Cornell art department faculty member Carl Ostendarp is best known for paintings that engage the history of late Modernist art, such as Pop, Color Field, and Minimalism. For this exhibition Ostendarp has chosen works from the Johnson’s collection by such artists as Andy Warhol, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Mary Heilmann, James Rosenquist, Robert Smithson, and John Chamberlain, primarily from the 1960s and ’70s. These paintings, works on paper, and sculpture will be on view in two galleries covered by two-color, drip-pattern murals designed and painted by the artist with the assistance of Cornell art department graduate students. The mural imagery not only references dripping paint but also landscape vistas and schematic sound waves, which will in turn be emphasized by playlists in the galleries assembled by the artist specifically for this project. Ostendarp borrowed the title for this installation from two early 1970s songs by soul-jazz organist Jimmy McGriff and heavy-psych band Captain Beyond. They represent two musical forms that Ostendarp says “mirror developments in the visual arts of this period.” The exhibition encourages visitors to look at works from the Johnson’s collection anew, and to realize how dramatically our understanding of these artworks is affected by their context.

This exhibition is funded in part by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.