction graphics. The 613 is a serial painting composed of 614 individual, sequential images (613 key panel paintings plus one introductory painting) inspired by the 613 Jewish commandments (mitzvot in Hebrew) extracted from the Old Testament. Taking five years to complete, The 613 is Rand’s largest non-mural work ever — and is arguably the world’s largest freestanding painting on canvas.
Only the third time on view for the public, The 613 was originally displayed on a warehouse wall in New York City for a one-day event in 2008 attracting over one thousand viewers. In 2017, The 613 exhibited at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, CA. Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art is thrilled to host this important artwork as the inaugural exhibition of our 2018-19 exhibition schedule and on view for the first time at a major institution on the US East Coast.
A serious and monumental work of contemporary art that grapples with and provokes contemplation on tradition, The 613 provides a simultaneous case for reverence and irreverence. It also affords an accessible vernacular iconography in its confrontation with, and homage to, belief systems and their corollary theoretical constructs. Unique and revolutionary, both magisterial and discomfiting, The 613 is a painting that is perfectly positioned to challenge the existing perimeters of discourse in its conscious relationship to Modernism and Post-modernism.
A film responding to the Kol Nidre prayer, a prayer of repentance, which is vaguely tangential to the focus of Rand’s The 613, directed and animated by Tatiana McCabe, will also be on view in the gallery along with a digital interactive to allow visitors the opportunity to access each of The 613 panels up close accompanied with the English translation of each mitzvot. A hardcover book, The 613 by Archie Rand, (Blue Rider Press/Penguin Random House) with color reproductions of each of the 614 panels and an essay by the artist will be available at the gallery for purchase.
The 613 by Archie Rand is organized by Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art in collaboration with Joan Brookbank Projects and the artist, Archie Rand.
MORE ON ARCHIE RAND // Archie Rand resides in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to assuming his current role of Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College, Rand was the chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Columbia University. He also served as the Director of the Hoffberger School of Painting and as Assistant Director of the Mount Royal Graduate Programs, both at the Maryland Institute College of Art. From 1992–1994 he was appointed Co-Chair of the National Studio Arts Program of the College Art Association and from 1998– 2003 served as Chair of the College Art Association National Committee for the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award.
Rand’s work as a painter and muralist is displayed around the world, including in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His graphic works and books are in over 400 public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and The New York Public Library, and are owned by many universities, among which are Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, and Johns Hopkins.
GALLERY INFO // Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art’s mission is to present the highest level of fine art experiences and to create an active space for robust discourse of vital issues facing our society. It is a space where the local community and academic community share ideas about contemporary art and our wider cultural experiences. Art breaks barriers between languages and brings us together to be inspired and knowledgeable citizens, no matter where we come from.
HI-RES IMAGES OF SELECT PANELS OF THE 613 AVAILABLE BY REQUEST.
WEB / jmu.edu/dukehallgallery
SOCIAL / @dukehallgallery #ArchieRand #the613
11 September – 13 October 2018
Events
11 September 2018, 5-6p / Wampler Lecture: Archie Rand - Duke 2036
12 September 2018, 5-7p / Artist Reception
13 September 2018, 1-2p / Archie Rand: In Conversation w/ Gallery Director
Gallery Hours
/ Tuesday through Saturday, 11a to 5p Extended Hours
/ FRI, 05 October 2018, 5-8p // First Fridays Downtown
/ SUN, 07 October 2018, 11-5p // Family Weekend
Harrisonburg, VA — Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University welcomes Brooklyn, NY painter and muralist Archie Rand (b. 1949) for the exhibition, The 613 by Archie Rand, which will be on view from 11 September – 13 October 2018. Rand visits the School of Art, Design and Art History as a Dorothy Liskey Wampler Distinguished Professor and will give a public lecture on Tuesday, 11 September, from 5-6pm in Duke Hall room 2036. The gallery will host Rand for an Artist Reception on Wednesday, 12 September, 2018 from 5-7pm. During his visit, Rand will meet individually with students, visit classes and engage in a public conversation with Gallery Director, John Ros on Wednesday, 13 September, 2018 from 1-2pm in the gallery.
Archie Rand forms a relentless narrative on many levels of cultural awareness, drawing on modern and contemporary art forms including, variously, pop art, children’s book illustration, film noir posters, and pulp fiction graphics. The 613 is a serial painting composed of 614 individual, sequential images (613 key panel paintings plus one introductory painting) inspired by the 613 Jewish commandments (mitzvot in Hebrew) extracted from the Old Testament. Taking five years to complete, The 613 is Rand’s largest non-mural work ever — and is arguably the world’s largest freestanding painting on canvas.
Only the third time on view for the public, The 613 was originally displayed on a warehouse wall in New York City for a one-day event in 2008 attracting over one thousand viewers. In 2017, The 613 exhibited at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, CA. Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art is thrilled to host this important artwork as the inaugural exhibition of our 2018-19 exhibition schedule and on view for the first time at a major institution on the US East Coast.
A serious and monumental work of contemporary art that grapples with and provokes contemplation on tradition, The 613 provides a simultaneous case for reverence and irreverence. It also affords an accessible vernacular iconography in its confrontation with, and homage to, belief systems and their corollary theoretical constructs. Unique and revolutionary, both magisterial and discomfiting, The 613 is a painting that is perfectly positioned to challenge the existing perimeters of discourse in its conscious relationship to Modernism and Post-modernism.
A film responding to the Kol Nidre prayer, a prayer of repentance, which is vaguely tangential to the focus of Rand’s The 613, directed and animated by Tatiana McCabe, will also be on view in the gallery along with a digital interactive to allow visitors the opportunity to access each of The 613 panels up close accompanied with the English translation of each mitzvot. A hardcover book, The 613 by Archie Rand, (Blue Rider Press/Penguin Random House) with color reproductions of each of the 614 panels and an essay by the artist will be available at the gallery for purchase.
The 613 by Archie Rand is organized by Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art in collaboration with Joan Brookbank Projects and the artist, Archie Rand.
MORE ON ARCHIE RAND // Archie Rand resides in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to assuming his current role of Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College, Rand was the chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Columbia University. He also served as the Director of the Hoffberger School of Painting and as Assistant Director of the Mount Royal Graduate Programs, both at the Maryland Institute College of Art. From 1992–1994 he was appointed Co-Chair of the National Studio Arts Program of the College Art Association and from 1998– 2003 served as Chair of the College Art Association National Committee for the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award.
Rand’s work as a painter and muralist is displayed around the world, including in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His graphic works and books are in over 400 public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and The New York Public Library, and are owned by many universities, among which are Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, and Johns Hopkins.
GALLERY INFO // Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art’s mission is to present the highest level of fine art experiences and to create an active space for robust discourse of vital issues facing our society. It is a space where the local community and academic community share ideas about contemporary art and our wider cultural experiences. Art breaks barriers between languages and brings us together to be inspired and knowledgeable citizens, no matter where we come from.
HI-RES IMAGES OF SELECT PANELS OF THE 613 AVAILABLE BY REQUEST.
WEB / jmu.edu/dukehallgallery
SOCIAL / @dukehallgallery #ArchieRand #the613
Contact:
John Ros, Director and Chief Curator, Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art
540-568-6407, rosjm@jmu.edu
