Ed Ruscha American, b. 1937

Featuring paintings, works on paper, sculpture, film, and archival ephemera from the SFMOMA Library, and SFAI archive, this ambitious exhibition showcases museum-quality works by contemporary and historical artists, illustrating Berggruen...

Exhibiting Artists:

Tauba Auerbach | John Baldessari | Larry Bell | Helen Berggruen | Sarah Blaustein | Katherine Boxall | Val Britton | Christopher Brown | Andy Burgess | Dean Byington | Bruce Cohen | Adriane Colburn | Travis Collinson | Mark di Suvero | June Edmonds | Charles Gaines | Daniel Gibson | Isca Greenfield-Sanders | Michael Gregory | Stephen Hannock | Sarah Hotchkiss | Seth Kaufman | Clare Kirkconnell | Matt Kleberg | Anna Kunz | Charles Lee | Barry McGee | Klea McKenna | Tom McKinley | Vanessa Marsh | Richard Misrach | Nicole Mueller | Ed Ruscha | Richard Serra | Jillian Shea | Stephanie H. Shih | Kyle Warren Smith | Joni Sternbach | Marie Thibeault | Dani Tull | Darren Waterston | Griff Williams | Jonas Wood | Christopher Woodcock

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present The Time is Now, a group exhibition featuring Doug Aitken, Darren Almond, Diane Arbus, Richard Artschwager, Michael Craig-Martin, Hans Peter-Feldmann, Lee Friedlander, Philip Guston, Jasper Johns, Karen Kilimnik, Vera Lutter, Christian Marclay, Tom McKinley, Tin Ojeda, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Linda Ridgway, Ugo Rondinone, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore, Taryn Simon and Lawrence Weiner.



The Time is Now brings together a group of works that acknowledge and contend with the representation of time (past, present and future), and how it is reinterpreted and revealed across diverse media. Through drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and light this exhibition illustrates the continuing human fascination with exploring the concept of time, both in the metaphysical and physical sense. This exhibition evades easy classification, with each artist bringing their own experience to one of the oldest topics that defies the typical social, cultural and political context.



In its most literal sense, the clock serves as a common allegorical image to convey how we calculate the presence of time within our lives. Philip Guston’s colorful, almost whimsical portrait of a timepiece shows the city below, dwarfed and eventually crushed by the presence of a large clock. For a more abstract representation, there is Doug Aitken’s lightbox depicting a beautiful island vista glimpsed simply through the ominous word “END.” Both of these images speak directly to the fear underlying every artist’s curiosity and obsession with the progression of time.



Another interesting element is the effect of the passage of time on the work itself. In 1967, Lee Friedlander was documenting everyday American life, while today his snapshot of a television in “Aloha, Washington,” is an artifact, depicting obsolete technology rendering his image to a specific period within our history. This overarching theme is segmented even further as the work featured stretches from the early 1960’s to present day, created by artists both living and dead born between 1913 and 1982.



Grouped together, all of these images display the impulse to transcend our inevitable circumstances and capture or define the ultimate progression of time, an unstoppable force. The result is a group show that circumnavigates the expectations of typical group shows, turning the viewer into part of the experience, by reminding us all of the importance of each passing minute.



The exhibition will be on view April 4-May 4, 2013 on two floors of exhibition space. John Berggruen Gallery will host a reception on Thursday, April 4th between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.



The exhibit will coincide with Christain Marclay’s film “The Clock” being shown at SFMOMA from April 6th – June 2nd.



For further information and photographs, please contact the gallery at (415) 781-4629 or info@berggruen.com.