University of Edinburgh Collecting and Art Market Research Cluster

[Image caption: Ed Kienholz, Turgid TV, 1968, installed in Gallery 669’s kitchen during his show The Eleventh Hour Final. Courtesy of the Eugenia P. Butler Estate.]

Please join us on Tuesday 23 February 2021 - 17:30-18:45 GMT for a lecture and discussion with LA-based art critic Catherine G. Wagley.

Catherine G. Wagley's current book project is a case history and an excavation of the work of five gallerists whose lives intertwined and whose programs overlapped: Virginia Dwan, Riko Mizuno, Eugenia Butler, Suzanne Jackson, and Claire Copley. They operated galleries in Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s and were similarly under-known and instrumental in encouraging a generation of artists to take risks. None have been written about thoroughly or often, despite the fact that many of the artists they nurtured have since been canonized. While this project certainly aims to fill a gap in a still-imbalanced historical record, another big picture aim is to share that excitement with readers who feel hungry for different, more open models for what working and living with art can look like. This talk focuses particularly on Butler’s short years at the helm of her eponymous space (1969-71), exploring how her propensity for collapsing her personal life into the lives of her artists led to a program in which nearly everything felt like defiant spectacle.

Catherine G. Wagley writes about art in Los Angeles. She is a contributing editor at Momus and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (Carla), and she has written criticism and journalism for the LA Times, X-TRA and ArtNews, among other publications. She is working on a book about a group of female gallerists who embraced and encouraged risk-taking in 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles.

This event hosted by the University of Edinburgh Collecting and Art Market Research Cluster. The interdisciplinary Collecting and Art Market Research Cluster welcomes all those interested in collecting, the art market and related issues. The cluster provides a forum for discussion and presentation through holding regular seminars, workshops and talks by invited speakers, as well as Edinburgh-based researchers – both students and staff, and from disciplines as diverse as art history, business and sociology. Individuals have the opportunity to present their latest findings to a specialist audience in a relaxed environment.

Please note this session will be hosted via Zoom. Once you have registered, you will receive a link/login details to join the session. Please note that by registering you agree to being recorded.

To learn more about the Collecting and Art Market Research Cluster or to read about future events, please visit:

https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/research/collecting-and-art-market-research-cluster

To join our mailing list, please write to marykate.cleary@ed.ac.uk or frances.fowle@ed.ac.uk.