Viewing page 35 of 158

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART
1280 PEACHTREE STREET, N.E. / ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30309 / telephone 892-3600 GUDMUND VIGTEL, Director

November 12, 1971

Mr. Robert Rauschenberg
c/o Leo Castelli Gallery
4 East 77th Street
New York, New York 10028

Dear Mr. Rauschenberg:

[[right margin]] 27 Nov bw]] [[/right margin]]

The High Museum of Art is planning an exhibition of contemporary American art and its roots in the art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to be held from April 16 to June 11, 1972.

A few years ago, Leo Steinberg wrote an important essay on "Contemporary Art and the Plight of Its Public" in which he said that the alienation between the contemporary artist and society cannot be charged, as is so often done, merely to an elitist bourgeoisie. The reasons for the alienation are complex and the solutions lie largely outside the ken and ability of the artist and the public.  The proposed exhibition at the High Museum, however, is predicated on the belief that art museums can help bridge this cultural gap through genuinely educational exhibitions, especially in regions where the public has had little opportunity to see the best exponents of modern and contemporary art.

We hope to be able to show the work of about 20 artists working today who can be considered leading representatives of problematic trends, with key work by some of the pioneers of these trends, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Instead of a catalogue, which often is of limited use to an ordinary museumgoer, large lettered texts discussing the trends, the artists and the specific works will be displayed; blow-ups and transparencies will be utilized; the customary lectures and lecture tours will be increased.

Marcel Duchamp once said that "... the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world...and thus adds his contribution to the creative act." It is our desire to do everything we can to bring the work of art to the spectator in this sense.


a founding member of THE ATLANTA ARTS ALLIANCE, INC. [[image - logo]]