Exhibition Dates: September 5, 2021–January 16, 2022
Two important new works by UT Professor of Studio Art Teresa Hubbard and Professor of Practice Alexander Birchler, Flora and Bust, both 2017, have joined the Modern’s permanent collection, which already includes their Grand Paris Texas, 2009, and Holes, 1997. Flora is based on Hubbard / Birchler’s discoveries about the unknown American artist Flora Mayo, with whom the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti had a love affair in Paris in the 1920s. While Giacometti is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, Mayo’s oeuvre has been destroyed and her biography relegated to a footnote in Giacometti scholarship.
Flora and Bust premiered in the Swiss Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale and will be on view at the Modern from September 5, 2021, through January 16, 2022. The site-responsive installation at the Modern will also include Archive, Flora Luella Lewis Mayo, which incorporates a selection of the artists’ sketches and journals, as well as a chronology exploring the intersection of Flora Mayo and Alberto Giacometti’s biographies. Hubbard / Birchler’s research is centered around their discovery of an art historical error which led to Mayo being misidentified and consequently removed from art history.
Learn more at the Modern's website. On October 9, Hubbard / Birchler will be offering a private tour through the exhibition for University of Texas at Austin students and colleagues. More information to follow.