Revelation: The Art of James Magee
September 4 - November 28, 2010
Over the past four decades, James Magee has produced a compelling body of work that has rarely been seen in public. His great project, The Hill, an extraordinary art and architectural installation in the desert near El Paso, has been constructed largely by hand over the past thirty years and will take its place among the great American artistic monuments as it approaches completion in ca. 2025. Revelation: The Art of James Magee is the first major museum exhibition of the artist’s work in 18 years and coincides with the publication of the first monograph dedicated to this remarkable figure. Focusing on the work Magee produces in his El Paso studio, the exhibition features a number of Magee's extraordinary relief sculptures, while the publication brings crucial public and scholarly attention both to The Hill, and to the artist's studio practice.
Using an astonishing array of materials—bits of iron, glass, concrete, wax, enamel, lead, wire mesh, linoleum, grease, brake fluid, shellac, car parts, ceramic tiles, roof panels, even hibiscus, honey, and paprika—Magee creates powerful, sensuous sculptural reliefs. Often framed in steel behind protective glazing, the works function as poetic paradoxes, preserving the broken, rusted, decaying materials they contain. The artist occasionally extends the experience of the works in their elaborate “titles,” prose poems that Magee intones only for the rare, fortunate visitor, recordings of which will be available in the exhibition.
Revelation: The Art of James Magee is organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center. Essential support is provided by The Eugene McDermott Foundation, Nancy A. Nasher & David J. Haemisegger, Steven Platzman, Nona & Richard Barrett, and Caren H. Prothro.
Mine Shaft, 1995–98
Steel, shatterproof glass, rubber, staples, salt, and rust water
48 x 64 x 6 ½ in.
Courtesy of the artist
© James Magee