The Future Will Follow the Past: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz

<p>The August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, focused a national spotlight on white supremacy and antisemitism in the United States. Hundreds of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Ku Klux Klansmen protested the proposed removal of a statue depicting Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Violent confrontations with counter-protestors resulted in more than thirty injuries and the death of one counter-protester, Heather Heyer. Afterward, Charlottesville’s city council ordered that the Lee statue be hidden by a black tarp. Six months later, a judge ordered that the covering be removed, ruling that state law protected the statue as a war memorial. On July 10, 2021, the city finally removed the Lee statue. The dates in the title of this work refer to the period when the statue was concealed.</p> <p>Horowitz’s sculpture documents a flashpoint in our history and raises questions about how we tell the story of our nation. Following the protests that arose after George Floyd’s murder by police, there has been greater pressure to remove racist symbols from public spaces. Still, more than 700 Confederate monuments remain in place throughout the United States.</p> <p>Horowitz’s sculpture engages with the statue <em>Religious Liberty</em>, presented to the United States at the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition and now installed in front of this Museum. It stands on a pedestal bearing the inscription “Religious Liberty, Dedicated to the People of the United States by the Order B’nai B’rith and Israelites of America.”</p> <p>The statue was created by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a young Jewish sculptor from Virginia who lived in Rome. Ezekiel fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War and later became famous for both Confederate and Union monuments, as well as sculptures decorating the United States Capital.</p> <p>Learn more about <em>Religious Liberty</em> <a href="https://theweitzman.org/exhibitions/enduring-monument/">here</a>.</p> <p>Jonathan Horowitz<br /> American, born in 1966<br /> <em>Untitled (August 23, 2017–February 18, 2018, Charlottesville, VA)</em>, 2020<br /> EPS foam, urethane coating, and urethane paint<br /> Courtesy of the artist, Sadie Coles HQ, and Xavier Hufkens</p>

<p><em>Pink Curve</em> is the second of two pieces in this exhibition made by Horowitz in response to the Minimalist artworks on permanent display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. It is based on Ellsworth<br /> Kelly’s <em>Memorial </em>(1993), a white sculptural relief that, despite its grand scale, often goes unnoticed by visitors. By hybridizing Kelly’s abstract form with the pink triangle, the badge that homosexual men were forced to wear in Nazi Germany, Horowitz seeks to bring personal and political content to Kelly’s abstract form—reflecting both artists’ sexual orientation. The pink triangle was later adopted as a symbol of visibility and remembrance by the gay liberation movement.</p> <p>Jonathan Horowitz<br /> American, born in 1966<br /> <em>Pink Curve</em>, 2010<br /> Fiberglass, acrylic paint<br /> The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT<br /> Note: the work presented here is a replica of<br /> the original</p>

<p>Horowitz created this work as part of a series rendered in glitter and based on Jasper Johns’s iconic flag paintings. The series appropriates both the work of Johns and that of Horowitz’s partner, Rob Pruitt, who is known for his glitter paintings of panda bears. At the time that he started making flag paintings, Johns was romantically involved with another artist named Rob, Robert Rauschenberg. With this work, Horowitz brings that relationship, which was key in Johns’s development as an artist, out into the open.</p> <p>Jonathan Horowitz<br /> American, born in 1966<br /> <em>Rainbow American Flag for Jasper in the Style of the Artist’s Boyfriend</em>, 2013<br /> Glitter and enamel on linen<br /> Courtesy of the artist, Sadie Coles HQ, and<br /> Xavier Hufkens</p>