SUNDARAM
TAGORE AND THE NEW CENTER OF PSYCHOANALYSIS PRESENT
JANE McADAM
FREUDŐS FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN LOS ANGELES
Exhibition Dates: September
16 - October 9, 2010
Opening Cocktail Reception:
Thursday, September 16, 6 - 8 pm
Beverly
Hills, Calif., August 1, 2010—
For Random, her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, young British
sculptor and multidisciplinary artist Jane McAdam Freud, great granddaughter of
Sigmund Freud and daughter of painter Lucian Freud, unveils sculptures rooted
in Freudian theories of dreams, sexuality, and repeated experiences.
Using clay, bronze, and
copper, she creates intensely tactile works that possess a primordial quality.
Her sculptures represent a dialogue between the conscious and unconscious,
known and unknown, present and past. Co-curated by Los Angeles psychoanalyst
Esther Dreifuss-Kattan, this exhibition looks at Sigmund FreudŐs contribution
to psychology in the context of contemporary art. A selection of the artistŐs
pencil drawings will also be on view.
At the core of McAdam
FreudŐs work lies a fascination with familial lineage. Her monumental sculpture
Sisyphus, for instance, references the Greek myth. Composed with roughly
textured clay, the sculpture consists of an amorphous body
that almost becomes part of
the boulder it is pushing. SisyphusŐ actions represent the Freudian notion of a
transgenerational link—the repetition of what we know and what is
familiar to us regardless of its detrimental effect.
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FreudŐs theories on dreams
are also important in the artistŐs work. Several of her sculptures are derived
from the idea of condensation developed by Freud in his book The
Interpretation of Dreams. According to Freud, we unconsciously repress
unacceptable desires by recombining and reconstructing these thoughts so they
take on a new form. In dreams, we substitute repressed thoughts with more
acceptable thoughts. Thus one object in a dream may have many different
associations. McAdam Freud plays with such ideas by creating sculptures that
collapse several images into one form. In other works, the artist examines
FreudŐs ideas on latent libidinal instincts. Her clay sculpture 1 + 1,
for instance, is a larger-than-life male figure sprawled across the floor in mid-orgasm.
Through overtly phallic imagery, McAdam Freud provokes questions about sexual
instinct suggesting that it is a unifying force that drives all humans.
Alongside exploring Sigmund
FreudŐs theories, the artist investigated his vast collection of Egyptian,
Greek, Roman, and Asian antiquities, which he often used to illustrate those
theories. She found, to her surprise, that her great grandfather collected
medals, reliefs and busts, figures, and fragments, all of which are forms she
had been creating for years. This overlap and the idea of ancestral links
prompted a series of drawings. Through her extensive exploration of this art
collection and careful study of his ideas, McAdam Freud makes palpable FreudŐs
most complex theories.
Jane McAdam Freud has
exhibited her art widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work has
been acquired by the British Museum, London; Berlin State Museum; National
gallery of Greece; and the National Gallery Archive of London. It is also on
permanent display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She has been
awarded the British Art Metals scholarship and the Italian State Mint Prize.
McAdam Freud lives and works in London where she is an associate lecturer at
Central St. Martins School of Art and a visiting tutor at Morley College.
Co-curator Esther
Dreifuss-Kattan, Ph.D., is psychoanalyst, psycho-oncologist and art therapist.
She is a senior faculty member at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los
Angeles. Dreifuss-Kattan lectures internationally on topics of psychoanalysis
and art, and cancer and creativity. She has curated and co-curated a number of
exhibitions in Los
Angeles. Her first book was
titled Cancer Stories: Creativity and Self-Repair and her forthcoming
book is titled Art and Mourning—Beyond Words and Time.
A selection of McAdam
FreudŐs smaller sculptures, busts and medallions will also be on view at the
New Center for Psychoanalysis, 2014 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025.
The exhibition, co-sponsored
by the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies and the
Psychoanalytic Center of California in celebration of the Centennial of
the International
Psychoanalytic Association, opens on Sunday, September 19, 4 - 6:30 pm. The
artistŐs film Dead or Alive will be screened at the opening reception
and Sundaram Tagore, president and curator of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, will
conduct a question and
answer session with the artist. Tel: 310.478.6541. Web: www.n-c-p.org.
For more information please
email press@sundaramtagore.com or call 310.278.4520
Sundaram
Tagore Galleries
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