Lexander: G. B. Jones at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Chicago, IL, February 08, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Opening February 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, "This Will Have Been: Art, Love and Politics in the 1980s," a showcase of the art that defined the 1980s and beyond, curated by Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. The stated purpose of the exhibition is to "provide viewers with an overview of the artistic production of these heady days, and to impart the decade's sense of political aesthetic urgency..."

On display in this exhibition will be five works of art done by G.B. Jones in the 1980s that are a part of a series of drawings utilizing appropriated images.

The process of Appropriation has been considered by anthropologists as part of the study of cultural change.This evidence of cultural change can be seen in the work of G. B. Jones, with the use of appropriation allowing her to comment on the appropriated material's previous meanings, while offering a variety of new meanings, and examining issues of gender roles and sexuality in relation to power and authority. At a time when such issues weren't being addressed in representational art, the drawings were ground breaking and paved the way for other such work in the 1990s and changes in the cultural landscape, such as the emergence of Third Wave Feminism.

Cultural change isn't always a smooth process, however. At the time of its release in 1996, a book of her art, entitled "G.B. Jones," was seized at the border and banned in Canada.

Sixteen years later, the art of Appropriation is still contentious, despite its long history in the fine arts, dating back to the collages of Picasso and Braque in 1912. The exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago comes at a time when Appropriation Art is in the news once again, with Daniel Grant writing on the Arts for Huffington Post, asking in his column of January 4, 2012, "Will the Legal Status of Appropriation Art be Decided This Year?"

As the opening statement by MCA Chicago reminds us, the 1980s was a period of political art making, and Appropriation Art is nothing if not political. In the unsigned editorial in Art and Research, Vol.1, No.2, the writer reminds us that "One way artists have intervened in the circulation of commodities that constitute ... capitalism ... is the critical practice of appropriation."

During the 1980s, Jones was involved in a number of projects that were considered politically radical, yet at the same time her work is steeped in tradition. It is worth noting that Jones was one of few artists working within the field of representational drawing who was also employing the critical practice of Appropriation at that time. Her use of appropriated material allowed her to examine the process through which the representation was produced and viewed, highlighting how cultural signifiers and systems of production work to create and circulate meanings through their strategic re-use and transformation. The result is oddly familiar to those knowledgeable with the original material, yet an altogether new creation. The uneasy alliance of the traditional medium of drawing combined with the political aesthetic of appropriated art resulted in works that were, aside from their use of appropriation, a statement in themselves, with the 1990s seeing a new generation of artists choosing to work with representational art.

The drawings on exhibition are:

"Tattoo Girls" #1 (1986)
"Tattoo Girls #2" (1986)
"Tattoo Girls #3" (1986)
"I Am A Fascist Pig #2" (1985)
"I Am A Fascist Pig #3" (1985)

G. B. Jones is represented by New York and Los Angeles based art dealer and gallerist Lexander.

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