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Iwona Blazwick. Courtesy of Whitechapel Gallery<\/p>\n Iwona Blazwick. Courtesy of Whitechapel Gallery<\/p>\n
Iwona Blazwick has been director of the consistently brash and groundbreaking Whitechapel Gallery since 2003. The institution has what she terms a \u201chistory of firsts.\u201d Since its inception over a century ago, it has striven to emphasise all\u00a0of art history\u2019s underdogs \u2013 from non-Western and non-male artists to disregarded mediums \u2013 in essence, rewriting the canon. With a busy winter approaching, here she talks about the gallery\u2019s past, present and future. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Interview by Mara Goldwyn<\/p>\n
Sleek: The Whitechapel is sort of the Velvet Underground of galleries \u2013 not many people knew the band, but then those who did started their own. What is it about the Whitechapel that gets people excited that the art world is something they want to \u2013 and can \u2013 participate in?\u00a0
<\/b>Iwona Blazwick: I hope it\u2019s the integrity of the programme and the fact that it\u2019s giving a platform for artists that are in a very particular moment in their careers. That\u2019s very much in our DNA\u2026 we\u2019ve been able to show the significant things of tomorrow, today. That\u2019s been happening since we showed Picasso\u2019s \u201cGuernica\u201d in 1939. At the same time it\u2019s not the \u201cclosing of the book\u201d that retrospectives can do. [The programme] is very artist-driven. It doesn\u2019t compromise. We do everything in our power to realise an artist\u2019s vision. The challenge for us is to keep in touch with what artists\u2019 practice is about, what\u2019s concerning artists, how they\u2019re working.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You often seem to focus on work that is on the outskirts of what art-making can mean. What does it mean to be part of an institution that is on the periphery and in the centre at once?
<\/b>I\u2019m not sure about periphery, because everything is both local and global now. The idea about centre and margin has changed \u2013 I don\u2019t quite buy it anymore. On the other hand, it is true we are able to work in far-flung places. We have a consortium of spaces around the world, and in each of these places we have a partner who has a black-box space where we show moving-image work. We\u2019re trying to get away from ideas of \u201ccentre and periphery\u201d and say that everything is simultaneously available.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t only speaking geographically, but also in terms of gender, underrepresented groups and so on\u2026\u00a0
<\/b>We are entering a period of a sort of revisionism. It feels to me that the institution and<\/i> the market are looking back and recognising the achievements of women artists, or artists who were not making objects, who weren\u2019t part of the canon of making paintings. There\u2019s a reappraisal of figures completely outside of the marketplace who, by virtue of gender or medium weren\u2019t registering \u2013 and yet we\u2019re only beginning to understand how important they are.<\/p>\n
In that context, could you talk about the forthcoming Hannah H\u00f6ch exhibition?\u00a0
<\/b>She is someone who is being recognised as one of the great figures of the early Twentieth Century \u2013 particularly in her work with collage \u2013 and in the significance of collage itself. She saw the Occupation, she lived through the Nazi era, she also protected many artists and hid their works and saved them from destruction. She was at the forefront of resisting the forces of Fascism at that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was creating a particular discourse in dialogue with other artists, but at the same time hers is a very singular achievement. It\u2019s very noticeably locked in the idea of the body, and compared to say, [John] Heartfield, which is more a satire about war and warmongering, hers is more psychoanalytically rooted in the symbols she uses and the often very disturbing images she creates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How does H\u00f6ch\u2019s work resonate now?\u00a0
<\/b>It\u2019s partly seeing the return of collage. It\u2019s a very accessible medium\u2026 Anyone can enter into this universe of images we live with and make a different sort of sense out of them, which can be a form of resistance. We thought it was a great moment to pull together 40 years of work \u2013 which we\u2019ve been uniquely able to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whitechapel also seems dedicated to nurturing the careers of promising women artists. Why is it important to give extra support to women in the art world?\u00a0<\/b>The art world is vast and can be a very hungry, rapidly-moving organism, and if someone steps out, even for just a year [to have a family], it can easily rush past them. Also, women\u2019s ability to make a living from art is much less than their male contemporaries. But most importantly, what I want to be able to do is recognise not that they\u2019re \u201cwomen artists\u201d but that the condition of being female affects what they do. It is a very particular vision and response to the world. Other women can then see that they too could become artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can you tell us a little about the upcoming Jasper Johns show at the Whitechapel Gallery in Windsor, Florida?
<\/b>This is one of three exhibitions that celebrate pioneers in printmaking which I think is very high on contemporary artists\u2019 agendas at the moment. It is a reflection of the legacy of Joseph Beuys, and many artists in the1960s \u2013 Yoko Ono, the Fluxus movement \u2013 of wanting a work of art in every home. It\u2019s a democratisation of the art object, making works that are available to mere mortals like you and I.\u00a0<\/p>\n