Inside the Bruce High Quality Foundation University exhibition at Susan Inglett gallery. 2009, Via Susan Inglett.
Currently showing at Susan Inglett is an exhibition by members of the artist collective Bruce High Quality Foundation. The artist group, which consists of five anonymous Bruces– all graduates of Cooper Union– launched their own free and unaccredited ‘University’ in September of 2009. Admission to the school is granted through peer-recommendation and lessons in areas such as ‘metaphor manipulation’ are offered. The current exhibition, entitled the ‘Bruce High Quality Foundation University,’ (B.H.Q.F.U.), marks the end of the group’s ‘University’ semester and displays work that speaks on behalf of the school’s curriculum and studied themes. The show also explores project plans for the school’s future. Perhaps the most critical issues addressed are those pertaining to the ‘over commercialization’ and ‘market-driven’ nature of the contemporary art school system.
Part of the Bruce High Quality Foundation University exhibition at Susan Inglett gallery. 2009, Via Susan Inglett. It’s been said that the five anonymous Bruces “guard their anonymity fiercely.”
More text, images and related links after the jump…
An installation piece; part of Bruce High Quality Foundation University exhibition at Susan Inglett gallery. 2009, Via Susan Inglett.
The model University, which launched this past September of 2009 in New York, was founded as a kind of reactive response against the “$200,000-debt-model of arts education.” The group’s proposed system, instead, offers a free, collaborative education where ‘students are teachers are administrators are staff.’ The curriculum of the The Bruce High Quality Foundation University focuses on art history– specifically on new contributions to the art world and studio critiques. An excerpt from their “prolegmena to any future art school’ reads:
“Something’s got to give. The $200,000-debt-model of art education is simply untenable. Further, the education artists are getting for their money is mired in irrelevance, pushing them into critical redundancy on the one hand and professional mediocrity on the other. Blind romanticism and blind professionalism are in a false war alienating artists from their better histories…”
The group is known for their conceptual sculpture, which is often infused with references to art history. Image part of Bruce High Quality Foundation University exhibition at Susan Inglett gallery. 2009, Via Susan Inglett.
“A University, a space for higher education and research, a community of scholars; an expansion of the BHQF practice to include more participants; and a ‘fuck-you’ to the hegemony of critical solemnity and market-mediocre despair [B.H.Q.F.U.].’
Inside the Bruce High Quality Foundation University exhibition at Susan Inglett gallery. 2009, Via Susan Inglett.
The group has designed their curriculum to include lecture topics like ‘Occult Shenanigans in 20th/21st Century Art,’ ‘What’s a Metaphor?’ The B.H.Q.F.U. Detective Agency, and ‘Edifying.’ The resulting program represents a kind of alternative model of teaching and collaboration in response to frustrations and failures in both the current art school eduction system as well as in the current economic model of the art market. Inspiration for the concept was drawn, partly, from the Summerhill boarding school in Britain– founded by A.S. Neill in the 1920’s– where children and teachers have an equal say in all decisions.
Inside the Bruce High Quality Foundation University exhibition at Susan Inglett gallery. 2009, Via Susan Inglett. The group’s ‘University’ is represented by public arts organization Creative Time.
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, formed in 2004, has attracted attention for their subversive nature of operation as a collective artist group and for their witty institutional critique and societal commentary. Their December 2009 show in Miami for Art Basel–during which a dinner was held in their honor at the W Hotel– was curated by Vito Schnabel, son of the artist Julian Schnabel. The anonymous group will be among the artists to be represented at the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
Related Links:
The Bruce High Quality Foundation [B.H.Q.F]
Artists without Mortar Boards [NYTimes]
The Bruce High Quality Foundation [Susan Inglett]
Bruce High Quality Foundation Speaks About their Work [CreativeTime]
Money Talks [Artnet]
The Bruce High Quality Foundation University [NYArtbeat]
-G.Suter
