The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns, (Installation View) © Felix Clay 2013. Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery

Taking a diverse look at Marcel Duchamp’s influence on artists around the globe, the Barbican in London is currently presenting The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns, following the artist’s influence on several modern masters in the fields of composition, choreography and the visual arts. Featuring around 90 works by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, as well as choreographic work by Merce Cunningham and works by John Cage, the show takes great pleasure in crossing the disciplines of art, dance and music to reflect the multi-faceted work of these artists.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1950 replica of 1917 original) Photo Felix Clay 2013, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery. (more…)

Eugene Batz, “The Spatial Effects of Colors and Forms” from Kandinsky’s course (1929)

Bauhaus: Art as Life, on view at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, seeks to showcase not only the exceeding wealth of artistic production from this legendary school, but moreover to engage inspection of the cultural climate within which the foundation of modern design blossomed. The comprehensive collection of over 400 works, mined largely from the Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Museum für Gestaltung, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Klassik Stiftung Weimar, is the largest Bauhaus show in Britain in over 40 years, representing pieces from its radical founding in 1919 to its final closure in 1933, tracing the transitions in style, ideology and aesthetic through a chronological progression. The works featured include paintings, sculptures, photography, film, textiles, ceramics, theater and more—a diverse and expansive artistic output representing a period of high artistic innovation. From iconic Bauhaus master works to compositions by lesser known students, this exhibition encapsulates the notion of art as life, the inseparability of social community and artistic production, and the human experience of this artistic-social experiment. From furniture to puppetry, typography to photomontage, this diverse range of production signals the creative effluence from this beacon of modernism and avant-garde design in a show celebrating the playfulness of collaborative Bauhaus culture.

Otto Umbehr, Josef Albers and a group of students (1928)

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Installation view of Cory Arcangel, ‘Beat the Champ’ via Artdaily

Currently on view at London’s Barbican Gallery is “Beat the Champ” by Brooklyn-based Cory Arcangel, known for diverse and innovative work using DIY low-fi tech materials. Cory’s recent project for The Curve, a co-commission with the Whitney Museum of Art is an installation featuring 14 bowling video games from the 1970s to the 2000s. The artist has used custom-made electronics in order to hack each unit to play a loop game whereby the bowler fails to score.

Beat the Champ (2011) by Cory Arcangel, via Barbican Gallery

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